SS William Clay Ford Pilot House January 30, 2010

The William Clay Ford, a Great Lakes freighter, was scrapped in 1987 and its pilot house was brought to the Dossin Great Lakes Museum. The William Clay Ford provided years of reliable service transporting iron ore and coal from the upper Great Lakes to the River Rouge Steel Plant, a subsidiary of Ford Motor Company. Built in 1952 at the Great Lakes Engineering Works in River Rouge, Michigan, as a 647-foot straight-decked vessel, the William Clay Ford was lengthened to 767 feet in 1979. Despite this change the vessel still could not compete because freighter size and technology kept advancing. Rouge Steel replaced it with two self-unloading vessels that had the capacity to unload their cargo through a series of shipboard belts and booms at any lake port.