Dark Knight
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TWO RIVERS, Wis. (AP) -- The saga of the doomed schooner Rouse Simmons, better known as the "Christmas Tree Ship," has some added chapters after a diving expedition over the summer probed the site where the vessel went down in Lake Michigan 84 years ago.
For one thing, the three-masted schooner with a crew of 17 apparently was not going straight south, driven by the gale winds from the north, but was trying to head for a safe harbor when it plunged bow first under the waves, according to state underwater archaeologist Keith Merveden.
"She was actually pointing north-northwest," Merveden said. "At some point between the distress sighting at Kewaunee and when the ship went down, she turned around and was headed toward a small bay."
The ship was believed to be carrying more than 5,000 Christmas trees, piled in the hold and lashed to the deck, on the voyage from Manistique, Mich., to downtown Chicago, where Capt. Herman Schuenemann would sell the trees for 50 cents to $1 each or give them away to needy families.
But when the Rouse Simmons set sail on Nov. 21, 1912, the weather was deteriorating. The ship was spotted more than a day later, its sails in tatters and flying a distress flag. A rescue boat couldn't reach it, and it disappeared, along with the entire crew.
More at link: http://www.woodtv.com/global/story.asp?s=5723701
For one thing, the three-masted schooner with a crew of 17 apparently was not going straight south, driven by the gale winds from the north, but was trying to head for a safe harbor when it plunged bow first under the waves, according to state underwater archaeologist Keith Merveden.
"She was actually pointing north-northwest," Merveden said. "At some point between the distress sighting at Kewaunee and when the ship went down, she turned around and was headed toward a small bay."
The ship was believed to be carrying more than 5,000 Christmas trees, piled in the hold and lashed to the deck, on the voyage from Manistique, Mich., to downtown Chicago, where Capt. Herman Schuenemann would sell the trees for 50 cents to $1 each or give them away to needy families.
But when the Rouse Simmons set sail on Nov. 21, 1912, the weather was deteriorating. The ship was spotted more than a day later, its sails in tatters and flying a distress flag. A rescue boat couldn't reach it, and it disappeared, along with the entire crew.
More at link: http://www.woodtv.com/global/story.asp?s=5723701
In fact, he later almost drowned when we were boating on the Great Lakes and me and another girl had to haul his sorry *advertiser censored* up into the boat...)