Mackinaw arrives in Chicago with 1,300 Christmas trees.

CHICAGO — The Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw, serving as this year’s Christmas Ship, arrives at Navy Pier carrying 1,300 Christmas from northern Michigan for deserving families in the Chicago area, Nov. 30, 2012.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the original Christmas Ship, the Rouse Simmons, off of Two Rivers, Wis., during a winter storm.

U.S. Coast Guard photo by Chief Petty Officer Alan Haraf






CHICAGO — Petty Officer 1st Class Steve Brown (left) and Petty Officer 2nd Class Zach Emery, of the Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw, arrange one of the 1,300 Christmas trees brought to Chicago for distribution to deserving families, Nov. 30, 2012.

The Mackinaw is serving as this year’s Christmas Ship on the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Rouse Simmons, the original Christmas Ship, off of Two Rivers, Wis.

U.S. Coast Guard photo by Chief Petty Officer Alan Haraf

CHICAGO — Seaman Miles Beck (left) and Petty Officer 2nd Class Zack Emery of the Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw, arrange one of the 1,300 Christmas trees brought to Chicago for distribution to deserving families, Nov. 30, 2012.

The Mackinaw is serving as this year’s Christmas Ship on the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Rouse Simmons, the original Christmas Ship, off of Two Rivers, Wis.

U.S. Coast Guard photo by Chief Petty Officer Alan Haraf

CHICAGO — A mountain of Christmas trees, for distribution to deserving families in the Chicago area, takes shape on the deck on the Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw, Nov. 30, 2012.

The Mackinaw is serving as this year’s Christmas Ship on the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Rouse Simmons, the original Christmas Ship, off of Two Rivers, Wis.

U.S. Coast Guard photo by Chief Petty Officer Alan Haraf

Cutter Mackinaw boasts all-female underway watch during Christmas tree transit to Chicago.

LAKE MICHIGAN — Petty Officer 1st Class Erin Hunter (right), junior officer-of-the-deck on the Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw, assists underway officer-of-the-deck Ensign Katharine Braynard with monitoring the electronic charting system, Nov. 28, 2012.

One day prior, Hunter and Braynard were part of an all-female watch executed on the Mackinaw during the ship's transit to Chicago to offload 1,300 Christmas trees as part of this year's Chicago's Christmas Ship event.

U.S. Coast Guard photo by Seaman Robert Butler

LAKE MICHIGAN — Underway officer-of-the-deck Ensign Katharine Braynard (right) works with junior officer-of-the-deck, Petty Officer 1st Class Erin Hunter, with the plan for mooring in Milwaukee to offload buoys, Nov. 28, 2012.

One day prior, Braynard and Hunter were part of an all-female watch executed on the Mackinaw during the ship's transit to Chicago to offload 1,300 Christmas trees as part of this year's Chicago's Christmas Ship event.

U.S. Coast Guard photo by Seaman Robert Butler

LAKE MICHIGAN – Female officers aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw designed and accomplished an all-female underway watch Tuesday during their transit to Chicago this week to participate in the annual re-enactment of Chicago's Christmas Ship.

The all-female watch was an idea devised last spring and was finally able to be realized this fall, once all the necessary positions were filled by qualified women.

Cmdr. Michael Davanzo, the ship’s commanding officer, was briefed on the idea and thought it was a great thing for the Mackinaw to accomplish.

"We value the leadership that women provide, demonstrated by their amazing initiative to undertake this project," Davanzo said. "The Coast Guard provides a great opportunity for women to advance, be successful, and have a rewarding career."

Lt. j.g. Meridith Palo and Ensign Katie Braynard organized the watch schedule to include all-female bridge and engineering teams and female duty cooks. The teams stood the 4-8 p.m. watch during the ship’s transit down the eastern coast of Wisconsin.

The female bridge team was: Braynard, from Temecula, Calif.; as the underway officer-of-the-deck; Petty Officer 1st Class Erin Hunter, from San Diego, as junior officer-of-the-deck; and Seaman Rebecca Smith-Heshley, from Toledo, Ohio, who stood lookout.

The engineering team was: Palo, from Newtown, Conn., as engineer-of-the-watch; Petty Officer 1st Class Brenda Daniels, from Lake Wells, Fla., as journeyman engineer; and Ensign Erin Nolan, from Lafayette, Ind., who was working towards her journeyman engineer qualification.

The two duty cooks for the evening meal were: Petty Officer 2nd Class Melissa Wetenkamp, from Niles, Mich.; and Petty Officer 2nd Class Nichol Billow, from Las Vegas.

“This was a first for the Mackinaw, and possibly for the Coast Guard," said Braynard. "It’s great to see women advance in their roles in the afloat community, and it’s even better to be part of that community. We’re all very proud.”

Cutter Mackinaw returning to Chicago during historic 100th anniversary of sinking of Rouse Simmons

CHICAGO – The Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw, serving as this year’s Christmas Ship and loaded with 1,300 Christmas trees, is scheduled to return to Chicago Friday at 8 a.m., for a two-day event depicting what was an annual Chicago tradition in the early 1900s.    

The re-enactment by the Mackinaw and Chicago’s Christmas Ship Committee continues a treasured piece of Chicago’s maritime tradition.

The schooner Rouse Simmons was the original Christmas Ship that came to Chicago from Michigan for more than 30 years with fresh evergreens and wreaths for the holiday season during the early 1900s. On Nov. 23, 1912, while transiting from Michigan, the Rouse Simmons was lost in a storm and sank with a crew of 16 between Kewaunee and Two Rivers, Wis.

The 1,300 Christmas trees, purchased byChicago’s Christmas Ship Committee, will be offloaded on Saturday morning by members of the Coast Guard and local youth volunteers including the Sea Cadets, Venture Crews, Sea Explorer Scouts and the Young Marines, following a brief, public ceremony beginning at 10 a.m.

The ceremony will take place at the west end of Navy Pier near the Captain at the Helm Statue. The first three trees will be presented to three deserving families. The remaining trees will then be loaded onto trucks for distribution to more than 1,000 deserving families throughout Chicago, designated by Ada S. McKinley Community Services.

The ceremony will also include a Coast Guard color guard; a Coast Guard rifle squad; a wreath laying at the Captain at the Helm Statue by Capt. Dave Truitt and the president of Chicago Shipmasters; a wreath drop and fly-over by a Coast Guard helicopter; and music by the Taft High School Choir.

During its transit to Chicago this year, the crew of the Mackinaw will drop a wreath into the waters near the resting place of the Rouse Simmons, which was located in 1971.

Chicago’s boating community has been re-enacting the days of the Rouse Simmons’ landing in Chicago for the past 12 years. Chicago’s Christmas Ship Committee is comprised of and supported by all facets of the Chicago’s boating community including: the International Shipmasters’ Association; Chicago Marine Heritage Society; the Navy League of the United States; Chicago yacht clubs; Friends of the Marine Community; Coast Guard Auxiliary; the Chicago Yachting Association and others.  

Chicago’s Christmas Ship Committee will also host educational programs for local area schools aboard the Mackinaw on Friday. More than 300 children from the Chicago area will learn about the role of the Coast Guard, the Christmas Ship tradition, observe a Sea Partners ecology presentation, and experience a ship tour by members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary.  Members of the Mackinaw’s crew and volunteers from Chicago’s boating community will decorate the ship for the Christmas Ship event.

The Mackinaw, homeported in Cheboygan, Mich., was commissioned in June 2006 and has a crew of 60. It is one of the Coast Guard’s most technologically advanced multi-missioned cutters.

In addition to search-and-rescue and maritime law enforcement operations, this charitable activity takes place in conjunction with scheduled aids to navigation operations in the southern region of Lake Michigan to remove buoys for winter maintenance and replacement with winter marks to protect them from ice damage. Additionally, regular underway crew training and drills are being conducted in preparation for the ship’s primary winter mission of ice breaking to keep commerce moving through the Great Lakes.