Crowds gathered for the launching of the S.S. Bejamin Peixotto, Fairfield, Maryland, September 4, 1944

Caption: "Launching 374th Liberty Ship. Fairfield, MD. September 4, 1944. S.S. "Benjamin Peixotto"." The Fairfield Shipyard was a subsidiary of the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyards, Inc. of Baltimore, Maryland. The S.S. Peixotto was wrecked and scrapped in 1946.Crowds gathered for the launching of the S.S. Benjamin Peixotto, one of a series of "Liberty Ships" (cargo ships) named after historically prominent American Jews. Peixotto, a San Francisco lawyer, was president of B'nai Brith during the Civil War and was appointed U.S. Consul-General to Romania by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1870. There, he was influential in making the recognition of Jewish civil rights a condition of Romania's obtaining the status of a sovereign kingdom in 1878.Digital imageItem is part of an online exhibition "Jews in America: Our Story," maintained by the Center for Jewish History at http://www.jewsinamerica.org