The men who sailed the Christmas tree ships on Lake Michigan were not
"brass button" sailors. They were small business men who owned a share
in a vessel and made their living shipping a great variety of cargoes such as:
lumber, brick, stone, shingles, telephone poles, fish, grain, animals, ice and
even sawdust. Often the captain would hire family members or neighbors
from town to serve as crew. Four or five men could comfortably manage a
small two-masted schooner, but there were times when the crew was smaller
and even instances when the captain single-handed a vessel.
The sailors rarely made more than a common laborer on and there were seasons when captains made little more than it cost them to pay their crew and do minimal upkeep on their boats. So the economic rewards of ending the season with one last voyage carrying Christmas trees was a strong incentive. In some cases trees could be cut for free on vacant land. More often they were purchased from farmers who were looking for a little Christmas spending money. But if the captain could get them to a big city before the market was flooded by others in the business, he could very quickly make as much as he had for the prior eight months of sailing.
The prospect of an easy profit drove these mariners to expose themselves
to incredible risks that came from being on the lake in frigid weather when
storms were likely. Both Herman Schuenemann of the schooner Rouse Simmons fame and his older brother August died while attempting to bring trees to market in Chicago. Both of them had grown up in Ahnapee/Algoma, WI. In fact, of 24 men who are known to have made at least one Christmas tree voyage 8 of them (33%) lived in Ahnapee at some point in their lives.
"brass button" sailors. They were small business men who owned a share
in a vessel and made their living shipping a great variety of cargoes such as:
lumber, brick, stone, shingles, telephone poles, fish, grain, animals, ice and
even sawdust. Often the captain would hire family members or neighbors
from town to serve as crew. Four or five men could comfortably manage a
small two-masted schooner, but there were times when the crew was smaller
and even instances when the captain single-handed a vessel.
The sailors rarely made more than a common laborer on and there were seasons when captains made little more than it cost them to pay their crew and do minimal upkeep on their boats. So the economic rewards of ending the season with one last voyage carrying Christmas trees was a strong incentive. In some cases trees could be cut for free on vacant land. More often they were purchased from farmers who were looking for a little Christmas spending money. But if the captain could get them to a big city before the market was flooded by others in the business, he could very quickly make as much as he had for the prior eight months of sailing.
The prospect of an easy profit drove these mariners to expose themselves
to incredible risks that came from being on the lake in frigid weather when
storms were likely. Both Herman Schuenemann of the schooner Rouse Simmons fame and his older brother August died while attempting to bring trees to market in Chicago. Both of them had grown up in Ahnapee/Algoma, WI. In fact, of 24 men who are known to have made at least one Christmas tree voyage 8 of them (33%) lived in Ahnapee at some point in their lives.
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fredneuschel@Christmastreeship.net
Captain Henry Harkins
Harkins was a naval hero in the Civil War as well as a shipwright and fisherman in Ahnapee. In this photo he is wearing his navy uniform.
Photo courtesy of Janet Pearson
