Material Stowed in the Cargo Hold of SS Lake Gorin, Cork, Ireland, circa 1928

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 Gorin, were refitted into ocean-going freighters. The freighters transported parts and supplies between Ford facilities located in cities along the American seaboard and to Ford plants in England and Ireland.