Ford Freighter "Lake Benbow" Loaded with Cargo in Chester, Pennsylvania, circa 1929

Henry Ford purchased 199 surplus World War I merchant ships from the United States government in 1925. Most of these ships were scrapped. But a few, like the Lake Benbow, were refitted into ocean-going freighters. The freighters transported parts and supplies between Ford facilities located in cities along the American seaboard and to the Ford plant in Manchester, England.