Date Day
On Saturday, we went on a long awaited Date Day to Kinston and the USS Neuse Interpretive Center. My husband is a HUGE military and history buff, with a special emphasis on anything Navy related. (He retired after a 21-year stint, with two recent deployments under his belt).
Downtown Kinston is one of those truly beautiful places architecturally if you take the time to look. Yes, many things have fallen into disrepair but the homes remaining near the business district still have that refined manner about them, battered and neglected as they are. If they were a person they'd be a benevolent, elderly Great Uncle. The sort of Uncle with a natural warm generosity about him that although he might wear tattered clothes and have a face mottled with age, you can rest assured that he was once a stately man in his day. A man with presence.
Ya'll I could've photographed just homes for a while. The lovely Neoclassicals and Colonial Revivals...double yum! The soaring pediments, ornate pilasters, multi-gabled roofs and dormered windows...oh my. All up my alley. Pretty sure at least one or two homes had a porte-cochere. And then I saw this late 1800's? beauty with its Victorian looking embellishments and fell in love. Head over heels love. If-we-ever-win-a-gazillion-dollars-we-would-move-and-do-a-full-period-restoration-on-the-place kinda' love. *heavy sigh*
But I digress...back to the museum.
The cool thing about the museum is that it houses the remains of a Civil War-era Confederate Navy ship that was unearthed from the mud after having been sunk nearly a century earlier. As I understand it, the odd barge-looking vessel was launched around 1863. Those that manned it had little to no experience so it was essentially used to fortify the river against marauding troops. At some point, the boat became lodged in the mud of the shallows and was stuck for a month.
Once the men of the ship realized that the Union Army was advancing toward them, they chose to scuttle (or deliberately sink) the ship to avoid capture and to insure that nothing could be salvaged from the interior.
In the 1960s, residents of Kinston began petitioning for the recovery of the ship. It took years to bring it back ashore and many of the remnants (like some the iron panels it was clad with) were pilfered. Still, the raising of the ship resulted in recovery of more than 15,000 artifacts, including an intact glass Lea & Perrins bottle!
And here's the canon (or maybe a duplicate? I'm not sure) and an idea of the five? port holes through which it would've been placed before firing. The cannon is said to weigh 12,000 pounds and required 40 men to pivot it. Incidentally, The Chef and the Farmer and Boiler Room restaurants are on the same block as the museum. I think maybe one day we'll go back and try it for an anniversary dinner or something. (Non-NC folks, this is a James Beard recognized chef who returned to the area and opened two restaurants that have now gained popularity as a result of an ongoing PBS series).
The lower hull as seen from the second-story mezzanine. *points down* In its entirety, the ship is 158 feet long. The framework that you see represents the structure of the top of the ship.
Almost directly behind the museum is a full-scale model of the Neuse. As in you can enter and walk down into the belly of the ship. It is the only reconstruction of a Civil War ship of its kind in the entire world. Of course illuminated by electricity, though. This is looking into the sailors quarters from the galley. A scout troop is coming soon to white-wash the interior walls, as would've been done to all ships of that day.
Following our visit to the USS Neuse, we zipped down the road to have lunch at King's BBQ. More on that later, though. Hope ya'll enjoyed our Date Day. :) Oh, and before I forget, if you want to see a partial index of all the destinations we've been to statewide--44 towns and counting-- click here.
Downtown Kinston is one of those truly beautiful places architecturally if you take the time to look. Yes, many things have fallen into disrepair but the homes remaining near the business district still have that refined manner about them, battered and neglected as they are. If they were a person they'd be a benevolent, elderly Great Uncle. The sort of Uncle with a natural warm generosity about him that although he might wear tattered clothes and have a face mottled with age, you can rest assured that he was once a stately man in his day. A man with presence.
Ya'll I could've photographed just homes for a while. The lovely Neoclassicals and Colonial Revivals...double yum! The soaring pediments, ornate pilasters, multi-gabled roofs and dormered windows...oh my. All up my alley. Pretty sure at least one or two homes had a porte-cochere. And then I saw this late 1800's? beauty with its Victorian looking embellishments and fell in love. Head over heels love. If-we-ever-win-a-gazillion-dollars-we-would-move-and-do-a-full-period-restoration-on-the-place kinda' love. *heavy sigh*
But I digress...back to the museum.
The cool thing about the museum is that it houses the remains of a Civil War-era Confederate Navy ship that was unearthed from the mud after having been sunk nearly a century earlier. As I understand it, the odd barge-looking vessel was launched around 1863. Those that manned it had little to no experience so it was essentially used to fortify the river against marauding troops. At some point, the boat became lodged in the mud of the shallows and was stuck for a month.
Once the men of the ship realized that the Union Army was advancing toward them, they chose to scuttle (or deliberately sink) the ship to avoid capture and to insure that nothing could be salvaged from the interior.
In the 1960s, residents of Kinston began petitioning for the recovery of the ship. It took years to bring it back ashore and many of the remnants (like some the iron panels it was clad with) were pilfered. Still, the raising of the ship resulted in recovery of more than 15,000 artifacts, including an intact glass Lea & Perrins bottle!
And here's the canon (or maybe a duplicate? I'm not sure) and an idea of the five? port holes through which it would've been placed before firing. The cannon is said to weigh 12,000 pounds and required 40 men to pivot it. Incidentally, The Chef and the Farmer and Boiler Room restaurants are on the same block as the museum. I think maybe one day we'll go back and try it for an anniversary dinner or something. (Non-NC folks, this is a James Beard recognized chef who returned to the area and opened two restaurants that have now gained popularity as a result of an ongoing PBS series).
The lower hull as seen from the second-story mezzanine. *points down* In its entirety, the ship is 158 feet long. The framework that you see represents the structure of the top of the ship.
Almost directly behind the museum is a full-scale model of the Neuse. As in you can enter and walk down into the belly of the ship. It is the only reconstruction of a Civil War ship of its kind in the entire world. Of course illuminated by electricity, though. This is looking into the sailors quarters from the galley. A scout troop is coming soon to white-wash the interior walls, as would've been done to all ships of that day.
Following our visit to the USS Neuse, we zipped down the road to have lunch at King's BBQ. More on that later, though. Hope ya'll enjoyed our Date Day. :) Oh, and before I forget, if you want to see a partial index of all the destinations we've been to statewide--44 towns and counting-- click here.