The Epic Tale Of The Christmas Tree Ship Rouse Simmons

The tale of the Christmas Tree Ship Rouse Simmons is a famous maritime story of the Great Lakes. The schooner vanished in a powerful storm in Lake Michigan in November of 1912 while shipping Christmas trees to Chicago, killing all 17 people onboard.

Since then, it has captured the imagination of locals, with many telling stories about sighting the ghost ship on the horizon.

But what exactly happened to Rouse Simmons, the famous Christmas Tree Ship? How did it sink, and was it ever found? I will satisfy all your curiosities in this article.

Christmas – A Lucrative Industry

Shipping Christmas trees and other goods used for holiday festivities was a booming industry in the late 1800s and early 1900s. By the 1890s, Chicago saw a rise in German Immigrants, whose culture introduced the Christmas tree tradition to American shores. Simultaneously, the nation’s burgeoning middle class saw it as an opportunity to showcase their newly attained success and wealth.

Most Americans celebrated Christmas and the holidays with great enthusiasm and preparation, with the central attraction being a well-decorated Christmas tree and boughs of evergreens over windows and doors, said to ward off bad spirits, a belief dating back to the pre-christian era.

Though people nowadays prefer artificial Christmas trees, which can be recycled for years, some prefer real ones from garden centres and those displayed in pop-up shops. Others even go to Christmas tree farms to choose and cut their own tree.

In the 1900s, Chicago and other cities along the Great Lakes Coast procured Christmas trees via ships that carried thousands of them, cut from North Michigan and Wisconsin and supplied to the cities for selling to the residents. Several ships were engaged in the business of transporting Christmas trees across the lake, of which the three-masted schooner Rouse Simmons became the most popular.

History of the Famous’ Christmas Tree Ship’- Rouse Simmons

Launched in 1868, Rouse Simmons was 37.6 m long, 8.4 m wide and 2.6 m high. It was constructed by Allan, McClelland, & Company. She was a namesake of Kenosha businessman Rouse Simmons and was nicknamed the ‘Christmas Tree Ship’ as she carried evergreen trees to Chicago every Christmas season.

The ship exchanged hands many times, and in 1910, it caught the interest of first-generation German-American Herman Schuenemann, whose family had been trading Christmas trees in Chicago since the beginning of the 20th century. After his elder brother August’s death, Herman took it upon himself to make a success out of a competitive business with a finite and fleeting market.

While his rivals sold trees to wholesalers and local stores, he eliminated the middlemen and sold directly to Chicago residents from his ship at the side of the dock by the Clark Street Bridge. This strategy allowed him to sell Christmas trees for a dollar or less and still make a substantial profit.

Herman was a businessman and stood out from other sellers. He used the slogan ‘Christmas Tree Ship: My Prices are the Lowest”, decorated the ship with electric lights, and placed a Christmas tree atop the main mast to attract customers.

His wife and daughter made and sold wreaths and garlands along the Chicago waterfront.
Herman was also known for his kindness and generosity as he gave some trees for free to poor families and donated some to churches, so people called him ‘Captain Santa’.

The Last Unfateful Journey of Rouse Simmons

Shipping on the Great Lakes in winter was perilous as the water froze and strong autumn gales blew in November. Most ships did not sail at this time of the year and took their spot in harbours.

This probably prompted Schuenemann to take a chance on the bad weather in Lake Michigan. His competitors did not sail their ships, and snow covered the tree farms in Wisconsin and Michigan. He hoped that a shortage of Christmas trees would make him huge profits and solve his financial difficulties.

He was an experienced ship captain who had sailed Christmas tree ships to Chicago for almost three decades. Herman decided to take the Rouse Simmons to Thompson Harbour to load around 3000 to 5000 Christmas trees and embarked on a week-long journey to Chicago on November 22, 1912.

Whether it was greed, stupidity or a circumstantial thing, Herman overloaded the ship with trees to the point that a crew member warned that if caught in a violent storm, the ship would be difficult to navigate, but the captain ignored the warning.

The warning turned true, and at night, two sailors who went to check the lashings on the deck were swept overboard by a huge wave which also knocked off a couple of trees. At this point, Captain Schuenemann decided to sail towards Bailey’s Harbour, but the storm grew stronger. Ice formed on the trees, and the 60-mile-per-hour winds battered its hull.

The Kewaunee Life Saving Station reported seeing the Rouse Simmons on November 23, 1912, low in water, tattered sails, flying its flag at half-mast, a universal signal of distress. Station logs revealed that a surfman saw the ship and told Station keeper Nelson Craite, who found that their tugboat had left earlier in the day.

He asked help from another station, which sent a power boat to rescue the crew members; however, by this time, the Simmons had disappeared to be never seen again.

Rouse Simons was not the only vessel lost to this storm; others, including South Shore, Three Sisters, and Two Brothers, met similar fates.

A Grave Omen: Rats Abandoning the Rouse Simmons

Local legends suggest that a few sailors refused to board the vessel due to a bad omen, leading to a crewman abandoning the ship before it even ventured into the Lake Michigan waters. Per stories, rats were jumping into the water from hawser pipe.

Landlubbers might agree that getting rid of rats from a ship is good. However, sailors are alerted when rats leave a ship on their own. According to legends, rats always leave a sinking vessel, so if you see them leaving, it is considered an ominous sign in the maritime world.

In the case of Rouse Simmons, this proved to be true, and after she disappeared, several newspapers covered this story.

A message in a bottle, the Captain’s Wallet

After the ship went missing, Christmas trees were occasionally caught in fishing nets, and some were washed ashore. Also, a bottle from Rouse Simmons was washed on the shore at Sheboygan. It was corked using a piece of cut pine tree and contained a message which 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.”

In 1924, Captain Schuenemann’s wallet was found after being caught in a fishing net. It was well-preserved, as it was wrapped in oilskin and had a newspaper clipping, a memorandum and business cards.

In 1927, a second bottle was found on the shore with a message:

“These lines are written at 10:30 p.m. Schooner H.S. ready to go down about 20 miles southeast of Two Rivers Point between fifteen or twenty miles offshore. All hands lashed to one line. Goodbye.”

Rouse Simmons Wreck Found in 1971

The wreck of the Rouse Simmons was discovered in 1971 by Milwaukee scuba diver Gordon Kent Bellrichard, who was looking for the 177-foot and 700-ton steamer Vernon that sank in a storm in 1887. After his sonar found something, he dived and surveyed the wreck, only to conclude that he had found the Simmons instead.

The wreck’s forensic study suggested that the vessel had steerage and was looking for shelter when it met its tragic ending. The mizzen mast had been snapped off, and the base of the main mast was missing.

What did the Archaeologists Find?

Thompsen was a Maritime Archaeologist for Wisconsin and one of the authors of the first archaeological survey of the ship’s final resting place, around 10 miles northeast of Two Rivers, Wisconsin.

Thomspen and the other team members visited the wreck to find clues about Simmons’ final moments. They found a pile of anchor chains on deck, which suggests that the crew were deploying anchors in open waters.

They returned to the wreck site in 2007 and found the port anchor 200 feet north of Simmons’s main hull. Historians suggest that the crew tried to drop anchor in stormy waters as a last resort to steady the ship and deploy a lifeboat.

Many Christmas trees lay intact in the ship’s golf, and two were taken to be shown as exhibits. Other items, such as the ship’s wheel, are now displayed in Rogers Street Fishing Village Museum in Two Rivers.

The anchor stands at the entrance of Milwaukee Yacht Club. The wreck of Rouse Simmons is within the boundaries of the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary.

The Legacy of Rouse Simmons

The mysterious disappearance of Rouse Simmons is an important part of the history of the maritime Great Lakes. It has given birth to many legends, children’s stories and a popular tradition.

The U.S Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw remembers the Simmons and its last journey through a kind, heartfelt gesture each year. Mackinaw journeys from northern Michigan to the Chicago Navy Pier, shipping Christmas trees to deserving families in the spirit of Captain Santa. This is also done in Toledo at the National Museum of the Great Lakes.

Captain Schuenemann’s wife and daughters sold Christmas trees from the deck of a schooner in Chicago Harbor for many years after Simmons’ disappearance. However, in later years, they just used the ship as a platform for selling the trees.

Shipping trees by schooner stopped in the 1920s with the popularity of railways and highways. Also, as tree farms came up, it became affordable for most people to buy a tree.

Captain Schuenemann’s wife was laid next to her husband in a cemetery in Chicago. Their joint headstone has a small Christmas tree engraved between their names.

Conclusion

Starting from the 1800s to the beginning of the 20th century, wooden schooners and steel steamships transported raw materials, agricultural goods and people over the cold waters of Michigan Lake, propelling the maritime industry and the nation’s economy. The communities in Wisconsin played a vital role in transforming the Great Lakes region from a maritime frontier into the country’s busiest waterway. The Christmas Tree Ship Rouse Simmons symbolises this evolution and is the pride of the community it once served.

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