MANITOWOC, WI – As the S.S. Badger car and passenger ferry gears up for its 2026 season, one long-time employee is heading off into the sunset. Lake Michigan Carferry Inc., which owns the S.S. Badger, announced that long-time chief engineer Kevin Diedrich is retiring. Since joining the Badger’s crew in 2001, Diedrich has worked every position in the engine department, according to the company.
Chief Engineer Kevin Diedrich is retiring from the SS Badger. [Lake Michigan Carferry]
Diedrich, who grew up in Manitowoc, told Wisconsin Life in 2017 he and his sister would ride their bikes to watch the ferry load and unload. “I never thought I’d sail in one,” he said.
He worked on a boat in Alaska for a while after graduating from high school, then at a factory for years. One day, he had the itch to sail again, was hired to work on the Badger as its first engineer — and said he never looked back.
“There’s a dedication this crew has to this ship that I’ve never found anywhere else,” he said. “These engines are unique and run just as good as they did when they were built in 1953.”
He lived on board for seven months of the year, crossing Lake Michigan from Manitowoc to Ludington, Michigan, more than 400 times each season.
This solid ship has not changed much in more than 60 years, when it was built by the Christy Corporation of Sturgeon Bay for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) to carry railroad freight cars across the waters, and also to provide superior passenger accommodations
The Badger was dubbed “Queen of Lakes” during the heyday of car ferries back in the late 1950s, with Manitowoc, Milwaukee and Kewaunee as her main ports of call. Car ferry popularity dwindled in the 1970s as railroad economics changed, and the ship docked for the last time in 1990.
Today, the ship, which still runs on coal and steam, carries thousands of passengers back and forth. The Badger also has carried semi-trucks, loads of classic cars for shows, parts for industrial machines and large windmills, Amish horse buggies, and even the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile.
The S.S. Badger carries thousands of visitors between Manitowoc and Ludington from mid-May to mid-October. Many will travel from one side to the other to spend a vacation in the other state before returning home, while others buy a one-way ticket, seeing the trip as more fun, relaxing and faster than driving through heavy Chicago traffic to get around the lake.
The Badger’s 2026 season runs May 1-Oct. 11, according to the ssbadger.com.
Herald Times Reporter
