architecture through the National University of Sciences in Chicago, an unaccredited correspondence school, which awarded him a Bachelor of Science degree. In 1926 he designed the Eureka boat, a shallow-draft craft for use by oil drillers and trappers in operations along the Gulf coast and in lower Mississippi River. With a propeller recessed into a semi-tunnel in the hull, the boat could be operated in shallow waters where flotsam and submerged obstacles could foul the usual types of propellers. He designed a "spoonbill" bow for his craft, allowing it to be run onto riverbanks and then to back off with ease. His boats proved to be record-beaters; and within a decade he had improved the design to attain high speed in shallow water and turn nearly in its own length. Stiff competition, declining world trade, and the employment of tramp steamers to carry lumber cargoes combined to put Higgins' Lumber and Export Co. out of business. He kept his boatbuilding firm (established in 1930 as Higgins Industries) in business, constructing motorboats, tugs and barges, for the private market as well as the United States Coast Guard. Military boatbuilding The Marine Corps, interested in finding better ways to get men across a beach in an amphibious landing and frustrated that the Bureau of Construction and Repair could not meet its requirements, expressed interest in Higgins' boat. When tested in 1938 by the Navy and Marine Corps, Higgins' Eureka boat surpassed the performance of the Navy-designed boat and was tested by the services during fleet landing exercises in February 1939 as the LCPL. The design was considered satisfactory except for its offloading process, with men and equipment disembarking over its sides, which would expose them to enemy fire in a combat situation. The Japanese, however, had been using ramp-bowed landing boats in the Second Sino-Japanese War since the summer of 1937. They had been studied by the Navy and Marine Corps observers at Shanghai in particular. When shown a picture of such a craft, Higgins called his chief engineer and arranged for a mock-up to be built and ready for his inspection upon his return to New Orleans. Within one month, tests of the ramp-bow Eureka boat in Lake Pontchartrain showed that such a boat was feasible. Thus was born the LCVP (Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel), usually called the Higgins boat. It could carry 36 soldiers, and over 23,000 boats were produced