SS John W. Brown is a Liberty ship, one of two still operational and one of three preserved as museum ships.Sawyer (1985) pp. 1–19, 40–41, 223 As a Liberty ship, she operated as a merchant ship of the United States Merchant Marine during World War II and later was a vocational high school training ship in New York City for many years. Now preserved, she is a museum ship and cruise ship berthed at Pier 13 in Baltimore Harbor in Maryland.
John W. Brown was named after the Canadian-born American labor union leader John W. Brown (1867–1941).Cooper, Sherod, SS John W. Brown: Baltimore's Living Liberty, Project Liberty Ship, 1991, pp. 2–3.
The other surviving operational Liberty ship is in San Francisco, California. A third Liberty ship, SS Hellas Liberty (ex-) is preserved as a static museum ship in Piraeus, Greece.
Construction
The United States Maritime Commission ordered John W. Brown as an ECS-S-C1 Maritime Commission Emergency Cargo Ship, the type of ship that would become popularly known as the "Liberty ship", hull number 312 on 1 May 1941.Live, publication of Project Liberty Ship, 2013 edition, pp. 4, 8. She was laid down at the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard in Baltimore, Maryland, on 28 July 1942 and – sponsored by Annie Green, the wife of the president of the Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers – was launched on 7 September 1942, the third of three Liberty ships launched at the yard that day. She completed fitting out on 19 September 1942, making her total construction time only 54 days. She required about 500,000 man-hours and cost $1,750,000 to build and was the 62nd of the 384 Liberty ships constructed at the Bethlehem-Fairfield yard.Live, 2013 edition, p. 6.Cooper, p. 2.
The Worthington Pump & Machine Corporation of Harrison, New Jersey, built John W. Browns vertical triple expansion steam engine, which cost $100,000.Live, 2013 edition, p. 4.
Service history
World War II
Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard delivered John W. Brown to her owner, the Maritime Commission, on the day of her completion. With States Marine Corporation as her general agent, John W. Brown was operated initially by the War Shipping Administration and later by the United States Army's Army Transport Service.Project Liberty Ship: SS John W. Brown
After ten more days of post-delivery work in Baltimore to prepare her to get underway, John W. Brown departed on 29 September 1942 to steam down the Chesapeake Bay to Norfolk, Virginia, where she underwent degaussing and deperming to make her less likely to trigger magnetic sea mines. Departing Norfolk, she proceeded back north through the Chesapeake Bay, anchored off Annapolis, Maryland, overnight on 3–4 October 1942, and then passed through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and Delaware River to Delaware Bay, where she joined a convoy of four merchant ships. Escorted by three escort vessels and a United States Navy blimp, the convoy proceeded up the coast of New Jersey to New York City, where on 6 October 1942 John W. Brown began loading her first cargo – 8,381 long tons (9,387 short tons; 8,515 metric tons) of cargo destined for the Soviet Union, consisting of two Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighters, 10 M4 Sherman tanks, 200 motorcycles, 100 jeeps, over 700 long tons (784 short tons, 711 metric tons) of ammunition, and over 250 long tons (280 short tons, 254 metric tons) of canned pork lunch meat – at Pier 17 in Brooklyn. While in New York, she also had the Oerlikon 20 mm cannon mounted on her bow replaced by a /50-caliber gun, and she interrupted her loading of cargo on 9 October 1942 for work on the degaussing and compass adjusting ranges.Cooper, pp. 3–4.
Maiden voyage, October 1942–March 1943
With loading complete on 14 October 1942, John W. Brown departed New York on 15 October on her maiden voyage, bound for the Persian Gulf, where she would unload her cargo for delivery overland to the Soviet Union. Her 14,400-nautical mile (16,560-statute mile; 26,667-km) route was designed to allow her to avoid the areas where Axis forces posed the greatest threats to shipping. She made the first leg of the voyage in convoy, steaming down the United States East Coast to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where she joined another convoy for the trip across the Caribbean Sea to the Panama Canal. After passing through the canal and reaching the Pacific Ocean, she steamed alone down the west coast of South America, requiring two weeks to reach Cape Horn. She then made a 17-day independent crossing of the South Atlantic Ocean to Cape Town, South Africa, where she stopped for two days to refuel and reprovision. Getting back underway, she steamed alone north through the western Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa, and anchored in the Persian Gulf on 25 December 1942, two and a half months after leaving New York.Cooper, pp. 4–5.
Ports in the Persian Gulf were overwhelmed by the amount of cargo arriving from Allied countries, and so John W. Brown was forced to lie at anchor for a month until she could begin to unload at Abadan, Iran, where she dropped off the two P-40s and some of the tanks in late January 1943. It took another month and a half until she could enter port at Khorramshahr, Iran, and unload the rest of her cargo in March 1943.Cooper, p. 5.
On 16 March 1943, John W. Brown got underway to return to the United States. She steamed south from the Persian Gulf along the east coast of Africa to Cape Town, again calling there for two days before making a two-week crossing of the South Atlantic to Bahia, Brazil, where she arrived on 23 April 1943. There she joined a convoy to steam north to Paramaribo in Surinam, proceeded upriver to Paranam to load bauxite, then steamed to Port of Spain, Trinidad, to load more bauxite. Fully loaded, she joined a convoy to steam to Guantanamo Bay and then another convoy for the final leg of her voyage to New York City, where she arrived on 27 May 1943 to complete a maiden voyage of about eight months.
Conversion to troopship
John W. Browns maiden voyage was her only one as a standard cargo ship. After returning to the United States, she became the first of 220 Liberty ships to undergo conversion into a "Limited Capacity Troopship" capable of transporting up to 450, 550, or 650 (sources vary) troops or prisoners-of-war. Her modifications – which took place at Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporations Hoboken Shipyard in Hoboken, New Jersey – included the installation of bunks stacked five deep for the embarked passengers on her forward tweendeck, additional shower and head facilities for them, two additional diesel-powered generators, and the installation of two more Oerlikon 20-mm automatic cannons.Project Liberty Ship: Armament Aboard SS John W. Brown
Second voyage June–August 1943
After completion of her conversion at Hoboken, John W. Brown returned to New York to load for her second voyage, her first as a troopship. Her 5,023 long tons (5,626 short tons; 5,103 metric tons) of cargo consisted mostly of food, and her passenger list included 306 men – seven United States Army officers, 145 U.S. Army military policemen, three enlisted medical assistants, three Royal Navy officers, and 148 Royal Navy sailors; the Royal Navy personnel were all survivors of a torpedoed ship. She departed New York on 24 June 1943, steamed in convoy to Hampton Roads, Virginia, to meet another part of the convoy, and then set out in convoy for a transatlantic crossing. The convoy transited the Strait of Gibraltar and entered the Mediterranean Sea on 18 July 1943, and John W. Brown arrived at Algiers in French Algeria on 20 July 1943. There she unloaded her cargo and disembarked all of her passengers except for 38 U.S. Army personnel who remained aboard to guard 500 German prisoners-of-war – veterans of the Afrika Korps – that she took aboard to transport to the United States. She departed Algiers on 5 August 1943 and returned in convoy to Hampton Roads, where the convoy arrived safely on 26 August 1943 after a passage in which there were many submarine alerts but no enemy attacks. The German prisoners had all disembarked by the following day.Cooper, p. 6.
Third voyage, September 1943–March 1944
For her third voyage, John W. Brown loaded a cargo of 7,845.5 measurement tons (314,180 cubic feet; 8,889 cubic meters) of TNT, gasoline, and general cargo and took aboard 339 U.S. Army personnel – 36 officers and 303 enlisted men – as passengers. Departing Hampton Roads in convoy on 15 September 1943, she arrived at Oran in French Algeria on 4 October 1943 after an uneventful trip. Her passengers disembarked there on 6 October, and she completed unloading her cargo on 15 October. She embarked 15 officers and 346 men of the U.S. Armys 1st Armored Division and loaded 274 of the divisions vehicles, including 61 tanks.
On 1 November 1943, John W. Brown departed Oran in convoy on the first of eight Mediterranean shuttle trips she would make during the voyage. After a stop at Augusta, Sicily, her convoy arrived safely at Naples, Italy, on 7 November. She completed unloading there on 11 November, and departed empty on 12 November, proceeding in convoy to Augusta, where she stopped for four days, and then on to Oran, where her convoy arrived on 22 November 1943. After taking aboard 241 American and Free French troops, 261 tank destroyers, trucks, and cars, and a load of asphalt there, she departed in convoy on 30 November and arrived at Naples on 7 December 1943.Cooper, pp. 6–7.
Unloaded by 9 December, John W. Brown again left Naples empty on 10 December 1943 in a convoy which stopped for three days at Augusta and then proceeded to Bizerte, Tunisia, where it arrived on 16 December 1943. There she embarked six Free French officers and 305 Free French enlisted men, and loaded 958 tons of trucks, trailers, weapon carriers, ambulances, and cars. She then proceeded in convoy to Pozzuoli Bay, Italy, arriving there on 26 December 1943. On 27 December, the Liberty ship rode over John W. Browns anchor cable and collided with her starboard side, causing significant damage. Despite the damage, she continued her voyage, unloading her cargo at Naples and departing empty on 4 January 1944, joining a convoy to Oran which arrived on 10 January. On 13 January, she moved to Mostaganem, French Algeria, where she loaded 5,000 tons of gasoline; she then transported the gasoline to Oran. Unloading it, she took aboard 263 passengers, 186 vehicles, and 799 tons of engineering equipment and supplies; she departed Oran on 29 January, stopped at Augusta, and arrived at Naples on 5 February to discharge her passengers and cargo.Cooper, p. 7.
John W. Brown embarked 106 U.S. Army and 13 U.S. Navy personnel and steamed out of Naples on 10 January 1944 in a convoy which stopped at Augusta – where she took a Royal Navy lieutenant aboard – and proceeded to Bizerte, arriving on 14 February 1944. There she dropped off her passengers and loaded a cargo of scrap metal and the personal effects of deceased soldiers.
On 21 February 1944, John W. Brown departed Bizerte in convoy to return to the United States. The following day, the German submarine U-969 attacked the convoy, and the Liberty ships , only 500 yards (457 m) ahead of her, and , only 850 yards (777 m) off her starboard bow, suffered torpedo hits causing such severe damage that both ships had to beach themselves and became total losses, but John W. Brown was left unharmed. Her convoy faced several more submarine alerts, but no further enemy attacks occurred, and enemy contacts ceased entirely after the convoy passed through the Strait of Gibraltar into the Atlantic on 25 February 1944. The transatlantic crossing was uneventful except for rough weather, and John W. Brown arrived at New York on 17 March 1944 to complete her third voyage.