A House With A View

**A former cargo ship, the Benson Ford, now sits hanging over a cliff on Lake Erie and serves as a holiday home.**

It originally transported iron and coal for the Ford Motor Company. She was built in 1924, and

was decommissioned in 1981 after nearly 50 years of service. It was left to rust for four years until

Frank J. Sullivan bought it, had the ship's forecastle separated from the ship's hull, and had it

transported to its present site on an 18-foot cliff jutting above and overlooking Lake Erie, where

Sullivan tried to turn it into a hotel, which he was denied permission to do. He then sold the place to

father and son, Jerry and Bryan Kaspar, who turned it to their impressive four-storey, 7000-square

foot holiday home. It includes five bedrooms, a captain's office, and a living room with a panoramic

view of and across Lake Erie, and they modernized it by adding a garage, a game room, a bar, a

state-of-the-art kitchen, and four bathrooms.

The former ship's interior still contains the original wood-paneled staterooms, dining room, galley,

and lounge designed by Henry Ford, and where Thomas Edison was a former frequent passenger.

Thanks Richard