Yes, the Christmas Ship is kind of a big deal in Cheboygan. That was an excellent write up in the Sun-Times, but I'll see if I can fill in some more details.
This is actually the second Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw. The first one was launched during World War II because they wanted to keep Great Lakes shipping shiping open year-round for the war effort. Year-round shipping was discontinued after the war, but it has been revived a few times since then. Each time, it proved to be more trouble than it was worth and was subsequently abandoned. They do still keep some lanes open for local traffic, but the Sault Locks close down from December till March or April, blocking the passage from Lake Superior to Lake Huron. When the first Mackinaw was decommissioned and turned into a floating museum in Mackinaw City, the second Mackinaw was docked in Cheboygan, right where the first Mackinaw used to be.
The original Christmas Ship probably sank because it was overloaded. There was a bumper harvest of trees that year, and the owner sent whatever the ship couldn't carry by rail to Chicago. The ship got into some freezing rain, which likely coated the ship's rigging and the trees stacked on deck with ice, causing the ship to become top heavy and unable to navigate the rough seas that it encountered next. I don't believe the wreckage was ever found. When the ship didn't show up, the owner's widow sold the trees that came by rail, and continued to do so, year after year, until she got too old to do it. She maintained her husband's tradition of always saving some trees to give away to needy families.
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