Who says time travel doesn't exist? Some 730 people shipped back to the 1940s on the Chesapeake Bay by way of a time machine otherwise known as the John. W. Brown. The World War II Liberty ship made a daylong cruise around the bay, entertaining passengers with live big-band music, tours of the ship and World War II re-enactments (air shows and flybys). Among those aboard: ship's captain Paul J. Esbensen; Capt. Brian Hope, chair of Project Liberty Ship Baltimore; Herk Esibil, Joe Colgan, Ray Hiser and Brian Scace, board members; Jarvis Hughes, who helped build the ship in Baltimore in 1942; World War II vet Fred Elkan, who served on a Liberty ship; Bill Wright, U.S. Navy retiree; Joe Hartnett, bay pilot; Valerie Woodworth, Unisys Corp. manager; Connie Matricardi, free-lance craft designer; Tim Ketchum, Army engineer; and Fritz Glos, retired superintendent of American-National Can Co.

The approximately $50,000 raised by the event will go toward renovation and preservation of the John. W. Brown.