S.S. JOHN W. BROWN

iberty Ship: The Voyages of the John W. Brown, 1942-1946

This account of the Liberty ship S.S. JOHN W. BROWN focuses on the activities of the merchant mariners and Naval Armed Guard crews who manned Liberty ships in World War II. One of two Liberty ships still surviving, the JOHN W. BROWN is the beneficiary of a major restoration project in her home port of Baltimore, Maryland. The author, who served in the U.S. merchant marine in 1945-46, tells the story of the ship's wartime service and, through this microcosm, the larger story of the more than 2,700 Liberty ships built between 1941 and 1945, that collectively carried about two-thirds of the cargo transported to U.S. forces overseas during World War II. The author uses interviews and the diaries, letters and recollections of the crew to supplement the ship's logs and other official documents and provide a personal dimension to his report about one ship engulfed in a cataclysmic conflict. With bibliography, chapter notes, index, two maps, and 25 black and white photos. $35 through the Ship's Store.

Sherod M. Cooper, Jr., is a retired Associate Professor of English at the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, and is a member of Project Liberty Ship and of its Board of Directors.

Liberty Ship: The Voyages of the John W. Brown, 1942-1946; by Sherod Cooper. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1997. ISBN: 1557501351. 264 pp. Hard cover.