WWII Liberty Ship SS John W Brown
Liberty ships were American built cargo ships that were designed to make only one ocean voyage to deliver vital military stores to Britain. Getting the ship back safely was a bonus!
SS John W Brown is one of only two WW2 Liberty ships still floating today, now as a museum ship located at the Dundalk Marine Terminal in Baltimore Harbor. Named after labor union leader John W Brown the ship made 13 wartime voyages to the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean, including duty during the Anzio landings. She was also part of the invasion force of Southern France during Operation Dragoon in August 1944. The US Navy Armed Guard gunners of the John W Brown shot down at least one enemy aircraft during the invasion.
After the war the John W Brown carrierd government cargoes to help rebuild war-torn Europe and returned American troops to the USA. After 1946 she was loaned by the government to the City of New York where she became a floating nautical 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, US Navy and US Coast Guard.
Trumpeter have also produced a kit to build a model of the Jeremiah O'Brien the other surviving Liberty ship which also operates cruises from San Francisco harbor.