Vivid Ghost

Tied up alongside a pier on the Wilmington river front, the 728-ft. battle ship U.S.S. North Carolina by day looks like just another battleship saved from the scrap heap to serve as a war memorial. But at night she comes alive.

In an hourlong adaptation of the son et lumiere technique first developed in France, the North Carolina carries spectators through a dramatized history of its battle-scarred career, from launching to war's end. The production involves 58 stereophonic speakers scattered about the ship and synchronized with 2,000 multicolored lights.

"I am 'The Showboat' of my day, a full ship of the line," announces a ghostly voice, and the show is on. There is the sound of a champagne bottle cracking and metal scraping, followed by a splash, tugboat whistles, horns, and handclapping. As the noise recedes from the stands and the lights are doused progressively from the stern to the bow, the huge ship actually seems to move down the ways.

The battle scenes that follow have an eerie air of realism. Supporting the landing at Guadalcanal, the ship undergoes her first attack by Japanese aircraft. Sirens, bugles, bosun's pipes and klaxons sound while a single blinker flashes in the darkness. The voices of fighter pilots mingle with the staccato rat-a-tat of machine-gun bullets: "I see about 40 bandits . . . Red, where are you? Dusty, Dusty . . . Dusty's gone in." Then the big, 16-in. guns belch out billows of multicolored smoke.

As the battle progresses, the ship suffers her first fatality. At a dimly lit spot on the far rail of the ship, the muffled voice of a chaplain is heard, a bass drum rolls, and a splash sounds over the starboard side. Later on, men are heard practicing their bathroom baritones ("Yo-ho, Pagliacci, I got a waterproof watchee") when a torpedo strikes. There is a rending of metal, an explosion, and finally the sucking sound of water rushing through a hole. The singing stops. All four men died in the shower room.

To hardened war veterans, "The Showboat" spectacular may seem like so much sentimental bilge. But most customers come away battle-weary and a bit teary-eyed.

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