Historic Ship Alliance trip: John W. Brown

John W. Brown is a historical liberty ship that was operated during World War II. The Harbor School has a program called Historic Ship Alliance which gives students the opportunity to take trips to learn more about the importance of this vessel.  Students are able to stay days and nights aboard the vessel running drills, acting as crew, and even preparing meals. September 29th - October 2nd a group of about 10 students (including myself) took a trip down to Baltimore, Maryland to crew and train on the liberty ship. Due to rain the cruise along the harbor aboard John Brown was cancelled, but students including myself helped during the docking and undocking process. We were able to send lines to and from the tug boat that assisted us in the transporting of the vessel. Students, assisted by trained crew, tied off lines and took them off when ordered. Never before having to work with such big diameter line it was difficult to get used to the feeling but we fought through the discomfort and did what had to be done. Besides the docking process students were able to prepare breakfast for the first morning due to the fact there was no chief aboard the ship at the time of our arrival. This meant a small team of students woke up before everyone else and tried to keep quiet while working together to prepare a meal for everyone aboard.