Christmas Tree Ship author to speak at Milwaukee’s Ghost Ships Festival March 9th
February 08, 08 by TheFleetIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Source: Fond du Lac Reporter
Campbellsport author Rochelle Pennington, who has written two books on the Christmas Tree Ship, will discuss the wreck at Milwaukee’s 2008 Ghost Ships Festival on March 9 at the Wyndham Milwaukee Airport & Convention Center.
Pennington will discuss the Rouse Simmons wreck, also known as the Christmas Tree Ship, a three-masted schooner built in Milwaukee in 1868. The ship carried Christmas trees from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to the docks of Chicago.
Capt. Herman Schuenemann and his family sold the trees directly from the ship’s deck to holiday-minded Chicagoans. On a blustery November day in 1912, the ship and a crew of 16 were hauling a full load of fresh-cut Christmas trees along Wisconsin’s Lake Michigan shore when a storm overpowered them. The ship sank and all 16 crew members perished, including Schuenemann. The wreck rests 165 feet below the surface of Lake Michigan, 12 miles northeast of Two Rivers.
The two-day Ghost Ships Festival will feature a variety of experts, films, documentaries and sessions on Great Lakes history and shipwrecks.
The festival will be held from 3 to 9 p.m. Friday, March 7, and 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, March 8, at the Wyndham across from the Milwaukee airport. Advance tickets are $20 or $25 at the door. To purchase a ticket or for more information, visit ghostships.org or send an e-mail to info@ghost-ships.org. Those interested in hotel accommodations can contact the Sheraton at (414) 481-8000 and ask for the Ghost Ships room discount.
The Ghost Ships Festival brings together top Great Lakes maritime historians, authors and divers from throughout the country. It’s an opportunity for the public to learn more about the maritime history of the world’s largest inland lakes and see the wrecks that now lay below the surface. The festival includes films, workshops and seminars devoted to shipwrecks, diving and maritime history.
