By S. Mark Rhodes

The handsome grandson of the author, Jackson Perkins surveys the deck of the Battleship North Carolina. (Papa Rhodes)In the early 1960’s, the people of North Carolina raised $330,000 (much of it from lunch money from NC school children) to buy the decommissioned USS Battleship North Carolina. The result?  The birth of one of North Carolina’s most striking and iconic attractions and a great artifact of US military history.  One memorable day in 1961, it chugged up the Cape Fear River and tucked into a conspicuous area across the way from downtown Wilmington, North Carolina where it’s mass and gravity dominates the landscape of this port city.