HistoricSiteMarkers
Progressive & Modern Era

Brunswick's "Liberty Ships"

Brunswick, Glynn County, Georgia

Marker Inscription

Brunswick's "Liberty Ships". During World War II, the J.A. Jones Construction Company operated a plant approx. 1 mile south of this point on Brunswick's waterfront. Between 1942 and 1944, a skilled labor force of over 16,000 men and women worked in service to the Allied war effort, producing 99 steel vessels for the U.S. Merchant Marines. These vessels served as both cargo and troop carriers, and their reputation for keeping vital supply lines open earned them the name of "Liberty Ships." Each month, dedicated shipyard workers produced four of these 447-foot, 3500-ton steel vessels. During December, 1944, with the "Battle of the Bulge" raging in Europe, the Navy requested six ships. In response, these determined patriots built an astounding seven "Liberty Ships". The J.A. Jones Construction Company and the people they employed in Brunswick's shipyards came to symbolize the patriotic duty and tireless efforts of America's wartime home front.

The Story

During World War II, the J. A. Jones Construction Company's Brunswick shipyard employed more than 16,000 men and women who built 99 steel 'Liberty Ships' between 1942 and 1944. Turning out roughly four of the 447-foot cargo and troop carriers each month, the workers once built seven in a single December as the Battle of the Bulge raged in Europe. Their ships helped keep the Allied supply lines open.

Why it matters

Brunswick's shipyard stands for the American home front, where ordinary workers, many of them women, out-produced the enemy and helped win the war.

Own a business near here? Add it to the map.

Related events

  • ยท World War II
  • ยท Battle of the Bulge

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

Hill Village Sign

Dougherty County, GA

This sign marks a community named in honor of Major General William Pendleton Thompson Hill, who served as the Marine Corps' Quartermaster General from 1944 to 1955. That decade spanned the final years of World War II and the Korean War, an era when the Corps expanded and modernized rapidly and its supply operations had to keep pace with Marines fighting across the Pacific and in Korea. As Quartermaster General, an officer in that post was responsible for equipping, clothing, and provisioning the force โ€” the unglamorous logistical work that keeps an expeditionary military in the field.

Boys Estate (Elizafield Plantation)

Glynn County, GA

A half-mile west lies Boys Estate, a home for boys set on part of the old Elizafield Plantation, once among the rich rice and sugar estates of the Georgia coast. In the early 19th century Elizafield was the domain of Dr. Robert Grant and later his son Hugh Fraser Grant, cultivated intensively in rice and cane; the tabby ruins of a great sugar mill still stand. Given to the state as a park by Cator Woolford in 1935, the tract was set aside in 1945 for the boys' home.

Blue Star Memorial Highway

St. Marys, GA

Blue Star Memorial Highways began in 1945, when the National Garden Clubs planted a ribbon of dogwoods along a New Jersey highway to honor the servicemen and women of World War II. The blue star echoed the flags families hung in their windows for a loved one in uniform. The idea spread across the country, and markers like this one now stand along thousands of miles of American road, turning ordinary highways into quiet corridors of remembrance for all who have served.