Boat U.S. - January 2008 - (Page 29) Christmas Tree Ship When the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Mackinaw began to pack it in for the season on Lake Michigan in late November, the vessel and crew performed all the routine functions that go with the close of navigation on the Great Lakes, but with one special twist. Simmons left port short-handed — with a crew of 13, by some accounts — and a load of 5,000 Christmas trees. By next morning, the veteran but probably tired vessel found itself in the throes of a building northwest winter gale. Since she had been launched 44 years earlier, at the peak of the Great Lakes sailing trade in 1868, it’s likely that the Rouse Simmons was no match for the blizzard conditions and the undoubtedly heavy ice buildup in her rigging. By mid-afternoon on the 23rd, a surfman at the Kewaunee, WI, life-saving station logged a schooner in obvious distress about five or six miles offshore. At 1510 hours. the station keeper alerted the life-saving crew at Two Rivers, WI, the next station farther south. That crew launched its power lifeboat and headed toward the estimated position Ghost of Christmas Past Chicago merchant and Great Lakes lum- of the ill-fated ship. But when they reached the area, darkness, heavy snow and mist ber shipper Herman E. Schueneman earned obscured any trace of ship and crew. The the title of Captain Santa, not just for his nearly three decades of last-trip-of-the-season unidentified vessel had vanished but the Christmas tree deliveries but also for his gen- Christmas trees that washed up on nearby erosity. It seems he was well known for giving Wisconsin beaches for weeks afterward left away a portion of his seasonal cargo to some little doubt — it surely must have been the Rouse Simmons. of Chicago’s less fortunate families. And it was said that the Christmas season didn’t really start there until Capt. Schueneman had Christmas Present Although the Christmas Tree Ship lay docked at the Clark St. Bridge where he sold in its unmarked grave somewhere off Two trees, as well as wreaths and garlands made Rivers, WI, Schueneman’s wife, Barbara, and by his wife and three daughters, from the their daughters continued the business of deck of the ship. A part owner of the three-masted lumber selling Christmas trees on the Chicago waterfront until the 1930s. schooner Rouse Simmons, Schueneman was In 2000, the original 290-foot Coast no stranger to the Great Lakes trade when he set sail from Thompson, MI, on Nov. 22, Guard icebreaker Mackinaw took up the 1912. That date was a Friday but the unlucky Christmas Tree Ship tradition by loading fresh-cut trees in northern Michigan and omen of commencing a voyage on the sixth bringing them to Chicago as part of its shift day apparently didn’t bother Captain Santa. to winter duties. Today, her smaller nameBut it must have troubled some of his crew sake replacement, commissioned in 2006, because, according to legend, the Rouse Like other Coast Guard vessels assigned to these inland seas, the “Mac” decommissioned lighted buoys, set up special winter aids to navigation and retrieved two large NOAA weather buoys. But the 240-foot combination icebreaker/buoy tender also carried out a special assignment, one rooted in a tragedy 96 years ago but buoyed by the timeless hope of the season. The Mackinaw delivered a cargo of Christmas trees from northern Michigan to Chicago, just as timber schooners of the Lakes had done throughout the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. And she did so in honor of Lake Michigan’s most famous “Christmas tree ship,” the Rouse Simmons and her master, known throughout the Great Lakes as “Captain Santa.” continues the holiday tradition for its second season. In a joint effort of nonprofit groups, Coast Guard families and Navy Junior ROTC cadets from her homeport, Cheboygan, MI, and other volunteers loaded 1,050 trees, bucket-brigade fashion, on the new “Mac’s” stern deck, Nov. 20. Loading the new Christmas Tree Ship with trees for Chicago. Chicago’s Christmas Tree Ship Committee purchases the trees and, working with the Coast Guard and the Coast Guard Auxiliary, as well as the Sea Partners Program and Chicago’s Navy Pier, has developed a whole new Great Lakes maritime tradition based upon the old. But unlike the Rouse Simmons, which always tied up at Clark St. Bridge, the Mackinaw must unload its Christmas cargo at Navy Pier for distribution by more volunteers to about 1,000 deserving Chicago families. At press time, the Mackinaw was scheduled to be back in Cheboygan by early December with the remaining 50 trees on her deck destined for display in the homes of local Coast Guard families, courtesy of the memory of Captain Santa. — By Ryck Lydecker BoatU.S. Magazine January 2008 29
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