Thanksgiving history remembered on the USS North Carolina

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The Thanksgiving holiday is rich in history.

On Thanksgiving Day, you can learn more about a floating piece of history in Downtown Wilmington.

The Thanksgiving celebration on the North Carolina Battleship typically featured the normal meal favorites like turkey, mashed potatoes and pie for over 2,300 men.

However, one Turkey Day in 1943 wasn’t a normal day.

Just as the crew sat down to eat, enemy ships attacked.

They were forced to leave their meal twice to secure the ship.

As they returned to the mess deck to eat, they were told to throw out their food.

“So there’s no more thanksgiving chow left at all,” Museum Services Director Kim Sincox said. “At ten o’clock at night, these guys haven’t had a bite since noon. They’re really hungry and what they get is called battle rations. It was just bread, spam and bread.”

This is just one story of Thanksgiving on the battleship

If you’d like to see where the men shared their Thanksgiving meals or hear more of these stories, you can visit the battleship tomorrow because they will be open.