Clues Washed Ashore

    The information provided below is a partial excerpt from the book THE HISTORIC CHRISTMAS TREE SHIP: A True Story of Faith, Hope and Love by Rochelle Pennington.

     The 325-page book details the extraordinary story of the Christmas Tree Ship from every angle and includes over 60 photographs along with hundreds of newspaper citations spanning a period of 140 years.

Clues Washed Ashore

          One moment the Rouse Simmons was pummeling through tumultuous waves, whipped from side-to-side by gale force winds.  The next, it had plunged to an icy grave. 

When the tragic news of the Simmons’ sinking spread, many said the legacy of the ship had come to an end.  Little did they know the real story was just beginning.

It was not uncommon for fragments of a ship to be washed ashore following a wreck.  A plank of wood, a tattered boot, a piece of rope.  But in the case of the Rouse Simmons, the frigid waters of Lake Michigan carried more to shore than insignificant remains of an ordinary vessel…

 …With every tree cast up during the decades following - thousands of them - came memories of the grand tradition the Christmas Ship and her captain once represented…

           …Evergreens continued to find their way to sandy shorelines on both sides of the lake for a great many years, long after the Yuletide season of 1912, usually immediately after a storm that was “strong enough to stir the lake’s bottom.” It was also common for trees to become tangled in the nets of fishermen. When this happened, more than trees were pulled aboard the fishing vessels. Memories were pulled in as well. The story was literally being kept alive tree-by-tree…

…Eventually the trees became needleless, mere “skeletons.” However, in the early years, many of the first trees washed ashore were taken home and decorated. Some of these trees looked as if they had been freshly cut, preserved by the lake’s frigid waters.

Trunks from some of the skeleton trees in later years were cut up with saws, sliced up like a stick of summer sausage into small, wooden circles. These were then made into ornaments. A Christmas tree was painted in the center of each circle, and the words “Rouse Simmons 1868-1912” were carved below. Ironically, the trees Captain Schuenemann had hoped would be enjoyed for a single season, were now finding places of honor in homes all along the lake, year after year, as ornaments on other trees. Thus, each tree’s life now extended beyond a single holiday into countless more…

…The story behind the finding of Captain “Santa” Schuenemann’s pocketbook is nothing short of remarkable. A full twelve years after the Simmons went missing, Captain Schuenemann’s wallet washed ashore in 1924 and was found by a fisherman and a lighthouse keeper near the very spot where the Simmons was last sighted.

If finding the wallet of the Christmas Tree Ship’s captain wasn’t amazing enough, the fisherman’s boat was, coincidentally, named the Reindeer….

…Identification of the wallet was easily made because the pocketbook had been “wrapped in oilskin” – a type of waterproof sailor’s packing – and then secured with a cord (some accounts say a rubberband.) Everything inside was in excellent condition.

According to the Manistique Pioneer-Tribune of April 17, 1924, Schuenemann’s personal card was inside the wallet, as well as expense receipts and newspaper clippings. 

Prior to his death, Captain Schuenemann would cut stories out of the newspaper that told of his famed Christmas voyages. He then carried them with him in his wallet.

The articles, clipped from penny newspapers, were still readable when the wallet was found. This remarkable discovery was cast forth from the bottom of the lake, and it re-opened discussion of the Christmas Tree Ship once again.  The Rouse Simmons and its captain were refusing to remain forgotten…

 …By 1924, the year Captain Schuenemann’s wallet was found, Barbara Schuenemann and her daughters had continued in the captain’s tradition of selling Christmas trees for twelve years. It was said of Mrs. Schuenemann and her girls in the following years by Great Lakes Travel and Living, “These gallant women brought their Christmas trees down the lake to grace the city of Chicago, and to sustain a living memorial to the Rouse Simmons and her crew.”

Their faithful work began almost immediately after the ship went missing, even while search efforts were still being carried out. At the peak of grieving for their lost husband and father, Barbara and her daughters pulled together the courage to carry on in Captain Schuenemann’s footsteps. They were not among the weak of heart.

Barbara and her girls not only continued on with their lives, they chose to do so among the very things ultimately responsible for the captain’s death.

The trees sold that first Christmas season included evergreens shipped by rail from Upper Michigan, as well as salvaged trees recovered from shores. These trees, gathered from beaches, were then shipped to Chicago and sold for the benefit of all the fallen sailors’ families…

        …According to the Chicago Inter Ocean of December 10, 1912, wreaths were also weaved from wrecked trees and then sold. The article read: “In a dingy little room at South Water and Clark Streets, where a lone window overlooks Chicago river, there sat a beautiful, golden haired, sad-eyed girl. She was weaving Christmas garlands. The girl is Elsie Schuenemann, daughter of Herman Schuenemann, skipper of the Rouse Simmons, the lost Christmas Ship which went down with all hands. The garlands she weaves are from wreckage of the cargo of the Rouse Simmons, picked up along shores in Wisconsin and shipped to Chicago…”

...The captain was known and loved by many, and, because of this, there were more than a handful of persons who refused to be convinced that he was now gone – despite the tell-tale evidence. Along with Barbara and her girls, others were continuing to hope and wait.

The Simmons’ tragedy saw more washed ashore than the evergreens sold by the captain’s bride. The Sturgeon Bay Advocate of January 16, 1913, ran the following article about an empty trunk that was discovered around the same time many trees were coming to shore. It stated: “While playing on the beach at Whitefish Bay last week, a couple of boys from this city found a bundle of Christmas trees that was tied together and had evidently been thrown up by the waves. It is supposed these came from the ill-fated vessel Rouse Simmons. That the trees were found so far north is nothing remarkable, as the crew probably threw the bundles overboard when they realized their boat was in distress. An empty trunk with the names ROUSE SIMMONS – J. E. LATHROP painted on it was found on the beach last Friday [near Kewaunee, WI] by three boys, Gordon and Dewey Dishmaker and Art Fiala. The trunk was too heavy for the lads to carry, so the part bearing the above names was broken off and brought to the city. As this is the only wreckage that has come ashore in this vicinity that had any connection with the ill-fated craft, and which may have been washed overboard, it does not cast any light on just where the boat went down….”

…Christmas trees, a battered trunk, a captain’s wheel.  Wreckage from the Simmons continued to surface for decades…

…The mystery surrounding the wheel lasted for nearly thirty years. Here’s why: When the wreck of the Simmons was finally located in 1971, a full fifty-nine years after the ship sunk to the bottom, the navigational wheel on the vessel was missing. This was hardly insignificant because the wheel, and its attached parts, just so happened to weigh over four hundred pounds. (Some parts were cast iron; others were steel.) Yet despite its massive weight, it had been ripped right off the ship. Many believe this “attested to the violence of the storm.”

Prior to 1971, the great mystery surrounding the Simmons was, “Where is the wreck?”  After the ship was located, the great mystery then became, “Where is its wheel?”

It took many years to find the shipwreck site of the Simmons due to the depth the ship had plunged.  During that time, theories were discussed and debated as to what led to the ship’s demise. Many wondered about the primary cause. As would be expected, opinions varied. Some felt the ship had simply succumbed to the brutality of the storm. Others felt the trees were to blame. They believed the Simmons was riding too low in the water, “sagging under the weight” of its cargo.

Onlookers back in Thompson, Michigan, were quoted as saying the ship looked like “a floating forest” when it sailed from the port’s safety. Some believed this was the fatal error. The excessive weight on the ship’s upper deck would surely cause the vessel to become unstable when it began to ride the lake’s stormy roller coaster. 

The Simmons was getting heavier and heavier as more and more trees were loaded, and it was sinking deeper and deeper.

Of the opinions regarding the cause of the wreck, there were many. Some believed the vessel’s sheer age was to blame. After all, its prime was long past. The ship was nearly half a century old. Most wooden schooners never saw such length of days. Did the Simmons, in its weariness, break apart as the waves relentlessly battered it? Was it smashed to pieces in the storm? Possibly.

Or had the Simmons literally “come apart at the seams” because Captain Schuenemann, it was rumored, may have failed to re-caulk the ship during the fall of 1912 due to financial strains?  Maybe. 

Details were examined from every angle.

Perhaps the most intriguing question of all was presented in the Chicago Inter Ocean newspaper of December 5, 1912, only days after the Simmons went missing. The article reported:  “Marine circles are mystified over a vessel with all masts intact running full sail and passing a port of safety with distress signals flying. The question is why did not the vessel either tack and run into Kewaunee harbor or lay to until assistance could reach her. The theories advanced are that either the vessel was leaking badly and most of the crew was at the pumps or that some of the crew in desperation had taken to the lifeboats and the vessel was insufficiently manned.” 

Marine men were “mystified” – and rightfully so. They were scratching their heads, trying to make sense of a report by lifesavers at the Kewaunee, Wisconsin, station which told of a schooner, with its distress flags flying (literally screaming for help), passing a “port of safety” that was so near at hand. Why didn’t the ship turn toward the shore?

Clearly, the vessel was in dire need of help, and the help it sought was within its reach. Yet it passed on by. People wondered why. 

By this time it was widely believed that the ship sighted was surely the Simmons. It just made sense. But what didn’t make sense were those final moments. What had happened?

Theories again ran wild. Some people thought the vessel was taking on water, as the Chicago Inter Ocean stated, and, because of this, the attention of most on board might have been drawn to the pumps. This certainly could have been the case.

Others wondered how many men from the crew were even left on the ship. Were there any? Had some been washed overboard in the ferocious gale? Did some try to escape the doomed ship in a lifeboat? These thoughts, too, were plausible.

It was also believed by others that the wind may have taken a sudden shift just as the Simmons was attempting to steer toward shore, causing it to be blown back out into the open waters.

There were many “what ifs” bantered around, sometimes over mugs of beer in dockside saloons, as to why the Simmons didn’t seek shelter in the safety of the harbor’s arms, but no one knew for sure. It was all speculation. Without the ship, the truth could not be known.  The only thing that could be known for sure was that one moment the ship was above the waters, and the next it was below.

The mystery lingered. Then in 1971 the ship was finally found. Questions now had answers.

Did the ship come apart at the seams? No, it did not. Was it smashed to pieces? No, it was not. In fact, the ship was in tact.

Did the wind prevent the ship from reaching shore? This answer, too, was no.

The ultimate reason why the Simmons went down was because the ship’s wheel had been torn from its place during the violent squall.

This discovery solved a big piece of the puzzle. It was now known that the captain didn’t turn into safety, because he couldn’t turn into safety. Without the wheel, the decision as to what direction the ship was now headed no longer belonged to Herman Schuenemann. The decision now belonged to the storm.

The horror and utter helplessness of the crew in those final moments is hard to imagine. Did they realize they were about to face death, or did hope yet remain? It will never be known. All that can be known is that once the wheel was gone, the Simmons was fighting for its life with both arms tied behind its back.

When the Simmons wreck was discovered with its missing captain’s wheel, more questions surfaced: Where is the wheel? How was it torn from the ship?

The most reasonable conclusion agreed upon was that…  

 …but when the elusive wheel surfaced, an entirely different opinion surfaced with it…

 …The wheel was found “approximately a mile and a half up wind” of the location where the ship was found. This was the deadly distance the ship traveled on its collision course with certain death once the wheel went missing…

 …The restoration process began with the careful removal of rust. It was tedious, tedious work because the wheel had become extremely rust-encrusted after nearly a century on the bottom of the lake. Weeks passed, and then months. The first year turned into a second year, and finally a third.  The wheel was undergoing an extreme transformation under the expertise of Jim Brotz.

Also transformed during this same time were details concerning the Christmas Tree Ship’s demise.

Before the wheel was discovered, it was believed that…

 …Although many people were convinced the wheel positively belonged to the Simmons, this had not yet been proven. But proof was on its way…

…The three determining factors which linked the wheel to the Simmons were….

…Although the Christmas Tree Ship’s wheel was the last of the Simmons’ clues to be found, additional clues from the ship came up in preceding years including several skulls, a headless corpse, and an entire skeleton.

Each of these body parts was found on separate occasions earlier in the 1900’s, washed up very near to the vicinity where it was believed the Simmons had sunk….

…Each fragment washed ashore was like a bit of a jigsaw puzzle whose pieces were being revealed one-by-one, but were not always fitting into place as one would hope. When a bottled note from the Christmas Tree Ship surfaced, and then another bottled message was washed ashore, these proved to be puzzles unto themselves.

Unbelievably, the Christmas Tree Ship story contains two notes in a bottle, not one. The first note was supposedly written by Captain Herman Schuenemann and was washed ashore approximately three weeks after the Simmons went missing. The note, believed by some to be Captain Schuenemann’s last words, made headlines on Friday the 13^th, December 1912.  The note read: “Friday – Everybody good-bye. I guess we are all through. Sea washed over our deckload Thursday. During the night, the small boat was washed over. Leaking bad. Ingvald and Steve fell overboard Thursday. God help us. Herman Schuenemann.”

The second note, allegedly written by Captain Charles Nelson, Schuenemann’s partner, is said to have been washed ashore fifteen years later in 1927. This note read: “Nov. 23, 1912. These lines were written at 10:30 p.m.   Schooner Rouse Simmons ready to go down about 20 miles southwest of Two Rivers Point, between 15 and 20 miles offshore. All hands lashed to one line. Goodbye. Capt. Charley Nelson.”

If there is one aspect of the Christmas Tree Ship story that is more difficult to follow than any other, it is, in my opinion, these mysterious messages. Attempts to analyze the various details concerning the notes can be overwhelming.  Here’s why: Some believe the first note was authentic, but the second was a hoax. Others believe the exact opposite. Then you have those who believe both notes are legitimate, while others believe neither to be.

Frederick Stonehouse, a noted historian who is widely respected as an authority on the Great Lakes, summarized his opinion regarding the bottled notes in his book Went Missing II in 1984: “Whether authentic or hoax is anybody’s guess, but they were purported to have come from the doomed schooner. Real or contrived? Flip a coin.”

Although Mr. Stonehouse’s conclusion is humorously delivered, it summarizes a serious subject well.

Another historian, Theodore Charrney, writing to the editor of The Sheboygan Press (as published December 24, 1960) had this to say regarding the first note in particular: “Reports of a drifting bottle found with a message from the captain inside were first confirmed, then denied, then confirmed again…”

…Notes in bottles conjure up mystery, and the mystery surrounding the Christmas Tree Ship notes remains a curious point of discussion to this very day.

Critics of the note written by Captain Schuenemann will tell you that it is surely a hoax because the note mentions “Thursday” and “Friday”. They argue that the note is a prank because Captain Schuenemann didn’t sail until Friday, and his ship went to the bottom on Saturday.

As reasonable as this argument seems, sailors will respond to this point by saying, “I might not know the day of the week either if a storm is raging around me and my ship is going down.”

Critics of the Schuenemann note will also question the names of the two crew members in the message, arguing that neither the name Ingvald or Steve appears on the crew list. It is true that these names do not appear on some of the lists, but there are other lists the names do appear on. (Several lists were in circulation. They varied greatly.)

Frederick Stonehouse, in response to this argument, said, “One crew list does show a Steve Nelson aboard. Ingvald does not appear, but could have been one of four men whose names were not recorded.” 

Some names made one list. Other names made another list. And some names didn’t appear on any of the lists, adding to the difficulty of settling this matter. (Even the number of crew members on board is not known for certain.)

Both of the names mentioned in the note were included on some of the newspaper lists before the bottle was found. Because of this, critics believe each note was “tailored” to match previously published information about the tragedy. However, they further believe the prankster made a significant error by confusing the actual storm Captain Schuenemann was caught in during the end of November (on a Friday and a Saturday) with another storm that hit the beginning of December (on a Thursday and a Friday.)

Now this may very well have been the case, but maybe not. Even those persons directly involved with the story during the critical days of 1912 could not reach common ground on the storm referred to in the note.

The Chicago American of December 13, 1912, reported: “The date – Friday – is believed to mean a week ago today, December 6.”

The Chicago Daily Journal of December 13, 1912, reported: “The message evidently was written early on Friday, November 29. It was on Thursday, November 28, that a fierce storm swept Lake Michigan. Marine men have believed that the Rouse Simmons sank November 28 or 29.”

The Manitowoc Daily Herald of December 13, 1912, reported: “The message was not dated, but is believed to have been written Saturday, November 23, the day a three-masted schooner in distress was sighted off Kewaunee and for which the Two Rivers Life Savers made search. This belief is strengthened by the reference to the loss of two of the crew overboard on Thursday in the message. The find of the message here clears the mystery which has surrounded the loss of the Christmas tree boat and tells a story of a heroic fight against death.”

The Ludington Chronicle simply reported on the note by linking it to one of the storms “several weeks ago”.

Many museums and credible historians will write about the bottled notes without mentioning any of the controversy. In fact, more articles written in the past century speak of the bottled notes as actual than they do with suspicion. This, of course, does not make the notes true. It only means that this is the more widely known version of the story.

As is the case with other aspects of this story, opinions regarding the notes vary depending upon whom you ask.

If you were to ask the Schuenemann family, you would find that they believed the note written by Captain Schuenemann was true.  Captain Schuenemann’s niece, Mrs. Elizabeth Barerlin, interviewed by the Milwaukee Sentinel in 1977 at the age of 91, remembered: “We were all very thankful when that washed ashore.” Mrs. Barerlin was 27 years old when the ship went missing, and was living in Chicago near her aunt and uncle. She remembered the events surrounding her uncle’s tragedy very well because she was there.

Captain Schuenemann’s grandson, Dr. Ehling, also recalled his family speaking of “the note from Grandpa” as being true, and also “wanting to believe the second note” written by Captain Nelson.

The most confusing aspect, in my opinion, to the note written by Captain Nelson is that it is consistently referred to as “the note from the 1920’s” or “the note from 1927.” Unfortunately, I have been unable to locate any newspapers that evidence a note from Captain Nelson during this period of time.

However, the following headline was published in the Sturgeon Bay Advocate on July 31, 1913: “Bottle Picked Up on the Beach at Whitefish Bay Containing a Farewell from Doomed Crew.”

The article read: “The story of the ill-fated schooner is again revived by the finding on the beach north of the canal of a bottle containing a message from Capt. Charles Nelson, who was in command of the vessel on the night she went down with all hands. This message was found Sunday by a son of Frank Lauscher, a fisherman residing at Whitefish Bay and whose Post Office address is Sturgeon Bay, RFD No. 3. The boy was wandering along the beach while his father and uncle, Henry Lauscher, were engaged in attending to their pound net. The boy found a medicine bottle buried in the sand and was in the act of throwing it back into the water when his father noticed that it contained a piece of paper. He arrested the boy in the act by a cry to hold the bottle, which was broken open on a rock, and a piece of paper fell out on which was written the following message:  ‘Nov. 23, 1912. These lines were written at 10:30 p.m.  Schooner Rouse Simmons ready to go down about 20 miles southwest of Two Rivers Point, between 15 and 20 miles offshore. All hands lashed to one line. Goodbye. Capt. Charley Nelson.’ The place where the bottle was picked up is about seven miles north of the canal. Frank Lauscher, who is in possession of the piece of paper, will keep it until he hears from the relatives of the captain of the lost schooner, when an effort will be made to determine whether the message is genuine. It is most reasonable to suppose that this is the only authentic message from the long-lost schooner. It would have been about the hour of night when the men realized that their doom was sealed, and securing a bottle from the medicine chest, it is likely they sent their last message to the world while waiting for the end. Washing up on the beach, the bottle was partly covered with sand until accidentally found in the manner stated.”

The note written by Captain Nelson was referred to as the “only authentic message” in the above newspaper article. However, opinions about the authenticity of each note changed like the direction of the wind.

A few of the conflicting reports included…