The Schr. Rouse Simmons is the best known of the Christmas tree ships because its last voyage ended in disaster. On November 23, 1912, the schooner sank in Lake Michigan. The cargo on that trip was a load of Christmas trees which the captain and crew had cut in Michigan. In Chicago the loss of the schooner with Capt. Schuenemann and crew became a media event which launched the legend of Chicago's Christmas Tree Ship and mythologized one of the last vestiges of a maritime culture doomed to obsolescence.
Although the Rouse Simmons is the best known, the Schr. George L. Wrenn is actually the vessel which saw the greatest use in the Christmas tree trade. Years earlier there was a plan to use the Wrenn for an oceanic voyage to collect museum specimens from exotic places around the world. But the project ran out of funding and the Wrenn finished its career as a lumber carrier on the lakes. By the time that it was used to carry Christmas trees it was already a near derelict.
Most of the vessels used to carry Christmas trees, however, were much smaller than the Rouse Simmons or George L. Wrenn. A number were two masted scow-schooners such as the Charley Smith. Although small in size, little schooners such as these were the life-line for many communities on the Great Lakes. It was a scow-schooner named the Lady Ellen that first carried trees from Ahnapee, WI, to Chicago in 1868.
fredneuschel@cChristmastreeship.net
photos courtesy of the Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, Bowling Green State University, OH
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