The incomplete Morehead City base was commissioned on March 17, 1942, right as the Battle of the Atlantic off U.S. shores went into hyperdrive. It quickly became the most important reception and processing centers on the North Carolina coast for the survivors of sunken and damaged merchant vessels.
Over the course of the war, both U.S. Navy and Coast Guard personnel used the base, whose primary duty was to serve the vessels patrolling the coast on the lookout for German U-boats. They operated with the larger vessels from the State Port of Morehead City and the Fort Macon (Civil War fort) Coast Guard Station on Bogue Banks.
They aided in minesweeping and in maintaining a submarine net across the entrance to the ship channel in Beaufort Inlet.
The need for the base diminished after 1942 when the U-boat attacks diminished. It was designated a Naval Frontier Base on March 15, 1944 and closed down on June 30, 1944. After the war, the base was declared surplus property.
In the fall of 1946, North Carolina bought it and built a marine fisheries research institute.. By the early 2000s, it was occupied by the North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences.
Next Time there. --GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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