Crew Dining Room on Ford Towboat "Lake Ormoc," October 16, 1935

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 Ormoc, were refitted into ocean-going freighters. In 1928, Ford sent the Lake Ormoc to help establish his rubber plantation in Brazil. The vessel would later transport car and tractor parts to Ford plants along the American seaboard.