PORTLAND – The John W. Brown, a World War II-era transport ship, is scheduled to tie up at the Maine State Pier in Portland for several days this week.

One of only two surviving Liberty Ships, the Brown will be taken out into Casco Bay for a passenger cruise Saturday.

An emergency shipbuilding program created 2,710 of the vessels by the end of the war at 18 shipyards. Nearly 10 percent of these ships were built at two shipyards on the South Portland waterfront.