The Wreck of Rouse Simmons - Christmas Tree Wreck

For today's video, we'll be doing an extra shipwreck look. Specifically, at a Christmas themed wreck for Christmas Eve.

Rouse Simmons was a small, and very old, schooner on Lake Michigan. Famous for her Captain- nicknamed Captain Santa -and his Christmas Tree business. This would see the ship set sail in late November, 1912, overloaded with trees for Chicago.With, sadly, predictable results.

Rouse Simmons went down in rough weather, taking her cargo and crew with her. The ship would only be rediscovered, decades later.

In incredibly good condition, as is typical of Great Lakes wrecks.

Pictures:

3D Model:

Further Reading:

[swampyankee]

The Chicago maritime community continues the Christmas Tree Ship tradition with the trees delivered by a US Coast Guard cutter annually.

[alephalon]

That's a honestly heartbreaking tale. But at least Rouse Simmons' wreck is known and her crew honored. Captain Santa's story will endure...

[navelriver]

An excellent saga! This needs to be made into a movie.

[alekss.]

Thanks for one more history and Merry Christmas

[michaelmclaren]

When you dig into Great Lakes shipping losses, and the stories, they almost always start with an overloaded or overworked boat, a captain and crew trying to pack one more run into the season (often due to pressure from a company pushing for crews to take more loads regardless of conditions). In this case, a good deed punished. The Great Lakes are like Conrad wrote of the sea, it’s neither for you nor against you, it’s just very unforgiving of errors.

[Spike-skql]

Yeah, thats the one downside to wrecks on the Great Lakes. Zebra mussels. They clean the water, so the water around the wrecks is clear, but they make it impossible to make out any details, make it impossible to tie a line to, and they also degrade the wrecks as well.

[davidbarnsley]

Them old sailors really did it very hard and this is how so many of their lives ended
I don’t know how you would fit 5000 tree on that boat but I suspect all the ice that would have accumulated on them would
Have been a contributing factor into the boat’s sinking
Merry Christmas 🎄

[IsengardMordor]

İf i provide you with information, can you do a video on some of the Gallipoli campaign? To be specific, Ottoman ships sunk by British submarines during the campaign? İ can share info on at least two gunboats, one of which i even have wreck pics for.

[Moredread]

I wonder if the people who found it were excited or disappointed.

[thurin]

its a shame someone as beloved as captain schuenemann had to operate on a shoestring budget and was forced into corner by financial concerns. merry christmas all!

[highloughsdrifter]

How did they manage to pack Christmas trees tight enough to overload the ship? As I understand it, ships carrying lumber were pretty much unsinkable due to the buoyancy of their cargos and I'd expect a ship load of Christmas trees to be similar. Was she carrying other cargo? Maybe only Christmas trees on deck?

[michaelinsc]

Definitely right move not trusting Drain the Oceans. Nat Geo is too much like History Channel and has lost its credibility.

[thereissomecoolstuff]

If you could get in the cabin I bet you’d find bones

[thereissomecoolstuff]

If you could get in the cabin I bet you’d find bones