World Ship Trust Maritime Heritage Award honors
Liberty Ships That Made History The World Ship Trust, established in London in December 1979 with the participation ofthe National Maritime Historical Society, presented its Maritime Heritage Award to SS Jeremiah O'Brien and SS John W. Brown on 17 May, opening National Maritime Week in the US. Jacques Chauveau, chairman of the World Ship Trust, was with the Second Armored Division of the Free French in the D -Day landings. He presided aboard the O ' Brien in San Francisco as her award was presented by Gunnar Lundeberg, president of the Sailors Union of the Pacific. Maritime Administrator William G. Schubert presented the award to the Brown, a ship built in Baltimore, now her home port. Here is an account of the wartime careers of these ships, followed by reports from the chairmen of the two ship projects.
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dmi ral, I think this ship will do us very well," said President Franklin Roosevelt. "She'll carry a good load. She isn't much to look at though, is she? A real ugly duckling." It was early 194 1, and Bri tain , standing alo ne against N azi Germany, urgently needed ships to make up for heavy losses to U- boats in the Battle of the Atlanti c. Emory S. Land, chairman of the Mari time Commission, was glad to hear these wo rds giving the go-ahead to a standard, 10,000deadweighr-ton ocean freighter capable of ten kno ts, bigger and a lirrle fas ter than the ave rage prewar freighter. Originally a British design for simple, rapid production, it was adap ted to make the Liberty ship . T he "Ugly Duckl ings" were built!argely by unskilled labor and manned largely by people who had never been to sea. In all, 2,75 1 of these ships were buil t in US yards. Of rhar huge fleer just two survive today.
SS John W. Brown T he j ohn W Brown, built in Baltimore by Bethlehem Steel, was born in a wo rld still threatened by Axis victory, with the sea lanes still dangerous. She set our on her first voyage from New Yo rk in October 1942, loaded with armaments bound fo r the Soviet Union by way of the Persian G ulf. She next went to the Mediterranean, where the need for personnel to support the Allied invasion of North Africa was so great that she was adapted to carry troops, going on
SS Joh n W . Brown puts to sea from New York, 15 October 1942, deep laden with tanks and aircraft for Russia.
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to shift troops and supplies around the Mediterranean theater. As Allied troops cleared Afri ca and embarked on the invasion oflraly, the Brown went on to support the breakth ro ugh arrack from the Anzio beachhead wh ich led to the liberation of Rome in early June 1944. She then we nt to the invas ion of southern France in August, a follow-up to the invasion of Normandy on the north coast. When the war ended the Brown was carrying her happiest cargo- Gis going home. In November 1946 she was turned over to New Yo rk C ity and served as a vocational high school fo r the next 36 years. This is how the writer knew her, in a time when yo ungsters learned aboard her in courses enriched by seamen who "passed the word" about these ships which had chan ged the course of history.
SS Jeremiah O'Brien T he Jeremiah O'Brien went down the ways in South Portland, M aine, in June 1943the 30th hull launched by the New England Shipbuilding Corporation, whi ch was set up at first to handle British orders for thei r Ocean-class ships. Ultimately 236 Liberrys were launched from this yard, enough to make a wall of ships over 22 miles long, or, more to the point, to shift some 2.5 million tons of cargo 3,000 miles across a dangero us ocean. T his was a substantial contrib ution to the "Bridge of Ships" President Roosevelt had called fo r in January 194 1 to help Britain sustain its battle against Nazi Germany while the US wasn't ye t in the war. By 30 Jun e 1943, when rhe O 'Brien was commissioned fo r service (less rhan two mo nths after her keel plates were laid), the US was in the war and turning defeat in to victory. T he turning point in the Barrie of the Atlantic had been passed, and, rho ugh sinki ngs continued till the las t day of the European war nearly two yea rs later, the purpose of getting more ships to sea was no longer to stave off imminent disaster, bu t
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to pursue the offensives that led to victo ry. Surely the most important was the invasion of France in June 1944. O n her second voyage across the Arlantic, the 0 'Brien fo und herself part of the 5,000-ship armada that launched the greatest seaborne invasion in histo ry, arriving o n 10 June to land troops in the shambles of Omaha Beach. T hen it was back to England fo r more troops and tanks. In all, she made eleven shurrle trips to the beaches . T he crew was keenly aware of how narrow the margin of victory was and knew the importance of rushing more men ashore. As W alter Jaffee observes in The Last Liberty, "T he success of the whole great enterprise res ted on this unbroken stream of men and supplies." The 0 'Brien kept on steaming in the Bridge of Ships un til the war called her to the far reaches of the Pacific, then home to San Francisco at war's end. Volunteers saved her from scrapping, and when the 50th anniversary of D -D ay came ro und, they cared enough to steam her all the way back to No rmandy-of the original 5,000, she was the only ship that re turned to remind people how Americans had come there in war, to achieve lasting peace. PETER STANFORD
Gl s tramp ashore in Normandy, 1944, leaving the ships that brought them so fa r, the O 'Brien among them. (US Naval I nstitute)