They stand on the observation balcony inside the N.C. Maritime Museum's barnlike waterfront boat shed, mixed among the tourists and squinting at the rust-streaked, rectangular hulk on the shop floor. Eventually they have to speak.

"Is that the LCVP?" they ask one of workers down on the floor, though they know the answer better than anyone. Then the stories start, stories about how this strange boat carried the men to victory and death on beaches from Normandy to Iwo Jima.

For the next few months, visitors to Beaufort will have a rare chance to see one of the boats that even Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower called the key to winning World War II. More than 20,000 Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel -- also known as Higgins boats -- were made by Higgins Industries and other builders. They were used in every major amphibious assault to move GIs from ship to shore.

Only about a dozen are believed to remain, including four in the United States, according to Maritime Museum officials. They moved the rare craft into the museum's waterfront boat-building shed last week to begin restoring it for a museum in Illinois.

The work will take six to eight months, and the boat will be on display as the staff and volunteers toil. Visitors strolling by on Front Street can stand at the huge main door and look straight into the open bow.

Since word of the boat's presence began to spread last week, more than a dozen veterans have come to reminisce. Among them -- three times already -- was Earl W. Norwood of Morehead City, who piloted one in Normandy and owes it a personal debt. His craft took on water the whole five miles back to his mother ship after being hit by an artillery shell while on the beach.

"I owe my life to that boat," he said.

A distinctive design

The bottom was shaped to ride onto the sand rather than stick into it, and the propeller and rudder were set into a protective tunnel at the rear so they wouldn't be damaged when it ran aground. The best-known feature is the flat front that drops on hinges to form a ramp for troops to dash ashore.

The design now seems obvious. But when New Orleans businessman Andrew Higgins proposed it, the boat was a hard sell to the Navy, said Jerry Strahan, author of "Andrew Jackson Higgins and the Boats That Won World War II."

"They thought they'd just be able to dock their ships in France and the soldiers could just walk down a pier," he said.

The Marines saw the value of the design, though. Soon, Higgins Industries and other companies were cranking them out.

Many people think they were heavily armored, but they were made almost entirely of wood, which was more readily available than metal during the war. Also, being light meant the craft drew less water and could get farther ashore. The steel bow ramp was just a quarter-inch thick, as were the steel plates along the sides -- enough to stop some shrapnel but ineffective against many kinds of incoming fire.

Most had plywood hulls, which makes the one at the Maritime Museum something of a mystery. The hull is made of wood planks -- and not just any wood, but mahogany, which resists rot. That's one of the reasons the hull is in such good condition, said William Prentice, watercraft center manager for the Maritime Museum.

An American collector bought it from a museum in Normandy, where it was exhibited outdoors. Before that, it was a utility boat in a marina.

The collector offered it to the First Division Museum in Wheaton, Ill., which had long wanted one because division troops used them at Normandy and other battles. The Illinois museum's director, Paul Herbert, said the Navy recommended the Maritime Museum for the restoration.

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