The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to First Lieutenant Fletcher W. Brown, United States 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 16 September 1918, and her abandonment by her crew. Lieutenant Brown and the men from 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.