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I had a chance to do some electronics work on an oceanic tug and at the time it blew my mind that the starter for its main engine was about the size of a semi truck's engine. They'd start that one electrically, let it warm up, then use it to start the big engine, then they'd switch it to being a generator for lights and radio and so on.

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So this starter itself was a engine(ICE)?

Dunno about OP, but old CAT bulldozers used to have smaller engines to start the main engine, before starter tech improved, iirc they were called "Pony engines(motors)"

Which tug?

Heidi Brusco

Neat. I visited Valdez, Alaska lately and a friend was pointing out the tugs there. They seemed somewhat larger than other tugs I've seen. A data sheet says they have about 4x the horsepower of Heidi Brusco, coming from a pair of CAT C280-16 engines. I'm not clever enough to figure out how those are started. Cool boats are cool

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