Story behind the Top Hat at the Welland Canal opening today
Published March 24, 2022 at 10:34 am
Ships’ captains do not usually wear top hats unless they’re on land at a fancy ball.
So how exactly did the Top Hat Ceremony come to mark the annual opening of the Welland Canal – an event that happened this morning (March 24) at 8:30 am.
According to the City of Port Colborne, the Top Hat Ceremony was started in the early 1970s by then-Mayor John Buscarino so it’s been happening for about 50 years.
It is meant to bestow honour upon the captain of the first boat passing downbound (towards Lake Erie) through the canal each season, the nautical equivalent of the season opening game. This year, that was Captain Wilson Waters (representing Captain Jesse Vickers) of the CSL Tadoussac.
The ceremony wouldn’t exist for another 30-plus years after the Welland Canal was officially opened on August 6, 1932.
So, today (March 24) on the 90th Grand Opening of the canal, the captain of the first ship through was presented with the top hat.
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The hat itself is the most colourful part of the ceremony as it is steeped in history. On loan from the Port Colborne & Historical Museum since 1999, it’s a beaver felt fur hat that was given to the Historical & Marine Museum by an anonymous donor.
It’s a 1900 top hat that was created by Tress and Co., a hat firm from London, England. The founder of the company was Cooper Tress Sr (1787-1869), who was joined at the company by his son Cooper Tress Jr. and later by Cooper Tress Jr.’s sons, Sidney Cooper Tress and Herbert Charles Tress.
The business was active in England for over 100 years, being established in 1846 and eventually selling to Christy’s in 1953 in the neighbouring suburb of Bermondsdey.
So that very specific top hat has come a long distance. After today’s ceremony, the hat was stored in an acid free box in the Captain John W. Sharpe Heritage Resource Centre, a climate controlled building that was built in 1995 to house over 17,000 artifacts and archives.
But the Captain presented with the hat isn’t left empty-handed. Every year, the first captain through is given a keepsake top hat to take with them on their downbound journey.
The Welland Canal held its 90th straight seasonal opening this morning with its official Top Hat Ceremony. (Photos: Port Colborne)