City of Brunswick was a steam cargo ship built in 1921 by Oscar Daniels Shipbuilding Company of Tampa for the United States Shipping Board as part of the wartime shipbuilding program of the Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) to restore the nation's Merchant Marine.

As part of this program, EFC placed orders with nation's shipyards for a large number of vessels of standard designs.

[2][3] The vessel was named in honor of town of Brunswick in Georgia whose residents finished first in their district in subscription for the fourth Liberty Loan.

After their successful completion City of Brunswick returned to the shipyard to finalize construction and was handed over to the USSB at the end of May, and officially commissioned on May 31.

Following delivery to USSB the ship remained berthed in Tampa for two months before being handed over to Page & Jones of Mobile to operate on the Gulf Coast of the United States to Europe route.

[11] After examining the situation and being unable to dislodge the ship from the rocks, a distress signal was sent out and picked up by the wireless station in Halifax as well as tanker SS Montrolite.

[12][13][14] As the crew abandoned the ship a significant amount of looting by the locals took place before the authority could step in and put a stop to it.