The Christmas Tree Ship Rouse Simmons
The schooner Rouse Simmons, carrying Christmas trees to Chicago, was lost with her crew on 23 November 1912.
The schooner Rouse Simmons went down on 23 November 1912 with her crew, under Captain Herman Schuenemann. Her cargo was Christmas trees bound for Chicago. The Wisconsin Marine Historical Society says a terrible storm was coming when she sailed out of Thompson. Her deck load of trees stood eight feet tall, and onlookers put her freeboard at under a foot. It counts the captain, seven crew and around eight lumberjacks heading home to Chicago.
Wikipedia records that on 23 November 1912 the Kewaunee Life Saving Station saw the schooner. She sat low in the water with tattered sails and her flag at half mast, the signal of distress. The station log shows a surfman saw her at ten minutes to three in the afternoon. Station keeper Nelson Craite found that its own gas-powered tug had gone out earlier that day, and at ten past three he telephoned the nearest other station.
A later tradition adds a ghost story. The Old Salt Blog reports that Great Lakes sailors have described seeing her on moonlit nights with her sails in rags, there one moment and gone the next.
"When the Kewaunee Life Saving Station spotted the Rouse Simmons on 23 November 1912 it was low in the water with tattered sails, flying its flag at half mast to signal that it was in distress. Logs from the station show that a surfman spotted the Rouse Simmons at 2:50pm and alerted station keeper Nelson Craite. Craite found that the station's gas tugboat had left earlier in the day and, at 3:10pm, Craite telephoned the nearest other Station. George E."
- The Christmas Tree Ship Lives On in Many Places, Wisconsin Marine Historical Society (James Heinz, 2023)
- The First Christmas Tree Ship, Old Salt Blog