Ford Motor Company Ship "Lake Ormoc" Docked at Ford Rouge Plant, July 1938

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.