Design · Industry · People
The Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel (LCVP) carried people and light vehicles from ships to beaches during the Second World War. Often called the Higgins boat, it combined a shallow wooden hull, an engine and a bow ramp. Its history includes the development of amphibious operations, industrial growth in New Orleans, the labor of thousands of workers, and the experience of crews and passengers.
1920s — AFTER 19451920s–1930s
Development
Andrew Jackson Higgins developed shallow-water workboats for commercial use in Louisiana. His Eureka design used an upswept bow and a protected propeller arrangement to reach banks and work in water that limited conventional boats. These features interested the US Marine Corps, which was developing ways to move troops and equipment from ships onto beaches without port facilities.41
1938–1940
Development
The military requirement was broader than a boat that could reach the sand. A landing craft had to fit aboard a transport, withstand repeated beaching, unload a useful load, and return through the surf. The Marine Corps and Navy tested several designs during the interwar period. Higgins participated in that process; his boats were evaluated at Hampton Roads and in Fleet Landing Exercises in 1938–40. The official Marine Corps history records both favorable operational assessments and disagreements with Navy designers.4
1940
Development
By 1940 the Navy had accepted a 36-foot Higgins personnel boat. The LCP(L), or Landing Craft, Personnel (Large), was a predecessor of the LCVP. Its passengers still had to leave over the sides. It should be distinguished from the later ramped craft, even though both are often called Higgins boats.41
April–May 1941
Development
A bow ramp was already in use in Japanese landing craft during operations in China. US observers studied those boats. The official Marine Corps history describes Major Ernest E. Linsert showing Higgins a photograph of a Japanese ramped boat at Quantico in April 1941. Brigadier General Emile P. Moses and the Marine Corps Equipment Board supported development of a ramped Eureka.4
Higgins converted a boat for trials on Lake Pontchartrain in May 1941. Early tests demonstrated a vehicle and personnel moving through the bow. The LCP(R), with its relatively narrow personnel ramp, and the vehicle-carrying LCV belonged to this development sequence. The familiar LCVP combined the personnel and vehicle roles with a broader ramp and an aft crew arrangement. The 1941 tests were steps toward that production design, rather than trials of an already standardized wartime LCVP.41
The change reduced dependence on unloading over the gunwales or using a dock. It did not eliminate the practical work of judging depth, handling surf, securing the boat and directing people ashore. The ramp was one component in a system that also required transport ships, trained crews and organized beach parties.5
1942
Production & service
Higgins craft took part in the Guadalcanal and North African landings. These operations used earlier types as well as a developing family of landing craft. The name ‘Higgins boat’ does not identify every boat in a photograph as an LCVP.13
Experience reinforced the value of carrying people and equipment from ships to beaches without a working port. Larger landing ships, beach parties, transport vessels and smaller craft formed a wider system.
1943
Production & service
The LCVP is in wartime production and service; Navy photographs show it at Bougainville.39
The wartime LCVP was about 36 feet long and just under 11 feet wide. Timber structure supported a predominantly wooden hull, with plywood sides and a steel bow ramp. Published dimensions and drafts differ by source, configuration and loading condition. The model uses the frequently published 36 ft 3 in by 10 ft 10 in envelope; its internal dimensions are reconstructed.579
A common propulsion installation was a 225-horsepower Gray Marine diesel driving a single propeller. Hall-Scott gasoline engines were another configuration. The engine occupied the aft portion of the boat, leaving an open forward well. The shaped stern and skeg helped protect the propeller during shallow-water operation. A main rudder behind the propeller and a smaller forward pilot rudder provided steering; the latter assisted response when backing.5912
Cables led from a winch beside the engine to the bow ramp. Hinges carried the ramp at its lower edge, and latches held it closed against a gasket. Lowering it opened the forward end of the well. Nominal loads included up to 36 equipped troops, a light vehicle, or approximately 8,100 pounds of general cargo. These were alternative loading arrangements; useful capacity also depended on fuel, equipment and operating conditions.59
Explore the boat’s construction ↗Late 1943
Production & service
Higgins Industries expanded rapidly under wartime contracts. Naval History and Heritage Command describes a company with fewer than 75 employees at one boatyard in 1938 and more than 25,000 workers across seven plants toward the end of 1943. Its output included several types of landing craft and other boats. The LCVP was central to that expansion, but it was not the company’s only product.2
Repeated hull forms, standardized components and division of work allowed multiple boats to be under construction at the same time. Woodworking, machinery installation, metal fittings, painting and inspection required different skills. Engines and other equipment also depended on suppliers. Other manufacturers produced LCVPs, so the production story extends beyond Higgins’s own plants.59
The boats were made by a large workforce that included women and Black workers as well as white men. The National Park Service describes Higgins Industries as an integrated workplace paying equal wages according to job rating. That account concerns company employment practices; it does not imply that discrimination or segregation had ended in New Orleans or in American wartime industry.6
New Orleans was also a port of embarkation and a center for training, transport and other production. Wartime demand brought people into the city and changed work and family life. Shipbuilding depended on the labor of production workers, engineers, maintenance crews, transport workers and suppliers, not solely on the decisions of a company’s founder.6
Visit the production floor ↗1943–1945
Production & service
LCVPs commonly traveled to an operation aboard larger vessels. Boats were lowered from davits or handled by lifting gear; troops could then climb down nets into them. The boat crews coordinated with the transport and landing organization. Navy photographs and the 1945 manual describe equipment for lifting, communications, handling the ramp and retracting from the beach.35
Crew figures vary in summaries. The Navy’s 1945 Skill in the Surf describes a crew of four: a coxswain, an engineer and two deck hands. Other published specifications give three crew members. Assignments, mission and period should therefore be stated when a precise complement matters. The coxswain controlled the approach, while other crew duties included machinery, signals and the ramp.59
Training covered equipment knowledge, loading and unloading, surf handling, and cooperation with beach parties. A successful trip required more than reaching land: the boat had to clear its load and return for further work. LCVPs also moved supplies and personnel after the first landings, contributing to the continuing flow between ships and shore.53
Shallow draft and a protected propeller made the boat useful near an open shore. They did not make every beach accessible. Sandbars, reefs, steep slopes, surf and currents could prevent a boat from reaching a suitable unloading position. The crew had to avoid turning broadside to breaking waves and had to be able to retract after unloading.5
The open passenger well and limited protective plating offered substantially less protection than a fully enclosed armored vehicle. The LCVP also lacked the seakeeping qualities of a larger ship. Crews and passengers experienced rough motion, spray and seasickness during crossings. Weather, loading and the condition of a landing site mattered alongside the design itself.53
6 June 1944
Production & service
On 6 June 1944, Allied forces landed in Normandy as part of the campaign to establish a foothold in German-occupied western Europe. LCVPs were among the many landing ships and craft involved. They carried US troops to Utah and Omaha beaches and were used by other Allied forces. Royal Navy landing craft and larger craft carrying vehicles and supplies formed other parts of the operation.38
The landings took place under differing local conditions. Currents, sea state, beach gradients, obstacles and defensive fire affected when and where boats unloaded. Crews and passengers faced serious danger, and boats were lost. An explanation of the ramp’s operation should not be mistaken for an account of those experiences. Normandy also brought destruction, displacement and losses to civilians living in the region.
The LCVP’s contribution was practical: it moved people and light loads across the gap between an offshore ship and a beach. It worked alongside larger landing craft, amphibious vehicles, naval support, engineers and transport organizations. It was an important part of those operations, rather than a self-sufficient explanation of their outcomes.
The calm-water scene in this exhibit follows an empty vessel onto an empty beach so the landing mechanism is visible. Its times are chosen for explanation; it does not reproduce combat, the weather on 6 June 1944, or the many factors affecting a real landing.
Explore the landing mechanics ↗July 1944
Production & service
Higgins Industries marked delivery of its 10,000th boat to the Navy in July 1944. Such milestones reflected a broader mobilization of labor and materials. The exhibit places factory work beside the boat’s operation to show how design depended on the capacity to produce, equip and maintain large numbers of craft.11
This was a milestone for Higgins Industries’ deliveries to the Navy across boat types, rather than a count of LCVPs alone. Standardization, suppliers, parallel work stations and the labor of thousands of people made that scale possible.211
1945
Production & service
Production totals require a clear denominator. NHHC credits Higgins Industries with more than 20,000 boats of all types by the war’s end, including about 12,500 LCVPs. HyperWar’s all-builder reference table lists 23,358 LCVPs, while another historical compilation gives a different total. A company total, a type total and a total for a particular date cannot be used interchangeably.279
LCVPs served in the Mediterranean and Pacific as well as northwest Europe. Official Navy material illustrates their use at Bougainville in 1943 and during later operations. Earlier Guadalcanal and North African landings also involved predecessor Higgins craft; accounts that group all of these as “Higgins boats” can conceal differences between types.31
After 1945
After the war
LCVPs remained useful after 1945. The US Navy’s museum describes service during the Korean War and other postwar operations. Surplus craft also found civilian uses. Wooden hulls required maintenance and were vulnerable to deterioration, so relatively few wartime examples survive.3
Surviving craft, restorations and reproductions now help museums interpret the design. The National WWII Museum in New Orleans displays a reproduction built with reference to original plans. Restored boats and newly made examples should be identified clearly; a surviving hull may have acquired replacement parts, equipment or alterations during a long service life.18
Higgins is often singled out in accounts of Allied landing capability. His design and industrial leadership were significant, but the boat also resulted from military requirements, foreign precedents, trials, engineering changes, suppliers and the work of thousands of employees and crews. Keeping those contributions visible gives a fuller history of the machine.
The historical record
The linked sources include an official Marine Corps history, the Navy’s wartime crew manual, museum and government accounts, and later reference compilations. Their purposes differ. A crew manual is strong evidence for operation; a museum overview summarizes a much larger history. HyperWar’s production table is a later compilation, not an original Navy manufacturing ledger.457
Production totals, crew complements, dimensions and survivor counts vary between accounts. This exhibit attributes the relevant figures and does not treat those differences as manufacturing tolerances. The supplied images are retained as research references; their original publication details and reuse rights are still unresolved. The interactive model is an evidence-informed reconstruction.
Sources inspected 9 October 2026.