On August 15th 2008 IPR was given the opportunity to investigate the historic Battleship North Carolina.  This ship has been the center of several investigations, including one from the well-known TAPS organization.  The entire IPR team was thrilled with the opportunity to investigate such a prestigious location.

Initial impressions were that this boat is massive.  It is a 728 foot, 13 story maze of tight hallways and dark spaces.  Power was virtually non-existent and FRS radios ceased to work below deck.  Our "map" was 3 pages of ship blueprints.  Heat was a major issue as this boat sits in the southern North Carolina sun all day and, in August this is a lot of heat.

Our first obastacle was the sheer size.  Compounding this was the sparce power offerings.  This severely limited our ability to use our DVR system as well as set up stationary video cameras.  After a bit of recon we found suitable locations in areas of reported activity for 3 of our 4 DVR cameras.  

The next issue was ambient sound.  A 728 foot armored military vessel that has been sitting in the August sun all day retains a lot of heat.  As the air outside cooled the metal began to contract.  Bangs and pops were standard issue for the night.  In addition to this the boat has some massive air handling systems below deck that make a substantial amount of noise.  We cut as much power as we could and killed as many of the air handlers as possible but there were certain areas we simply could not get the sounds down to a negligible level.

Overall the investigation went pretty smooth.  We were able to hit most of the areas of reported activity pretty hard with audio, video and photo.  The one place we didn't get to was the area where the torpedo hit and 6 sailors died.  Our contact who was supposed to give us the tour left prior to our arrival and the night watchman didn't know exactly where the torpedo hit. 

Off the cuff we did have some experiences.  Evidence review is currently underway and we will report back shortly on our findings.  Regardless of whether we find anything or not investigating such a well-known and prominent piece of American history was definately an experience we won't soon forget.