For other ships named North Carolina, see USS North Carolina

USS North Carolina

Five ships of the United States Navy and one of the Confederate States Navy have been named USS North Carolina in honor of the state of North Carolina.* The first was one of nine ships of the line authorized by Congress in 1816....

.

CSS North Carolina, an ironclad gunboat

Gunboat

A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies.-History:...

, was built by Berry & Brothers at Wilmington, North Carolina

Wilmington, North Carolina

Wilmington is a port city in and is the county seat of New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. The population is 106,476 according to the 2010 Census, making it the eighth most populous city in the state of North Carolina...

, in 1863 at a cost of $76,000. The ship's bulkheads above the waterline were sloped inward and armored with railroad iron, similar to the CSS Virginia

CSS Virginia

CSS Virginia was the first steam-powered ironclad warship of the Confederate States Navy, built during the first year of the American Civil War; she was constructed as a casemate ironclad using the raised and cut down original lower hull and steam engines of the scuttled . Virginia was one of the...

. She had two gun ports on each of her four sides and carried six 8-inch guns that could be moved from one port to another, and mounted one pivot gun on her bow. She was placed in commission during the latter part of the year with Commander

Commander

Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...

 W. T. Muse, CSN

Confederate States Navy

The Confederate States Navy was the naval branch of the Confederate States armed forces established by an act of the Confederate Congress on February 21, 1861. It was responsible for Confederate naval operations during the American Civil War...

, in command.

North Carolina was discovered to be structurally unsound, and unsuitable for use on the open ocean. She remained in the Cape Fear River until September 27, 1864 when she developed a leak and sank, her hull riddled by shipworm

Shipworm

Shipworms are not worms at all, but rather a group of unusual saltwater clams with very small shells, notorious for boring into wooden structures that are immersed in sea water, such as piers, docks and wooden ships...

s, off Smithville (modern Southport

Southport, North Carolina

Southport is a city in Brunswick County, North Carolina, near the mouth of the Cape Fear River. It is part of the Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area...

), where she had been serving as a guard ship.