The legacy of the schooner lives on in the area, with frequent ghost sightings and tourist attractions whereby its final route is traced.[2][3] It was known as The Christmas Tree Ship and was one of many schooners to transport Christmas trees across the lake. However, with railroads, highways, and tree farms proving much more economical, the tree-shipping industry was on a steep decline and by 1920 they stopped sailing.
History
The Rouse Simmons was built in Milwaukee in 1868 by Allan, McClelland, & Company, and named after Kenosha businessman Rouse Simmons. The schooner was soon purchased by wealthy lumber magnate Charles H. Hackley of Muskegon, Michigan and joined his sizeable fleet. Hackley's ships served across most of Lake Michigan's coastline, and the Rouse Simmons became a workhorse, shipping lumber from company mills to several ports around the lake for around 20 years. At its peak the schooner was making almost weekly runs between Grand Haven and Chicago.[4]
After its service for Hackley the ship exchanged hands several times. Many similar schooners were also frequently sold and they became known as "tramp ships".[3] In 1910 Herman Schuenemann bought an interest in the ship, expanding that to an eighth in 1912. The other shares were owned by Captain Charles Nelson of Chicago, who owned one eighth and would sail alongside Schuenemann on the fatal journey, and three fourths (the commanding share) were owned by Mannes J. Bonner, a businessman from St. James, Michigan.[4]
The "Christmas Tree Ship"
Recovered Christmas tree from the shipwreck
The Schuenemann brothers, Herman and August, had been trading Christmas trees in Chicago since around the start of the 20th century. August died in November 1898 aboard the S. Thal– a 52-ton, two-masted schooner – when it sank in a storm near Glencoe, Illinois. His younger brother continued the family business. While many rival traders had sold to wholesalers and local grocers, Schuenemann sold directly to Chicago residents at dockside by Clark Street Bridge. By cutting out the middleman in this way the trees could be sold cheaply while still making a profit. The venture used the slogan "Christmas Tree Ship: My Prices are the Lowest", with electric Christmas lights and a tree atop the main mast. The trees were sold for between 50 cents and $1, but Herman Schuenemann, affectionately known as "Captain Santa", also gave away some of the trees to needy families.[3][4]
Final journey
Christmas Tree Ship
Michigan state historic marker whence the Rouse Simmons departed for its final voyage
Schuenemann loaded the schooner with 5,500 trees from Thompson Harbor near Manistique, Michigan and planned to make the week-long journey to Chicago. The difficult weather had discouraged his competitors from making their own journeys, and snow had covered the tree farms in Michigan and Wisconsin.[5] He hoped that the resultant shortage of Christmas trees would lead to a huge profit and solve his financial problems.[3]
By 1912, November already had a reputation for especially violent storms on the Great Lakes. November 1912, however, had been relatively quiet, with only one significant storm so far, which affected especially southeastern Michigan and northwestern Ohio.[6] (The reports that say another storm had already taken many lives and ships that month[5] are erroneous, confusing 1912 with the Big Blow of 1913.) Still, a second storm was brewing. The conditions of the day were very poor, with many ships anchoring in port for shelter to avoid being battered by the 60-mile-per-hour (52kn; 97km/h) winds that could be anticipated in a November gale.
Local legends say that some sailors refused to board the ship and that the vessel was unseaworthy. Two years earlier the schooner had been towed to port by The Grand Haven Tribune after it was found riding low in the water. Despite this the journey began at noon, with trees crammed into every possible corner of the ship. The weight of the trees was far above recommendations, especially in the bad winter weather, and was certainly going to contribute to the tragedy. During the night, with storms hitting the Simmons hard, two sailors were sent to check the lashings on deck. Both seamen were swept overboard by a giant wave that collected them, many bundled trees, and a small boat. Now that the schooner was slightly lighter and more maneuverable, Captain Schuenemann directed it towards Bailey's Harbor. Suddenly, and tragically, the storms worsened; ice formed on the sodden trees and winds battered the hull.[5]
When the Kewaunee Life Saving Station spotted the Rouse Simmons on 23 November 1912 it was low in the water with tattered sails, flying its flag at half mast to signal that it was in distress. Logs from the station show that a surfman spotted the Simmons at 2:50pm and alerted station keeper Nelson Craite. Craite found that the station's gas tugboat had left earlier in the day and, at 3:10pm, Craite telephoned the nearest other Station. George E. Sogge of Two Rivers, located just south of Kewaunee, sent out the power boatTuscarora on a rescue mission, but the Simmons was not seen again.[4]
The Simmons was not the only ship to go down during the storm, with the South Shore, the Three Sisters, and the Two Brothers suffering similar fates.[4]
Wreck and debris
Sonar image of the wreck of Rouse Simmons, June12,2022.
A message in a bottle from the Rouse Simmons washed onto the shore at Sheboygan. It had been corked using a small piece of cut pine tree and, other than the occasional trees caught in fishing nets, was the only remains of the vessel discovered for many years. The message read:
Friday … everybody goodbye. I guess we are all through. During the night the small boat washed overboard. Leaking bad. Invald and Steve lost too. God help us.[7]
In December 1912 Christmas Trees and wreckage were reported ashore at Pentwater, Michigan[8] In 1924 a fishing net trawled up a wallet belonging to Captain Schuenemann. The wallet, well preserved because it was wrapped in oilskin, contained business cards, a newspaper clipping and an expense memorandum.[9] In 1971 the wreck itself was discovered by scuba diver Gordon Kent Bellrichard from Milwaukee. Bellrichard was searching for the Vernon, a 177-foot, 700-ton steamer that had sunk in a storm in October 1887, and had been told about an area in which local fishermen had frequently snagged their nets. When his sonar appeared to have located something he dived down to a shipwreck on the bed of the lake 172 feet (52m) below. Despite his light failing, Bellrichard managed to survey the wreckage with his hands and concluded that he had instead found the Simmons.[4]
A forensic study of the wreck suggested that the ship had steerage and was sailing for shelter when it sank. The mizzen mast snapped off above the deck and the upper portion was not located. The main mast was found forward and to the port side of the wreck with the base missing. The foremast is intact and lies nearly parallel but on top of the main mast suggesting at least one of these masts fell out of the mast step as the ship sank.[10]
Many of the trees are still in the ship's hold, though two were extracted and shown as exhibits. Several items recovered from the Rouse Simmons are now housed in Rogers Street Fishing Village Museum in Two Rivers, including the ship's wheel. The ship's anchor was retrieved and now stands at the entrance to the Milwaukee Yacht Club.[4] The wreck is listed on the National Register of Historic Places[11] and lies within the boundaries of the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary.[12]
Legacy
The Christmas Tree Ship lived on through Schuenemann's wife, Barbara, and their two daughters. However, in the latter years they chose to transport the trees by train and merely used a boat as a platform for sale.[3] The practice of transporting trees by schooner ceased in 1920,[4] and the increasing popularity of railways, highways and tree farms soon made it easier and more affordable for everyone to buy a tree.[13]
See also
The Christmas Schooner - A musical written by Julie Shannon and John Reeger that chronicles the journeys of a fictional schooner based upon the Rouse Simmons.
Michigan Shipwreck Research Association (MSRA) is an American non-profit corporation based in Holland, Michigan. Formed in 2001 by the former directors of the committee which originally established the Southwest Michigan Underwater Preserve, their stated purpose is to "Preserve Michigan’s Submerged Maritime History." With the discovery of the steamer H. C. Akeley outside the boundaries of the preserve, the group broadened their area of focus and formed MSRA.
The Christmas Tree Ship is the second EP by I Like Trains. It was released on 24 November 2008.
The SS Vienna was built in 1873 during the era when steamers were built with sail rigging. She had a 19 year career marked with maritime incidents including sinking when she was just 3 years old. She sank for her final time in fair weather in Whitefish Bay in Lake Superior after she received a mortal blow when she was inexplicably rammed by the steamer Nipigon. Although there were no deaths when the Vienna sank for the last time, more than 100 years later her wreck claimed the lives of 4 scuba divers, the most of all the wrecks in the Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve that now protects her as part of an underwater museum. Her wreck was stripped of artifacts that resulted in the Michigan Department of Natural Resources seizing her artifacts in a raid on the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in 1992. Her artifacts are now on display in this museum as loan from the State of Michigan.
L.R. Doty was a Great Lakes steamship launched in May 1893 at West Bay City, Michigan. It was last seen afloat October 25, 1898 north of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during a violent storm on Lake Michigan, with winds reaching 70 miles per hour (110 km/h). The ship was witnessed foundering at the stern by a passenger of the four-masted schooner Olive Jeanette which was being towed by the Doty until the tow line broke from the force of the storm. Seventeen crew members died.
Northerner was an 81-foot-long (24.7-meter-long), two-masted schooner. She sank in Lake Michigan on November 29, 1868, five miles southeast of Port Washington, Wisconsin, United States. The bottom of the ship lies under 130 feet of water.
Fleetwing was a schooner that sank in Lake Michigan off Liberty Grove, Wisconsin, United States. In 2001 the shipwreck site was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Gallinipper was a schooner that sank in Lake Michigan off the coast of Centerville, Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, United States. In 2010, the shipwreck site was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Home was a two-masted schooner which sank in Lake Michigan off Centerville in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, United States, in 1858. In 2010 the shipwreck site was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The Lumberman was a 3-masted schooner that sank in 1893 in Lake Michigan off the coast of Oak Creek, Wisconsin, United States. In 2009 the shipwreck site was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The Kate Kelly was a 126-foot wood-hulled two-masted schooner that sank in 1895 off the coast of Wind Point, Wisconsin, United States. In 2007 the shipwreck site was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Rouse Simmons was an American politician and businessman.
The SS Erie L. Hackley was a passenger and cargo ship that operated in Lake Michigan from 1882 to 1903. The ship sank in a storm near Green Island on 3 October 1903.
Antelope was a Great Lakes steamship that later was converted into a schooner barge) and sank in Lake Superior near the Apostle Islands in 1897.
SS Toledo was an American Passenger/Cargo ship that sank during a storm in Lake Michigan near Port Washington, Wisconsin, United States on 24 October 1856 with the loss of 39 to 79 lives.
The LakeMichigan Triangle, or simply the Michigan Triangle, is an area of Lake Michigan where a number of disappearances, shipwrecks, and plane crashes have occurred under unexplained circumstances. Unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and unidentified submerged objects (USOs), have also allegedly been spotted in the area. The triangle stretches from Ludington to Manitowoc, down to Benton Harbor, and back to Ludington. The first major unexplained event began was the disappearance of the French sailing ship Le Griffon and her crew in the 17th century. Starting with the sinking of the Thomas Hume In 1891, shipwrecks and disappearances became more frequent. The first reported UFO sighting was in 1913.
↑ Stanton G, Meverden K, Thomsen T, Garey J (2007). "Closed-Circuit Rebreathers in the Forensic Study of the Rouse Simmons Shipwreck". In: NW Pollock, JM Godfrey (Eds.) the Diving for Science... 2007. Proceedings of the American Academy of Underwater Sciences (Twenty–sixth annual Scientific Diving Symposium). Archived from the original on November 22, 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-16.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
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