Chicago’s 1912 Christmas Tree Ship Disaster
In the early 1900s, a German‑American named Herman Schuenemann ran a seasonal ferry service that delivered fir trees to Chicago from Michigan’s forested coast. Every fall, he would load about five thousand trees onto a schooner, sail north from the Clark Street Bridge, and return to sell the cargo at low prices. He even gave a portion of his haul to families who couldn’t afford a tree, earning the nickname “Captain Santa” for his generous spirit.
By 1910 Schuenemann invested in a share of the Rouse Simmons, a three‑mast schooner that became the vessel for his final voyage. The ship was 44 years old when it departed Thompson Harbor in Manistique, Michigan, on the evening of November 22, 1912. Its aged hull and years of neglect had already earned criticism. The shipping industry was moving away from lumber‑schooners because railroads could transport trees more quickly and cheaply, and steam ships had rendered many wooden vessels obsolete. Captain Schuenemann, having recently filed for bankruptcy, still chose to sail the Rouse Simmons despite warnings from maritime historians.
A severe storm struck the lake that night. Wind from the northwest whipped up sleet and snow, adding weight to the towering piles of fir on deck. A Kewaunee Life‑Saving Station surfman spotted the schooner five miles offshore, towing its flag in half‑mast—an unmistakable signal of distress. The vessel disappeared, and its crew—estimated between twelve and sixteen men—were never found.
The tragedy did not stay hidden for long. Over the following weeks, debris and entire Christmas trees began washing up on shores from Michigan to Wisconsin. In 1924, a fishing net recovered Schuenemann’s weather‑sealed wallet from the water, but the wreck itself remained lost until 1971, when a diver discovered it 172 feet below the surface off Two Rivers, Wisconsin. Remarkably, the hold still contained intact Christmas trees.
Chicago mourned deeply. Every year, after the holiday season, crowds would congregate at the Clark Street dock, hoping to catch sight of a schooner mast crowned with a fir tree. The next day after Schuenemann’s scheduled arrival, the crowd dispersed slowly, leaving a girl and her father. According to local lore, the girl said, “Dad, without a Christmas tree, there is no Christmas,” a phrase that has become part of the city’s holiday memory.
The loss of the Rouse Simmons marked the end of the Christmas tree ship era. While the Schuenemann daughters—Elsie among them—continued selling trees, they eventually shifted to rail delivery. By 1920, all schooners had been retired from the Lake Michigan trade.
Maritime historians note that the Rouse Simmons was not the only ship to carry holidays across the lake. From 1876 onward, more than eighty vessels, including the “Reindeer” scow schooner, ferried fir trees, but the Rouse Simmons’ sinking cemented its place as the last of its kind.
Today the wreck lies inside the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, serving as a final resting site for Captain Santa and his crew and a reminder of the risks sailors once accepted to bring Christmas to Chicago.
The U.S. Coast Guard honors this legacy annually. On December 6 of this year, the cutter Mackinaw delivered 1,200 Christmas trees to Navy Pier, continuing a tradition that commemorates Schuenemann and his crew. The sentiment expressed in the 1912 Evening Post—encouraging citizens to light their trees in remembrance—still echoes through Chicago’s winter streets.
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