Carferry & Tug

As of 2015. Hours, prices and phone numbers on this page are kept as the original site listed them (captured May 7, 2015). Check current information with each attraction before you go.

Ships and boats come in all shapes and sizes and perform many different duties. The Schooner Coast includes a car ferry that was originally built to transport railroad freight cars, but now carries passengers in superior accommodations, and a tugboat that served during WWII and later helped construct many Great Lakes' harbors.

S.S. Badger

Carferry, 900 S. Lakeview Dr., Manitowoc, arrives in Manitowoc at noon and departs at 1:55 p.m. each day May 26-June 9 & Aug. 29-Oct. 9. The ferry makes a second trip June 10-Aug. 28 arriving in Manitowoc 11:30 p.m. and departing 12:55 a.m. each day. Visit the web site for fare information.

Tug Ludington

Harbor Park, 223 Harrison St., Kewaunee, open Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day. Admission is $2 for adults and $1 for children.

Added in 2026

S.S. Badger, 2025. Photo: AsherHeimermann, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Both boats are still where the page left them, though the timetable above is from 2015.

The S.S. Badger was built in 1952 by the Christy Corporation of Sturgeon Bay as a railroad car ferry and entered service in March 1953. She is now the last coal-fired passenger vessel operating on the Great Lakes, a National Historic Landmark since January 2016, and part of U.S. Highway 10 across the lake. Interlake Steamship Company bought her in December 2020. A broken ramp counterweight at the Ludington dock ended the 2023 season early; sailings resumed in May 2024. Since 2015 her coal ash has been stored on board and unloaded for cement instead of going into the lake.

The tug Ludington in Harbor Park is listed on the National Register (2002) under her Army name, Major Wilbur F. Browder. Built in 1943, she towed ammunition barges across the English Channel during the Normandy campaign and later worked for the Army Corps of Engineers on Great Lakes harbors.

Sources: Wikipedia articles on SS Badger and the NRHP listings in Kewaunee County, Wisconsin (read November 2026).

Questions visitors ask

Does the S.S. Badger still burn coal?

Yes. She is the last coal-fired passenger vessel operating on the Great Lakes. Since 2015 a retention system keeps the ash on board; it is unloaded and used in cement.

Why does the Badger run on Michigan time?

The ferry is based in Ludington, Michigan, so her schedule uses Eastern Time even when she is docked in Manitowoc, which is on Central Time.

Can I go aboard the tug Ludington?

The tug is a seasonal attraction run by the City of Kewaunee in Harbor Park. Opening dates and fees change, so ask the city before you go.

Original text restored from the Wayback Machine capture of May 7, 2015. Typos and dead links were tidied; nothing else in the original section was rewritten. How this archive works.