November 23 in 1912, she, a schooner
bearing 5500 Christmas trees, was bound
west, across Lake Michigan for Chicago.
Blizzard said no but lumber skipper said go.
She foundered at Two Rivers; all sailors lost.
November nights, when moon is bright, her ghost yet sails.
[44 words]
Learn more about Rouse Simmons here.
De Jackson (aka Whimsygizmo) is today’s host for dVerse’ Quadrille Monday. De says:
write a quadrille (a poem of exactly 44 words, not including title) using moon.
UPDATE
Last night, I went out to see a friend and former co-worker and his band play at an open mike night and ran into friends not seen since pre-Covid. Part of one of the conversations was about a 2015 movie playing on Netflix right now, “In the Heart of the Sea,” which is a film directed by Ron Howard that is an adaptation of a book of the same name, which is about Herman Melville’s writing the book, _Moby Dick_. I’d been seeing the banner for awhile but movies about whaling set me on edge and so had skipped it. After getting the nitty gritty on it, I decided to come home and watch it and am glad I did. Blurb from wiki:
Chris Hemsworth, Benjamin Walker, Cillian Murphy, Tom Holland, Ben Whishaw, and Brendan Gleeson [and Michelle Fairley, aka the mom in Game of Thrones.] It is based on Nathaniel Philbrick’s 2000 non-fiction book In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, about the sinking of the American whaling ship Essex in 1820, an event that in part inspired Herman Melville’s 1851 novel Moby-Dick.
Now you may be asking, how is the subject of this conversation synchronicity with the original Nov 2023 post. I’m about to tell you.
This morning I went to the library to drop some borrows off and pick up some different ones. Each visit takes me past the book donations that are for sale. Right there on the top of a bag of books, I saw:
Of course I was already in a mindset of ships and ships that ended up sinking, so it wasn’t much of a leap to remember this post from last November, when I discovered and researched the story on The Christmas Ship. I put it up on the counter and mentioned to the librarian I was familiar with the story, then headed out to the car to get $2, the price for donated hardcovers. When I came back in, the librarian was excited and said, “You just bought yourself a signed copy!” He turned the first page and showed me:
I thought, that’s nice, but it’s a mom inscribing a note to her son. Then he turned the page:
To me it couldn’t be clearer that these things are meaningful coincidences.
Hope you are enjoying your winter day. I see there is heavy snow in Alabama going on. It’s a belated White Christmas. Wish some of it could be shipped to California. Stay safe everybody.
Tao Talk 
I love the sense of a ghost ship, and I guess the lost souls have every right to do so.
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I think so also.
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Oooo. What a beautiful ghostly tale. Love it, Lisa!
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Thanks much, De <3
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I would love to see a ghost ship. My favourite lager is called Ghost Ship, which is brewed by Adnams in Suffolk.
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Kim, that’s really neat. Drink enough of it and maybe you will :)
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Pitted against nature, man never wins. I love this ghostly rendering of a (needless) tragedy, Li.
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So true on all, Dora.
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1912 was a good year for shipwrecks…
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OMG! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shipwrecks_in_1912
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:(
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thats really beautiful Lisa :-)
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Thank you, Carol Anne <3
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Ghostly good stuff! Thanks.
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You’re welcome, Ron.
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I didn’t know about Rouse Simmons until I read this piece. I googled it. I find ghost sightings frightening. And a spectral ship on a full moon night is something I never want to see! Haunting piece. I enjoyed reading it.
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OP, I learned a bunch researching for it. Was really surprised when it led right to my stomping grounds. Charles Hackley is the man Captain Santa bought the schooner from. Thank you and I am glad you enjoyed reading it.
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I am fascinated by ghosts ships (I’m sure that won’t surprise you). 😉 The extra feature that it carried Christmas trees makes this one stand out. I read something recently about so many ships at the bottom of the Great Lakes.
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That’s cool, Merril. Maybe your long-lost “war correspondent” is floating on one right now :) Up in Munising, MI you can take a glass-bottomed boat tour of shipwrecks in Lake Superior. The Great Lakes are more like freshwater seas and have some hella big waves/storms all times of year.
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I had a sort of lucid dream a week or so ago of standing in the park seeing an eighteenth-century appear on the river.
Yes, I have heard that about the Great Lakes. Well, we all know the Edmund Fitzgerald.
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I would imagine that it does…ghost ships are always accompanied by moonlight. (K)
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<3
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A haunting poem.
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Thank you, Arcadia.
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We’re gonna need the entire epic poem here, just saying
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I wish I could write epic poems!
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ooh, that is a creepy intriguing tale.
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Thanks, Someone :)
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Oh what a tragic loss
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:( yes
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🥲
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Our local paper just ran a story about the historic November gales on the great lakes: https://madison.com/news/state-regional/weather/weather-gale-ackerman-martin/article_22889e00-810e-11ee-b01b-73677f4b6b40.html
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I enjoyed the video, and your words capture the essence of the tale. Well done.
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Thanks, Ken. Can’t imagine diving there and seeing the intact Christmas trees.
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I’m from Waukegan, Illinois, north of Chicago. Never knew this story! Excellent use of the word “moon”!
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Cool on where you’re from. Were you near the Chicago Botanic Gardens?? Thank you, Lillian.
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A quadrille with a bit of education for us! I enjoyed this, Lisa. And the entire Wyeth family fascinates me!!!
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I think the old schooner wanted me to know her story. I know very little about the Wyeth family except now I know there are 3 generations of painters. Talented painters!
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Avery haunting piece Lisa 💞
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Thanks, AJ! (Where you been, girlfriend?)
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Sadly my mum passed away so I needs to take a break away from things but it’s good to get back to writing 🩷
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Oh no. My condolences on your mum’s passing. {{{HUGS}}}
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Thanks Lisa 💕
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<3
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It’s all connected somehow. (K)
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That is really something Lisa!
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I think so, Randy. The cosmic threads really intersected.
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Great story, Lisa!
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Christian, thank you. Truth is always stranger than fiction. There were other threads to the synchronicity also but not sharing them.
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This story and other like it are so incredibly sad; so many lives lost. Excellent write, Lisa.
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Yes, they are, especially when so many times it is faulty or poorly maintained equipment or ignoring safety protocols that led to it. Thanks, Nancy.
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Very welcome, Lisa.
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This is my first time hearing about this tragedy. The update makes me wonder if you are not destined to write about it further. Excellent presentation.
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Thanks much, Violet. You never know, maybe I will!
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I never knew about this…what a tragic story…everything about it is tragic. So cool about the book!
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Max, I didn’t either until I was looking for info to write a poem about. Yes, it gave me goosebumps to see it and then see it had the author’s inscription in it.
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Of course you know what song I thought of right away…but thanks for this…I would have never known.
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“The legend lives on…”
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:-) You were meant to have that copy ! :-)
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uh-huh :)
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