By James Heinz
On November 23, 1912, what has become known as the Christmas Tree Ship foundered in Lake Michigan with all 16 people on board near Two Rivers, Wisconsin. She went on to become a true legend of the lakes.
She was a three-masted wooden schooner built in 1868 by Allen McLelland at Milwaukee for Kenosha lumberman R. B. Towslee. She was named ROUSE SIMMONS in honor of the man who helped arrange for its financing, who was the founder of the Simmons Mattress Company.
She was 124.2 feet in length, 27.6 feet in breadth and 10.1 feet in depth of hold. The ROUSE SIMMONS looked very much like all the other three-masted schooners that sailed the Great Lakes. However, she was different from most other schooners in that she had two centerboards rather than the usual single centerboard carried by most of her sister sailing ships.
From 1873 to 1890, she sailed as part of Charles Hackley’s fleet. Hackley was one of the wealthiest lumbermen in the Midwest at that time.
By 1893, the SIMMONS had out lasted the Wisconsin lumber heyday and turned to a new service designated as a utilitarian transport schooner also known as a “hooker.” She and other schooners often carried lumber since wood did not spoil if it got wet from a leaky boat, and the buoyancy of the lumber helped keep the old boats afloat.
Around this time, captains and brothers August and Herman Schuenemann entered the Christmas tree market. They developed a business model of buying old schooners at the end of their life and using them in transporting other cargoes during the season. Their last trip would be evergreen trees too small for lumber from Thompson, Michigan, to Chicago, Illinois. The last trip in November was always dangerous due to the weather. The Schuenemanns knew well what happens when the Gales of November come early.
In the words of Wisconsinshipwrecks.org, “After sailing south, the pair moored their vessel to a downtown pier, hoisted a decorated tree up the mast and strung electric lights throughout the rigging, turning the ship into a large Christmas ornament. In fact, it was said that the Christmas season had not begun until the Schuenemanns arrived at their Water Street dockage. Herman Schuenemann gave away many of his trees to the city’s churches and poor, acts that earned him the name Captain Santa.”
In a foreshadowing of what would happen to his brother, August Schuenemann was lost with his schooner S. THAL and crew on November 10, 1898, off Glencoe, laden with Christmas trees for Chicago.
Undaunted, Herman Schuenemann continued to transport his Christmas trees. By this time the ROUSE was one of the last sailing vessels on the Lakes.
Herman Schuenemann was lost with his schooner the ROUSE SIMMONS and crew on November 23, 1912, laden with Christmas trees for Chicago. A terrific November storm was coming when the SIMMONS, loaded to the max, sailed out of Thompson. She was carrying a deck load of trees eight feet high and observers estimated she had less than a foot of freeboard. In addition to her captain and seven crew members, she was carrying around 8 lumberjacks who were travelling home to Chicago.
She was last seen that afternoon by the Kewaunee Life Saving Station, flying a distress flag, and being driven south by a northwest wind. Unable to catch up to the SIMMONS, the Kewaunee lifesavers telephoned the Two Rivers lifesaving station, 25 miles south. Two Rivers launched a boat, which had to travel around Rawley Point. By the time the Two Rivers lifeboat got around Rawley Point at 4:20 pm, the ROUSE SIMMONS had disappeared.
The approximate location was known since commercial fisherman often brought up Christmas trees in their nets, and Christmas trees washed up on the beaches of Two Rivers for years. The SIMMONS was discovered in 165 feet of water by Milwaukee diver G. Kent Bellrichard in 1973.
In 1980 the WMHS held their first annual Christmas Tree Ship Holiday Dinner which pays tribute to those who have lost their lives on the Great Lakes. In 1999, member Jack Godden wrote a prayer that was read each year when a wreath was placed upon the SIMMONS starboard anchor prominently located at the entrance to the Milwaukee Yacht Club. After a few years of snowstorms, the prayer was read before the meal, the wreath being on display inside the Club and placed on the anchor later by staff.
Although you might think that the legend sank with him, in fact the legend of the Christmas Tree Ship lives on. Because, today, a Coast Guard ice breaker still brings Christmas trees to Chicago’s poor in a ceremony at Chicago’s Navy Pier, as I posted a year ago.
But there is one other place where the ROUSE SIMMONS was remembered this year and that was at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum (WMM) in Manitowoc on December 3rd. Museum director Kathy Green told me that the ceremony has been going on for at least 20 years, and over 600 people attended.
At 10 am Santa Claus himself came down the Manitowoc River from Lake Michigan aboard the fishing tug PETER PAUL, direct from Santa’s workshop in Two Rivers. The tug tied up at the Maritime Museum and re-enactors from the USS COBIA submarine unloaded Christmas trees from the tug. Santa then held court inside the museum for all the good little boys and girls.
A few years ago, State underwater archeologist Tamara Thomsen and a team from the Wisconsin Historical Society surveyed the wreck of the ROUSE SIMMONS. Tamara gave a lecture on the wreck of the ROUSE at WMM on December 3rd, which was basically the same as the extracts from her report quoted below, as posted on Wisconsin Shipwrecks.org:
“The Rouse Simmons lies six miles northeast of Rawley Point in Manitowoc County at 44 degrees 16.640’ N, 087 degrees 24.863’ W.
“The Rouse Simmons was found facing northwest toward the shoreline, not heading south as last reported. The team found tools lying about the deck on the ship’s bow. The tools were for handling the anchors and chains. The windlass was in the middle of being prepared for lowering the port side anchor; a Norman pin, an early chain stopper, was partially driven into the windlass, and the anchor chain had been removed from the chain locker and faked on deck. Using this evidence, the team initiated a search and discovered the port anchor lying 170 feet north of the bow. Given the amount of chain on the vessel, the depth of water and the intensity of the wind, it was impossible for the Rouse Simmons to safely anchor out in the lake. Likely before the Two Rivers lifeboat rounded Two Rivers Point, something had gone seriously wrong aboard the vessel, and her crew had deployed the port anchor to hold the Rouse Simmons into the wind. Soon after making this decision, however, large waves sent the Rouse Simmons and her crew to the bottom of Lake Michigan.”
“Additionally, archeologists noticed that much of the deck planking was missing. Salt channels in the deck beams (where salt was added to these early freshwater wrecks to “pickle” the wood) may have actually caused a failure in the [iron] deck fasteners—resulting in the heaved deck. Trees can still be found stacked neatly in the hold and, if you examine them closely, some of the trees located lower in the stacks still retain their needles.”
Tammy went on to say that in 1998 the ship’s wheel was pulled up in a fishing net. At first it was thought that the wheel had fallen off the ship prior to sinking, but further inquiry revealed that the net had been dragged along the bottom for some distance before being pulled up.
Although you may think you need SCUBA equipment to visit the ROUSE SIMMONS today, there are many parts of her which may be viewed on land. Perhaps the most visible is one of the ship’s anchors, which is on display in front of the Milwaukee Yacht Club on Milwaukee’s lakefront.
In addition, the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society at the Central Milwaukee Public Library has one of the ship’s nameboards in its artifacts collection, as well as one of the portholes. This holiday season WMHS Executive Director Suzette Lopez made up an exhibit about the ROUSE which she placed on display at the entrance to the second floor Humanities Room at the Central Library.
The North Point lighthouse in Milwaukee’s Lake Park has an impressive diorama on display showing the ROUSE loading Christmas trees at a dock prior to her last trip.
While I was at WMM Chief Curator Kevin Cullen showed me several of the 100 ROUSE SIMMONS artifacts that were donated to the museum by prolific shipwreck diver Butch Klopp of Port Washington. These include an auger, an axe, an earthenware jug, and one of the famous Christmas trees. In addition, Butch Klopp found several electric light bulbs on the wreck and donated them to WMM. This is odd, since the ROUSE did not have an electrical system. Kevin speculated that the bulbs were to be strung through the rigging as described above, turning the whole ship into one giant Christmas tree.
But the Mother Lode of ROUSE SIMMONS artifacts is to be found just up the shore from Manitowoc, at the Rogers Street Fishing Museum in Two Rivers WI. Director Bonnie Timm graciously allowed me to view the artifacts at the Fishing Museum even though it was closed for the season.
Docent Gerry Thiede came and opened up the building for me. I found that the whole northwest corner of the building has a collection of 120 ROUSE artifacts, including the ship’s wheel. The wheel has been restored and looks like it did the day it was installed. The collection, most of them donated by Butch Klopp, includes tableware, tools, two stoves, another nameboard, several of the Christmas trees, a hand powered foghorn, and oddly enough, a large carved wooden human forearm and hand, as well as several light bulbs.
Finally, a Wisconsin Maritime Trails Historic Shipwreck Marker on the beach at Two Rivers also commemorates the Christmas Tree Ship.
In the words of Wisconsinshipwrecks.org: “This schooner was something special to the people of the Chicago. The sailors and lumbermen aboard were bringing Christmas joy to the city, and they were willing to risk their lives to make Christmas merrier. This sentimentality has made the Christmas Tree Ship story everlasting and eternally shrouded in myth.”
Captain Santa himself would have been proud.
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James Heinz is the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society’s acquisitions director. He became interested in maritime history as a kid watching Jacques Cousteau’s adventures on TV. He was a Great Lakes wreck diver until three episodes of the bends forced him to retire from diving. He was a University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee police officer for thirty years. He regularly flies either a Cessna 152 or 172.
Photo at top of page: Jim Heinz at the cleaned up ROUSE SIMMONS Wheel. Rogers Street Fishing Village. Photo by James Heinz.
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