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The Battleship North Carolina has sailed through storms before.
As a warship serving in World War II, she survived Typhoon Cobra, a massive 1944 storm that sank several ships in the Pacific Fleet. And she’s survived plenty of hurricanes during the 60 years she’s spent docked in Wilmington as a museum ship.
Now, she faces a storm of a different sort: a behind-the-scenes conflict over a recent leadership change that has spilled out into the public.
Christopher Vargo, who served as the battleship’s assistant director for 12 years, was fired in a unanimous vote of the Battleship Commission in January, without a public explanation. Vargo’s side of the story came out in the form of a wrongful termination lawsuit several months later against Jay Martin, the battleship’s relatively new executive director; the commission; and the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
In his complaint, Vargo alleges that Martin fraudulently claimed overtime hours, tried to isolate him in his work duties, and secretly recorded him in order to pin cost overruns with the Living With Water project on him (The Assembly wrote about that project two years ago). The commission, he claims, retaliated against him for speaking up.
Vargo says the suit is about standing up for himself and the battleship staff. “I’ve always told my boss that I am 100 percent loyal and committed to the organization unless things become unethical or unsafe,” Vargo said in an interview.
Vargo is asking not just for his job back, but for Martin to be removed.
In separate responses, the department and Martin denied Vargo’s allegations on June 9 and asked the judge to dismiss the suit. They say that Martin has carried out his duties in good faith. Martin also said that Vargo’s “own misconduct, including insubordination, manipulation of internal processes, and refusal to cooperate with legitimate oversight” should be a reason for dismissing Vargo’s claim.
A Department of Natural and Cultural Resources spokesperson declined to comment on ongoing litigation but said that “no disciplinary action has been taken that would be public” under state law.
Martin has not responded to requests for comment.
A New Hanover County judge has yet to set a date to hear arguments in the case.
A Change of Command
In February 2023, Terry Bragg, the previous executive director, informed the commission of his intention to retire. Bragg had led the efforts to preserve the battleship from decay and the natural elements, the capstone of which was the Living With Water project.
The commission members hired a firm to do a national search for the next executive director. But they diverged from custom in a notable way: While previous directors had been naval officers with a finance background, they did not require military experience this time. The commission also wanted someone who could build and curate a new museum in the visitors center.
Despite his long tenure at the battleship and 22 years in the Coast Guard, Vargo said he didn’t apply because he does not have a finance background.
The commission unanimously appointed Martin as the new executive director in May 2024. Martin came from Central Michigan University, where he was a highly respected professor of museum studies with experience in maritime history and archeology. He does not have a financial background.
Bragg, who declined to comment on the lawsuit because he is a potential witness, said he vouched for Vargo as “one of the finest officers I have ever served with.”
Vargo said he and the staff were optimistic about Martin, whose vision included a new museum in the battleship’s current visitors center and an emphasis on connecting future generations with the ship’s story. “I was going to be able to learn something new,” Vargo said, citing Martin’s experience as a museum curator.
But Vargo said the handover from Bragg to Martin did not go smoothly, and he soon noticed irregularities with how Martin carried out his duties.
During his first months on the job, Martin continued to teach courses in Michigan and told Vargo, who had been in charge of logging staff work hours, that he was working for the battleship remotely at the same time.
Vargo said Martin was reporting 50 to 60 hours a week for the battleship. Vargo questioned Martin’s hours and requested something in writing from the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources about the dual-work arrangement.
After Vargo raised those concerns, he said his access to the HR system was downgraded. Vargo said he met with commission chairman Michael Bradshaw and vice chairwoman Marcia Morgan in August 2024 about the irregularities, but nothing came of it.
In his response to the lawsuit, Martin said that the commission knew about and had approved the dual-work arrangement in writing and that he remained on the Central Michigan University payroll through 2024 while working for the battleship.
Vargo said another point of contention was that Martin did not want to oversee the Living With Water project, which is among his responsibilities as executive director. Vargo acted as a liaison between Martin, contractors, and the state office that executes contracts for capital projects.
Living With Water aims to construct wetlands and a living shoreline around the battleship to combat sunny-day flooding from the Cape Fear River. Construction began in fall 2024 but hit delays that have added about 200 days to the project timeline and an additional $529,000 in costs beyond the initial $5.1 million budget. Martin, Vargo said, tried to pin the cost overruns and delays on him.
Martin denied this in court filings and said that Vargo provided him with incomplete or inaccurate information about the project. The department also said in court filings that the executive director could delegate project oversight to others but that the executive director authorizes all payments.
Vargo also accused Martin of secretly recording a December 2024 meeting with the Living With Water contractor, Atlantic Coast Construction, and marine architects from Moffatt and Nichol—which he believes was potentially illegal under state law. Martin got up to leave during the meeting and left behind an audio recorder that was still running. Another meeting attendee found it. “No one knew what to think,” Vargo said.
Vargo said he thought Martin was trying to find evidence to blame him for cost overruns of the project.
In court filings, Martin said that the recorder fell out as he was gathering his things to attend another meeting. Both Martin and the department say he would often record meetings to help his memory. (North Carolina is a one-party consent state, so someone can record a conversation they are participating in, even if the other participants didn’t agree to be recorded.)
A Clash of Cultures
The tension between the two got so bad that the commission hired an executive coach, Al Hardy, in October 2024 to help with the transition and reset their relationship.
Hardy proposed interviewing staff members about leadership concerns. He spoke with 31 staffers over two months whose responses were anonymous, and he delivered a report that The Assembly obtained as part of a public records request.
Hardy, who declined to comment for this article, reported that while the staff generally enjoyed working for the battleship, many felt there was a clash of cultures between Bragg’s leadership and Martin’s. Bragg’s leadership style had been more military and hierarchical, some staffers said. Very few had anything positive to say about him; one department head described the culture under Bragg’s leadership as “fearful, top down, question resistant, non-collaboration, and unhealthy.”
In contrast, some staffers described Martin as “warmer” and “moving to collaboration.” “He’s exactly the right person at the right time,” one said. “He’s the shining light at the end of the tunnel,” said another.
Hardy’s report, dated December 2024, also gave a mixed view of what staffers thought about Vargo. Some said his management style was “bullying” and that he had “anger issues,” while others said that Vargo was really running things while Bragg “did nothing.” They also acknowledge the tension between Martin and Vargo. It was like “Dad and Dad were fighting,” one staffer said.
Hardy reported that eight staffers told him that Vargo had to go.
Hardy wrote that Vargo admitted he “burnt some bridges” with Martin but said he was trying to get a clear idea of what the new director expected of him. Vargo also said he had put together an orientation packet for Martin, with Bragg’s approval.
Hardy recommended a relationship reset between Martin and Vargo and that he continue his consulting work to help build a better work culture at the battleship.
The Assembly asked Vargo to review the report. Vargo said that it was the first time hearing many of the complaints and that he respected the staff’s honesty.
“I have 35 years of managing people and ships and people on ships, and I’ve never ever had one formal written complaint,” Vargo said. “I just don’t know enough about where these comments came from. But I want to be clear: I’m not dismissing it if somebody feels that way.”
Vargo also defended Bragg, who had had a tough mission when he came on board in 2009. At that time, the battleship had several flooded compartments and badly needed repairs to the hull. The U.S. Navy had warned him that if the state could not make the repairs, it would repossess the ship and scrap her.
Bragg led a years-long effort to raise money to repair the ship and make it more resilient to the effects of climate change.
As for his relationship with Martin, Vargo said he thought they had been making progress before he was fired. “On two occasions, Dr. Martin and I sat in his office and closed the door, and he was very open, very genuine, I thought,” Vargo said. “And he and I, on both occasions, we stood up and shook hands, and his words to me were, ‘Chris, let’s make this work,’ and I said, ‘Yes, sir, let’s make it work.’”
A year into Martin’s tenure, the Living With Water effort celebrated a milestone when a new paved parking lot opened for visitors. Other work on the project continues.
But Vargo says he worries about remaining staffers who might be afraid to speak up about concerns.
“When I spoke up and used my voice, I was promptly fired,” he said. “If the staff at the battleship had concerns with not having a voice before this incident, how do you think they feel now?”
Ben McNeely has practiced journalism in some form and fashion since he was 14 years old. He spent his career at local North Carolina newspapers, and 10 years as a political producer at Spectrum News 1. He currently serves as editorial advisor for student media at North Carolina State University.
Editor’s note: The author was a member of the Friends of the Battleship North Carolina from 2020 to 2024. He also has taken the group’s battleship docent course for personal interest but is not certified to give tours.
Clarification: The paragraph on the response from the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources has been updated.