S.S. JOHN W. BROWN

ne of two surviving fully operational Liberty ships preserved in the United States, the S.S. JOHN W. BROWN is the product of an emergency shipbuilding program of World War II that resulted in the construction of more than 2,700 Liberty ships.

Designed as cheap and quickly built cargo steamers, the Liberty ships formed the backbone of a massive sealift of troops, arms, material and ordnance to every theater of war. Two-thirds of all the cargo that left the United States during the war was shipped in Liberty ships. Two hundred of them were sunk by enemy action, but there were simply so many of them that the enemy could never hope to sink enough Liberty ships to close the sea lanes, and the supplies got through.

Description

Class: EC2-S-C1 Type Liberty Ship
Launched: September 7, 1942
At: Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard, Baltimore, Maryland

Length: 441 feet, 6 inches
Beam:57 feet
Draft: 27 feet, 9 inches
Displacement: 14,245 tons
Gross: 7,176 tons
Capacity: 8,500 long tons
Armament: Three 3-inch/50 caliber guns; one 5-inch/50 caliber gun; eight 20mm guns.

The S.S. JOHN W. BROWN looks now almost exactly as she did toward the end of World War II. Despite her grey paint and many guns, she is not a warship but rather a merchant ship. The BROWN was built by the government and was under the control of the War Shipping Administration. This ship and her many sisters were operated under what was known as a general agency agreement, by almost 90 different American steamship companies, which were paid by Uncle Sam to manage the ships. The cargo they carried and the ports they visited were entirely controlled by the government.

This ship can carry almost 9,000 tons of cargo, about the same as 300 railroad boxcars. Liberty ships carried every conceivable cargo during the war - from beans to bullets. Some, like the JOHN W. BROWN, were also fitted out to carry troops as well as cargo. Around 500 soldiers at a time could be carried aboard this ship. She saw duty in many Mediteranean ports during invasions and steamed in convoys that were attacked by enemy aircraft and submarines, but she was never seriously damaged by the enemy.

Engine

The ship is powered by a reciprocating, triple-expansion steam engine, a relic from an earlier day in maritime history. The engine is fed with steam from two oil-fired boilers and drives a single, four-bladed propeller, 18 feet in diameter.

Lauching

The BROWN was launched at the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 7, 1942, Labor Day. Six Liberty ships were launched that day from various shipyards, all of them named after a labor leader. The BROWN was named after John W. Brown, a labor leader from Maine who had died in 1941.

Wartime Service

The BROWN made 13 wartime voyages to the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean, including duty during the Anzio landings. She was also a part of the invasion force of southern France during Operation Dragoon in August 1944. The BROWN was crewed by 45 civilian merchant seamen, and her guns - entirely defensive in nature - were manned by 41 naval personnel assigned to the ship. They were known as the U.S. Naval Armed Guard. All American merchant ships carried Armed Guard gunners during the war. The gunners of the S.S. JOHN W. BROWN shot down at least one enemy plane during the invasion of southern France in August 1944. Immediately following the war, the BROWN carried government cargoes to help rebuild war-torn Europe.

Schoolship

After 1946, the government loaned the BROWN to the City of New York, where she became a floating maritime high school, the only one in the United States. The ship served in that capacity from 1946 to 1982, graduating thousands of students prepared to begin careers in the merchant marine. During that time the BROWN was lovingly cared for by her students and instructors, making her reactivation by our volunteers that much easier.

Restoration

Acquired by Project Liberty Ship, Inc., the BROWN arrived in Baltimore to serve as a museum ship and memorial in 1988. She is the only Liberty ship on the East Coast. The BROWN has now been rededicated as a memorial museum ship. She honors the memory of the shipyard workers, merchant seamen and Naval Armed Guard who built, sailed and defended the Liberty Fleet. The S.S. JOHN W. BROWN is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

There are some fifty old navy ships located all around our coasts as naval memorials, but only five merchant ships. None of the navy ships are active, steaming vessels. All are static displays. But all five merchant ships are living, steaming memorials, whose all-volunteer crews have returned them to operating condition in order to show visitors just how it was to operate a World War II-era merchant ship. These men and women, most of whom are themselves veterans of the shipyards, merchant marine or Armed Guard, are convinced that this is the best way to rekindle the American spirit that saw this country through the dark days of World War II. The JOHN W. BROWN is a living example of how America united can accomplish any goal!

Our volunteer crew (we are all volunteers - we have no paid staff) invite you to enjoy your visit aboard this historic ship and ask that you please leave the BROWN a generous donation. Your generosity will help continue the restoration process aboard this piece of living American history.

More Information

For readers who are interested in detailed information about the JOHN W. BROWN, our Ship's Store sells three very interesting books on the operational history and the more recent restoration of the ship. The authors of these books are Project Liberty Ship members.

"Liberty Ship: The Voyages of the JOHN W. BROWN, 1942-1946" by Sherod Cooper, focuses on the wartime and post-war voyages of the BROWN.

"Good Shipmates, The Restoration of the Liberty Ship JOHN W. BROWN, Volume One, 1942-1994"

and

"Good Shipmates, The Restoration of the Liberty Ship JOHN W. BROWN, Volume Two, 1994-2006"

both by Ernest Imhoff, relates the wartime experiences of Project Liberty Ship volunteers and later efforts to restore the ship.

Please contact Project Liberty Ship if you are interested in purchasing any of these books.

Also see: S.S. JOHN W. BROWN, Baltimore's Living Liberty (PDF; 5.4 MB; 23 pgs.)