The USS Zebulon B. Vance was launched in Wilmington on Dec. 6, 1941, the day before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. At the ceremony, Gov. J. Melville Broughton proclaimed, ‘As we salute this ship and launch it today, we shall have a proud part in the overthrow of the aggressor who seeks to dominate the entire world.’ A few minutes later he and 13,000 other North Carolinians watched the ship splash into the Cape Fear River. [NEW HANOVER COUNTY LIBRARY]