The Pup was built as a small tug to assist boats in and out of the harbors during low water. She had been given an over sized engine and had no trouble towing any boat with a shallow enough draft into the harbor. She was also used as a fishing tug and to assist boats in distress. The Pup was built by Rogers and Bird over the winter of 1893 /1894 and launched in May of 1894 at Saugatuck, Michigan. Her official registry number was 150668.

The Pup had been damaged by an arsonist's fire in Kewaunee during August of 1895. Again in 1903, a fire started in the ash pan of the boiler, but she was saved by timely action on the part of the J.S. Crouse which nearly drowned the Pup putting out the fire. In the spring of 1907, Captain Rogers, the current owner, transferred the machinery from the Pup to his new boat the Cuckoo and sold the hull of the Pup who installed new machinery in her. The Pup was subsequently bought by Captain Tulledge of Sturgeon Bay. He dismantled the boat and sold the boiler and machinery to Laviolette Brothers and the hull to Mr. Peterson who used the old tug as a tow barge behind his gasoline launch.
"On Saturday, July 17, 1915, Mr. Peterson left for Washington Island and intermediate ports with a load of coarse freight on the Pup, among which was lumber and cement. Some of it was discharged at Fish Creek, at which time it was noticed that the craft was leaking. Capt. Peterson and crew were kept busy pumping to keep the craft free, this being kept up all day Sunday and Sunday night. Monday morning while he was bound from Washington Harbor to West Harbor the water gained so rapidly on them, and they were so nearly exhausted from hard work, that it was impossible to keep her free, and she filled with water and went to the bottom.
There was only about twenty bags of cement left in the hold, so that the loss on this account was small, and the hull was not of much value. Anyway this is the last of the fishing tug Pup of Kewanee, Wis." Door County Advocate 10/18/1914.