The public is invited to tour the 440-foot-long ship, built in Baltimore in 1942. It will be docked at Conley’s Wharf, just off Interstate 95, said Matthew Schulte, executive director of the society. The other remaining Liberty Ship is the SS Jeremiah O’Brien, berthed in San Francisco.
On Sept. 25, the John W. Brown will sail the bay on one of its Living History Cruises, Schulte said, which includes appearances by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, General George S. Patton, co medians Abbot and Costello, and other notables of the wartime period portrayed by professional reenactors.
The highlight of the roughly six-hour cruise — which sets sail at 10 a.m., weather permitting — will be an all-out “attack’’ by Japanese Zeroes, which will then be fended off by US warplanes, as crew members on the Brown aim simulated anti-aircraft gunfire from the deck.
“I was on one of these cruises in 2007, and to have this 440-foot, 60-year-old historic landmark that is a time capsule coming here to Providence, all flags flying, will be extraordinary,’’ Schulte said.
The Brown, owned and run by the nonprofit Project Liberty Ship, based in Baltimore, regularly conducts these historical cruises. The Providence appearance is Rhode Island’s first and coincides with the 75th anniversary of the Steamship Historical Society, Schulte said.
The history of the Liberty Ship is both proud and tragic, he said. The sluggish, freight-laden ships moved slowly and were often sitting ducks for enemy attack, Schulte said. Of the 2,710 Liberty Ships built during the war to carry tanks, guns, railroad engines, and troops, more than 700 were sunk, with 7,000 men killed, most of them Merchant Marines who crewed the ships.
“Liberty Ships suffered the highest percentage of any type of vessel lost in World War II,’’ Schulte said, pointing out that the ships were managed by the War Shipping Administration and not part of the military.
They had minor defenses, usually a five-inch 38-caliber gun, a three-inch 50-caliber, and a handful of 20mm machine guns around the deck. But they slogged along at roughly six knots, Schulte said, “and couldn’t outrun anything.’’
