Battleship of the United States Navy, the lead ship of the two-ship North Carolina class. The USS Washington (BB-56) was her sister ship. She was the third Navy ship named for the state of North Carolina. The North Carolina saw combat action in the Pacific theater of World War II. She was laid down 27 October 1937 at the New York Naval Shipyard and launched on 13 June 1940; sponsored by Isabel Hoey (daughter of Clyde R. Hoey, Governor of North Carolina); and commissioned at New York on 9 April 1941 with Captain Olaf M. Hustvedt first in command. The first commissioned of the Navy’s new fast, heavily-armed (16 inch gunned) battleships, the North Carolina received so much attention during her fitting out and trials that she won the enduring nickname “Showboat”. Her propulsion was especially problematic; vibration was initially so severe that the aft decks were virtually uninhabitable. Numerous refits of her shafts and propellers were tried to minimize vibration, and these eventually succeeded. North Carolina completed her shakedown in the Caribbean prior to the Pearl Harbor attack, and after intensive war exercises, transited the Panama Canal to the Pacific on 10 June 1942.