Fletcher W. Brown

The Navy Cross is presented to Fletcher W. Brown, First Lieutenant, U.S. Coast Guard, for distinguished and heroic service in the line of his profession as officer of the U.S.S. Seneca in volunteering to lead a party of men to board the British steamer Wellington, following the torpedoing of that vessel on September 16, 1918, and her abandonment by her crew. Lieutenant Brown and the men form Seneca’s crew, with a few of the original crew of the Wellington, persisted heroically in their attempt to save the Wellington, and finally abandoned the ship only when she was on the point of sinking in a heavy sea.