Coming in for a landing...

...Landing Craft Mechanized, Mark 8, LCM(8) that is.

Registry number 201,803.

I don't have the actual landing craft, of course.

But I do have its builder's plate. I don't know HOW I got its builder's plate - or more precisely, I don't know how its builder's plate ended up in a stack of junk I was clearing out of a locker on a boat I used to work on. It was in amongst some ancient (1970's) Penthouse mags and old net supply catalogs. Because the printed, er, literature, was already over 20 years old, this was the only thing I considered worthy of keeping.

For the initiated, Higgins was famous for manufacturing landing craft, brown-water navy vessels of all sort (i.e. for Vietnam), and, most famously - the PT boats of WWII. With perseverance, one could look up the history of LCM8 201,803 on the internet. I have chosen to delegate this historical exercise to someone (anyone) more dedicated to the task than I.