Heritage Park's senior Moyie captain retiring

Andrew Hooper has spent 21 years at the helm of the S.S. Moyie navigating the waters of the Glenmore Reservoir. The historic paddle wheeler is one of the most popular attractions at the park and Hooper has enjoyed hosting thousands of visitors.

"Hey I'm 81, I can still (captain the ship) at the moment," Hooper said. "I'm mentally and physically capable of doing this job and I'd sooner quit when I could do it and someone else could take it rather than people sort of edge you out."

Hooper started at Heritage Park in 2002 after retiring as an engineer from Calgary's oil and gas sector but he's always enjoyed being on the water.  That passion started at a young age.

"When I was in school, I always desperately wanted to be a sailor, (and) sail around the world," he said. "I read all the books about pirates, Captain Cook, and Lord Nelson and Francis Drake and you know this was what I wanted to do."

His parents and teachers tried to discourage him from a career at sea but he quit school at 16 years old to set off on his adventure.

"I served in big liners and small feeder container ships," said Hooper. "Then I spent a year or so in anchor handling tug supply boats, supporting the offshore oil and gas business."

As senior captain for two decades he has been responsible for hiring the seasonal staff for the ship every spring along with a number of other responsibilities.

"Sailing the ship around the reservoir is the easy part," he said. "It's hiring the crew, training the crew dealing with marketing issues, maintenance issues and budget control issues."

When he's in the wheel house cruising on a 45 minute circuit around the reservoir with passengers, he pulls the whistle at the north end of his route near the Glenmore Care West extended care facility. He received a call from one of the care givers years ago saying residents enjoy seeing the ship so he decided to send them a special message.

"It's known as blowing a kiss, the letter X, it's always long, short, short, long so I said we're gonna blow this signal, we're gonna blow you a kiss," he said.

The Moyie has three captains and 26-year-old Charles Welsh will soon be taking the Transportation Canada exam to captain the ship. Right now he's serving as chief engineer.

"I've always liked ships, anything maritime nautical," Welsh said. "Before this I just use to work retail, university student things like that and a few years ago now I started down here on the Moyie and ever since then, I've just loved it."

Welsh is now learning all he can from Hooper in his last season on the ship.

"Honestly, he's just a font of information that I couldn't have asked for a better mentor personally," said Welsh. "The things he's taught me it's just irreplaceable."

The park's strategic communications manager says people like Captain Hooper make all the difference for visitors. Dominic Terry remembers the first time he met him.

"I'm Captain Andrew he said, I'm the captain of the Moyie and I said, Oh, that's so nice to meet you," said Terry. "He said let's take a walk and we just walked around the park for a little bit and we talked and, you know, it's these engaging people that make Heritage Park, what it is."

Hooper said he and his wife are heading to Ecuador in October for a trip, then he's going to learn to play the piano, paint and speak Spanish. But he'll always have a place in his heart for his time on the Moyie.

"There's a quote from a children's storybook called Wind in the Willows," he said. "'There is nothing, absolutely nothing quite so much worth doing as simpIy messing about in boats - and that's what I do!"