Labor Day

and Liberty

On Labor Day in 1942, 7 Liberty Ships were launched at shipyards around America. They were all built by Union Labor, that consisted of the most diverse workforce the US had ever seen. People were working 3 shifts a day, 24x7 to build the cargo ships that we needed to supply the manpower and weapons to the right places to help the allied armies defeat the Nazi’s, Mussolini and Imperial Japan.

The first Liberty Ship built, the Patrick Henry, took about 8 months at the new Bethlehem Steel-Fairfield shipyard in Baltimore. She was launched just about the time of Pearl Harbor. The shipyard was being built and over 20,000 new ship workers were hired and trained to weld and rivet and do a lot of jobs they had never done.

Many were women who had never worked outside their homes. Many were black, brown and recent immigrants from all over the world.

In Baltimore many came from the farms and hollars of West Virginia and Western Maryland. New housing developments were created near the shipyard.

Very bold and efficient German U-Boats made building these ships quickly an imperative.

They were sinking our old cargo ships with regularity, just off of our Atlantic coast. Cape Hatteras was a killing field.

On this Labor Day weekend 82 years ago preparations were being made here at Fairfield to launch the SS John W Brown.

Named for a Canadian labor leader who had died the previous year. This ship and the others that would be christened that weekend were each built in about 40 days…a 200 day reduction from the Henry, launched 9 months before.

The Brown…or Brownie as she is called locally and by her all volunteer staff & crew is still afloat and operating. Only 2 of the over 2700 built nationwide still sail. One on the West Coast, built there and the Brown and only one more even exists at all as a static museum in Greece. Why Greece ? Because the Greek shipping tycoons like Onassis bought many of the surplus ships after the war to be able to get cargos of much needed food and supplies to people in war ravaged countries.

I was just onboard the Brown as she returned from her once every 5 year dry dock in Norfolk.

The repair visit is required by our Coast Guard if she is to continue going out with passengers…. Which she normally does once or twice a year on living history cruises and also for training exercises and some longer excursions.

They asked me to document 14 burials at sea for the families of those being committed to the deep. The ceremony was very dignified and done with military honors.

In my fifty years of video documenting events, this was a first and an honor.

This ship is a unique maritime treasure. An 82 year old veteran and survivor of World War II. She is Baltimore’s best Labor Day link to WWII and the fact that Americans can do anything they want, when they pull together and try.

My mother’s mother, Elsie, christened the 384th and last Liberty Ship built in Baltimore in October of 1944. Fairfield set a world record for building more ships of one hull type than any other shipyard anywhere at anytime.

This was a REALLY big day for my grandmother who had 6 sons, a stepson and 2 son’s in law serving in the US Military….in all branches and many theatres of the war. All survived and came home.

This is a video about Liberty Ships in general and the Brown in particular that we made:

If interested you all can volunteer to help out or donate what you can to the Brown. This recent dry dock repair period went about $500,000 beyond the anticipated 1.1 million budget because of new found complications that were discovered and their repairs. Here’s a link to their ask, which they just made.

www.ssjohnwbrown.org/fund-raiser

Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend. Peace to all.