Visit Baltimore's Liberty Ship and Museum
The SS John W. Brown, an EC2-S-C1-type Liberty ship, was built at Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard, Baltimore, Maryland, and launched in 1942. She was one of 2,751 emergency cargo ships constructed during World War II, in 18 yards around the United States. In 1988 Project Liberty Ship, Inc., acquired the Brown, which has since been designated a memorial museum ship and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Fully restored to her original configuration, she is one of two remaining operational Liberty ships; the other is the Jeremiah O’Brien in San Francisco.
Located on the ’tween deck of the John W. Brown’s number 2 cargo hold are three exhibits: Merchant Seamen, Liberty Ship History, and the U.S. Navy Armed Guard. A life-size mannequin in winter clothing points the way to a brimming collection of Armed Guard memorabilia from World War II.
The portside bulkhead is covered with vintage black-and-white photographs that former members donated, along with official Navy photos showing recruit training, the Armed Guard Center in New York City, and North Atlantic convoys. In one display are .50-caliber shell casings. Fragments of a Japanese kamikaze plane are displayed in glass cases, along with hot-shell gloves (used to handle spent shells and change out hot 20-mm gun barrels), ashtrays made from spent shells, Armed Guard helmets, night-vision goggles, a headphone set, and personal items such as a Sailor’s knot board, pocket knives, and sleeve insignias.
The John W. Brown is operated and manned by a dedicated all-volunteer crew. On the day I walked through for this report, the guide was Baltimore native John Confair Sr., age 84. An 18-year Armed Guard volunteer on the Brown, he’s full of firsthand information about the conflict that he personally experienced.
Confair joined the Navy on 8 August 1943 and went through boot camp at Sampson Naval Base, New York. He was then shipped to gunnery school at Little Creek, Virginia, where new service members “learned about all the guns that were to be on the ships,” he said. They also attended night-vision school and learned plane recognition. Shipping out from New York on the tanker SS Daylight, “We made two round-trips to Scotland from Staten Island with no shore leave.”
Confair returned to New York’s Armed Guard Center on 6 April 1944 and was again shipped out on 25 April, on the Liberty ship SS James C. Cameron. He sailed on three more ships before being discharged on 30 January 1945. “I was very lucky,” said Confair, “I never had to fire a gun at the enemy.”
This Armed Guardsman particularly enjoys showing off the afterdeck house that he helped to restore. This was where Guardsmen were quartered. Originally the Armed Guard was organized during World War I, to protect Allied and American ships. On board a ship, an Armed Guard command consisted of an officer in charge of a crew of gunners, radiomen, and signalmen. A total of 384 ships had Armed Guard personnel during World War I. The service was deactivated following that war.
It came to life again early in the American involvement in World War II. By the time the United States officially entered the war, 17 U.S. merchant ships had been sunk. More than 80,000 Armed Guard gunners, signalmen, and radiomen served on Liberty ships, tankers, and other ships that carried cargo, fuel, and ammunition to the war fronts. Of the 6,236 ships served by the Armed Guard, more than 700 were sunk, including 200 Liberty ships. More were damaged by enemy action. The Armed Guard was discontinued after the war—but, as another chapter of the U.S. Navy fades into history, people such as Confair keep it alive.
John W. Brown
Pier One, Clinton Street
Baltimore, Maryland
410-555-0646
Open Wednesday and Saturday, 0800 to 1400
Donation requested; free parking
Photo ID to board this operational ship
www.liberty-ship.com