BADGER © Lake Michigan Carferry

Coal-fired ferry BADGER celebrate 70 years of crossing Lake Michigan

FerryThe coal-fired BADGER celebrate 70 years of services across Lake Michigan. BADGER can carry 600 passengers and 120 vehicles and is part of the US’ National Historic Landmarks.

BADGER will return to its annual seasonal service linking Manitowoc, Wisconsin with Ludington, Michigan, a four hour crossing, from May to October.

Built by the Christy Shipyard in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad as a train ferry, BADGER entered service on 21 March 1953. Remarkably, the ferry continues to use her original Foster-Wheeler coal-fired boilers and Skinner Unaflow steam reciprocating engines. When delivered at the beginning of the 1950s, this type of marine propulsion system was state-of-the-art.

When first in service BADGER was bunkered from coal-carrying rail wagons, today this process today is carried out from coal-carrying trucks.

BADGER and its laid-up sister SPARTAN (built 1952) are owned since December 2020 by Lake Michigan Carferry, a subsidiary of Interlake Maritime Services.