Paul Scheuer
12-04-2004, 07:25 PM
"The Christmas Tree Ship". Shown several times on the Weather Channel over the last few days.
A romanticized documentary about Captain Hermann Schuenemann and the most famous of the many lake schooners, Rouse Simmons, who's last trip of the sailing season was to transport Christmas trees from the North Woods to Chicago in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
From the pictures, it looks like the Simmons served Schuenemann as a marginally successful lumber trader during the last days of the old lake schooners. The tattered schooner was lost, with all hands, in a snowy gale, near Two Rivers, WI, on Nov 23, 1912, about half way to Chicago from Thompson Harbor in the Upper Peninsula, with a her hold, decks and cabin tops loaded with trees.
The irony is that the family was able to make up for some of the loss through the sale of a shipment of trees that arrived during the week after the sinking, by rail, from the UP. The "extra" trees that couldn't be packed aboard.
I haven't been downtown recently, but I understand that Coast Guard is keeping the tradition and laker lore alive by a volunteer effort to bring gift trees to Chicago aboard USCGC Mackinaw.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid149/p69f011ec66538054f644edde793d46c7/f6056232.jpg
Painting by Charles Vickery, from "Chicago Maritime", (used without permission).
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid149/p1e044a42b2f6d6ddc87a2b98d5e8d9cd/f6056236.jpg
Rouse Simmons from "Chicago Maritime" (used without permision).
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid149/p350b460c22526a4a749817cda4f495af/f6056234.jpg
Rouse Simmons with a load of lumber. From "Chicago Maritime" (used without permission)
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid149/p3b2bf2305ea587a9c5d1387590f107d5/f6056239.jpg
The truth about November sailing on the Lakes. Parana a late arrival in Milwaukee 1871, from "Great Lakes Sailing Ships", (used without
permission).
I understand that the wreck of the Simmons was found, still loaded with the remnants of spruce trees in about 1972.
A romanticized documentary about Captain Hermann Schuenemann and the most famous of the many lake schooners, Rouse Simmons, who's last trip of the sailing season was to transport Christmas trees from the North Woods to Chicago in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
From the pictures, it looks like the Simmons served Schuenemann as a marginally successful lumber trader during the last days of the old lake schooners. The tattered schooner was lost, with all hands, in a snowy gale, near Two Rivers, WI, on Nov 23, 1912, about half way to Chicago from Thompson Harbor in the Upper Peninsula, with a her hold, decks and cabin tops loaded with trees.
The irony is that the family was able to make up for some of the loss through the sale of a shipment of trees that arrived during the week after the sinking, by rail, from the UP. The "extra" trees that couldn't be packed aboard.
I haven't been downtown recently, but I understand that Coast Guard is keeping the tradition and laker lore alive by a volunteer effort to bring gift trees to Chicago aboard USCGC Mackinaw.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid149/p69f011ec66538054f644edde793d46c7/f6056232.jpg
Painting by Charles Vickery, from "Chicago Maritime", (used without permission).
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid149/p1e044a42b2f6d6ddc87a2b98d5e8d9cd/f6056236.jpg
Rouse Simmons from "Chicago Maritime" (used without permision).
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid149/p350b460c22526a4a749817cda4f495af/f6056234.jpg
Rouse Simmons with a load of lumber. From "Chicago Maritime" (used without permission)
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid149/p3b2bf2305ea587a9c5d1387590f107d5/f6056239.jpg
The truth about November sailing on the Lakes. Parana a late arrival in Milwaukee 1871, from "Great Lakes Sailing Ships", (used without
permission).
I understand that the wreck of the Simmons was found, still loaded with the remnants of spruce trees in about 1972.