Crew of Mackinaw unloads Christmas trees in Chicago

CHICAGO - Members of the Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw unload some of the 1,300 Christmas trees which were brought from northern Michigan earlier this week for distribution to deserving families in Chicago, while a throng of volunteers waits to come aboard to help. The Coast Guard partners each year with the Christmas Ship Committee to re-enact a tradition started by the Rouse Simmons, the original Christmas ship, back in the late 1800s until it tragically sank during a storm in Nov. of 1912 off of Two Rivers, Wis. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Chief Petty Officer Alan Haraf