12/22/2006

'A wonderful story' for holiday

By AL PARKER

Special to the Record-Eagle

TRAVERSE CITY — A ship chock-full of freshly cut spruce trees, its deck festooned with festive holiday decorations. The vessel's jovial captain urges children and their families to come aboard and select just the right tree for their Christmas morning.

For more than 100 years, this Currier-and-Ives scenario has occurred on the Chicago waterfront, first aboard 19th century schooners, now aboard modern-day Coast Guard vessels.

It's all part of the Christmas Tree Ship legend, immortalized by a captain who died at its helm, carried on by a loving wife and daughters determined to honor his legacy, and embraced by a city that refuses to let the tradition die.

At the heart of the tale is Herman Schuenemann, a veteran captain who sold Christmas trees from the deck of his ship docked along the Chicago River. For 25 years, "Captain Santa” made the annual journey steering the Rouse Simmons, taking trees from northern Michigan to the docks of Chicago, where some were sold and others were given away to orphanages, churches and poor families.

In time, his wife Barbara and three daughters join him in the annual trip, bringing holiday cheer to thousands of Chicagoans who mark the holiday season with a visit to the "Christmas Tree Ship.”

"I just fell in love with the story,” said Wisconsin author Rochelle Pennington, who has written two books about the Christmas Tree Ship.

"The Historic Christmas Tree Ship: A True Story of Faith, Hope and Love” is a 325-page book that examines the ship and its captain in depth. It includes more than 60 photographs, along with hundreds of citations from vintage newspaper clippings.

Pennington's research was also used to create a TV program on the Weather Channel's "Storm Stories.”

Six years ago, Pennington was on a book tour for an earlier project in Door County, WI when she overheard some people talking about the Christmas Tree Ship.

"I was told the story in a nutshell and the hair on my neck just stood on end,” she recalled. "I fell in love with the story and ended up writing a short gift book.”

Last month, the Charlevoix Historical Society hosted a presentation by Pennington.

"It's a story that exemplifies the best of humanity,” said Pennington. "The ship's final voyage was not to the bottom of the lake, but into the pages of history.”

On Nov. 22, 1912, Captain Schuenemann and the crew of the Rouse Simmons left Thompson in Michigan, fully loaded with evergreens.

There was danger sailing Lake Michigan in November, but the captain didn't want to disappoint the residents of Chicago.

With the barometer falling and the winds rising, the aging Rouse Simmons was caught in a frightening gale. Laden with some 5,000 Christmas trees, the vessel struggled and strained in the turbulent waters.

As the gale turned into a blizzard, the crew fought to keep the schooner afloat.

Captain Schuenemann knew only too well the risks of being in the middle of Lake Michigan when the waters turned ugly. Ironically, 14 years earlier his oldest brother, August, had lost his ship and his life during a violent November storm on the same lake.

The Rouse Simmons sank with all hands on board. It was one of several vessels to go down during the terrible storm.

Rescuers bravely searched the following day, but found no sign of the boat or wreckage. The Rouse Simmons was gone. For many years after, commercial fishermen reported finding pine trees tangled in their nets.

The captain's wife and his oldest daughter, Elsie, immediately rented a ship to be docked along the Clark Street Bridge and set to selling trees from that ship to the people of Chicago.

For some 20 years after, Barbara and her two daughters continued the legacy of generosity that Captain Schuenemann had started in the late 1800s.

"Barbara's courage is really remarkable,” explained Pennington. "You have to remember that in 1912, women didn't even vote. So it's pretty amazing that Barbara and the girls carried the captain's work forward. It was an impressive decision on their part to continue.”

The wreckage of the Rouse Simmons was not located until 1971, when sonar was used.

The saga of the doomed schooner has some new chapters after a diving expedition last summer probed the site where the vessel went down in 165 feet of water off the Wisconsin shore.

For one thing, the three-masted schooner with a crew of 17 apparently was not going straight south toward Chicago, but was trying to head for a safe harbor when it plunged bow first under the waves.

The wreck was found about 12 miles northeast of Rawley Point Lighthouse, between Kewaunee and Two Rivers, WI. A diving expedition found Captain Schuenemann's schooner pointing north-northwest.

At some point between the first distress signal and when the ship went down, the Rouse Simmons turned around and was headed toward a small bay.

Years later, the Coast Guard resurrected the tradition of the Christmas tree ship, loading one of its own icebreakers with trees cut from the forests of northern Michigan and giving them away to needy families from the decks of the boat docked at Chicago's historic Navy Pier. Even now, more than a century later, excited youngsters are invited aboard to select a tree.

"Initially I was drawn to the Christmas Tree Ship because of the heart of the story,” said Pennington. "It's easy to understand why this amazing tale of courage and generosity has been alive for a century and why it is told and retold. The captain's generosity, the heroism of the rescue workers who risked their own lives in an attempt to save the ship, and the power of doing kindness for others — these all combine for a powerful story.”