The Navigators

The Captain and the Navigator used small sleeping quarters here while the battleship was at sea so they could remain close to the bridge while the ship was underway. North Carolina steamed in formation with other ships, and at night the darkened vessels could be as close as 1,500 yards, about five football fields apart. In port, the men returned to their larger staterooms. The Navigator ranked as the ship's third highest officer, after the Captain and the Executive Officer, and both the Captain and Navigator often spent many continuous hours on the bridge, day and night, in dangerous areas. Their nearby sea cabins allowed them to return to the bridge within seconds when rest was possible. Commander Joe Stryker recalled that in the Pacific, outdated and inefficient charts sometimes made it difficult for a year or two to find ordered destinations unless files were kept current. Commander Thaddeus Johnson Van Merre recalled that as Navigator he generally conned the ship in battle while the Captain held overall command, and that one night the concussion from turret #2 firing a salvo knocked him across the Conning Tower when he tried binoculars with large rubber eyepieces. He said he had served as Navigator for North Carolina for two years during wartime and thoroughly enjoyed what he called a gentleman's job. Commander Kemp Tolley recalled that as Navigator he was always on call during an exhausting year, rising an hour before sunrise and again working through sunset and an hour beyond during General Quarters, while also taking star sights morning and evening and a sun sight at noon, and he remembered that the skipper, out on deck much of the night, often called him out for company.

North Carolina · United States