  This paper studies the vertices, in the sense defined by J. A. Green, of
Specht modules for symmetric groups. The main theorem gives, for each
indecomposable non-projective Specht module, a large subgroup contained in one
of its vertices. A corollary of this theorem is a new way to determine the
defect groups of symmetric groups. We also use it to find the Green
correspondents of a particular family of simple Specht modules; as a corollary,
we get a new proof of the Brauer correspondence for blocks of the symmetric
group. The proof of the main theorem uses the Brauer homomorphism on modules,
as developed by M. Brou{\'e}, together with combinatorial arguments using Young
tableaux.
