Ships "Lake Freeland" and "Benson Ford" Docked at Ford Rouge Plant, 1934

In the 1920s, Henry Ford assembled a fleet of ships to bring raw materials to or take finished products from his new manufacturing complex on the Rouge River. He purchased surplus World War I merchant ships--most he had scrapped but a few, like the Lake Freeland, were converted into barges. Ford also built ships, like the ore freighter Benson Ford (background), named for one of his grandsons.