Should you find yourself near Baltimore's Inner Harbor any time between now and July 31, take a moment to check out the S.S. John W. Brown, one of the country's last two Liberty ships.Built in a similar fashion to modular homes (with different yards each cranking out a different portion of the ship, which were then all assembled prior to launch), these WWII-era cargo ships could be built with amazing speed; at one point, an average of three were launched every day. Indeed, American shipyards eventually spit them out faster than Hitler's wolf packs could sink them. (Yes, there was a time the United States was capable of such things.)
Of the more than 2,700 Liberty ships built, only two survive - the Baltimore-built John Brown, and the S.S. Jeremiah O'Brien (in San Francisco). For more information on the Brown, and Liberty ships in general, visit http://www.liberty-ship.com.
