LT-4: The Grumpy Workhorse of the English Channel

Meet the Tug Ludington, a hunk of industrial muscle forged in 1943 at the Jakobson Shipyard in New York. This beast started life as the Major Wilbur Fr. Browder before the U.S. Army gave it the LT-4 designation and some 50 caliber machine guns for extra personality. This wasn't some pampered yacht because it had the raw power to steam to England under its own juice to haul ammo barges during the D-Day invasion of Normandy.

After the world stopped burning, the vessel avoided the scrapyard and joined the U.S. Army Transportation Corps. In 1947, the Corps of Engineers dumped it in Kewaunee, Wisconsin, where it swapped its naval gray for a black, silver, and red paint job. It started a second career doing the dirty work of harbor construction and maintenance on the Great Lakes under a new name.

This 115 foot beast originally needed a massive crew of 24 to keep it from becoming a floating paperweight, though the Corps of Engineers eventually trimmed the fat down to 14. While the war churned out hundreds of LT-class tugs, very few unmodified survivors actually made it to old age.

Now, the Tug Ludington just chills in Harbor Park in downtown Kewaunee for the general public to inspect. It officially sits on the National Register of Historic Places. Its sibling, the LT-5, also secured a spot on the register though it goes by the name Nash these days.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons