4-Dec-17 – More than 1,200 evergreen trees delivered by the United States Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw over the weekend are being distributed to needy families in Chicago. The trees arrived at Navy Pier on Friday aboard the vessel nicknamed the “Christmas Tree Ship.”

This was a tradition in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The three-mast schooner Rouse Simmons, with Captain Herman Schuenemann, brought trees and wreaths across Lake Michigan every year for 30 years until the ship and its crew were lost in a storm on November 23, 1912.

Schuenemann’s wife and daughter continued to deliver trees to Chicago until 1934. The Mackinaw has been filling in for the past 18 years.

With the help of 300 volunteers, the trees were loaded onto trucks on Saturday. The trees were purchased through private donations.