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Captain Bill Noon – Mariner and Classic Boat Enthusiast

by John MacFarlane 2020

Bill Noon

Captain Bill Noon (Photo from the Bill Noon collection.)

Captain Bill Noon stands out in crowd. He has one of those personalities that draws people closer and that may be one of the secrets of his successes. It’s difficult to say whether he is better known for his work in popularizing classic boats or for his nautical work in the Canadian Arctic. He appears as a speaker up and down the coast at museums and community groups but now he has a higher profile as the Chairman of the Victoria Classic Boat Festival (every Labour Day weekend in September) which is where I first met him in person.

Bill Noon

Captain Bill Noon – Then and Now (Photo from the Bill Noon collection.)

Growing up in West Vancouver BC and summering at his family’s place on Campbell Bay Mayne Island he says he was always around boats. Belonging to Sea Scouts and Sea Ventures, he says he knew his future would somehow be involved with the sea. The Sea Scouts had a 27’ wooden whaler that they maintained and sailed from Eagle Harbour in West Vancouver. This helped him become very independent at an early age, an attribute that has served him well throughout his career.

A summer job at Bay Boat Rentals looking after 30 boats and sometimes acting as a fishing guide when he wasn’t working around the docks was a great introduction. In those days the CCGC Moorhen used to come in for visits and he took notice of the Coast Guard crews who impressed him. The Moorhen was an interesting ex–RCAF crash boat that the Coast Guard stationed at Kitsilano Coast Guard base upon its opening in 1960s.

In 1979/1980 he served as a Seaman Deckhand on Colonel Clarence Wallace’s luxury yacht the Fifer as part of her crew of five. He really enjoyed that experience, cruising all summer up the coast calling in at every interesting anchorage and port in the Gulf of Georgia. Colonel Wallace used the Fifer to entertain guests who filled the pages of BC’s Who’s Who – Bill recalls them as interesting and friendly BC ‘old money people’.

In 1981 Bill successfully applied for a Seaman Deckhand position with the Canadian Coast Guard and was interviewed by the Coxswain of the Bull Harbour Lifeboat. This gave him valuable experience in operational settings. He recalls fondly that the old wooden 36–foot Banfield Lifeboat appeared there as a relief boat and Bill was able to do one trip in her. In 1987 he took her on her last active trip to the Victoria Classic Boat Festival before she was retired to sit on the hard at Ogden Point. I recently learned that he initiated the effort by Captain Alec Provan for the Coast Guard to save her – when I got involved at the Maritime Museum of BC taking temporary custody while arranging to have her transferred to Port Alberni for preservation.

In the 1980s the Coast Guard was growing, and new opportunities started to open up. While he was still relatively young, he was appointed as the Relief Coxswain at Bull Harbour. The Coast Guard sent him to the Coxswain School in Cornwall Ontario and in 1985 to the U.S. Coast Guard Motor Lifeboat School at Cape Disappointment. He recalls that experience as "the best course ever". Broadening his knowledge base, he also completed the Navy Ship Diver Course. Noon took courses at Camosun College to qualify for the certificates he needed for advancement. He spent a season in the famous R–Class cutters as a Seaman and completed his Watchkeeping Mate certification at Camosun College. In the following ten years he worked through the fleet serving in most of the vessels of the day.

Bill Noon

Captain Bill Noon on the bridge (Photo from the Bill Noon collection.)

In an incident, on July 22, 1991, while he was serving in the CCGS Martha L. Black, the Japanese fishing vessel Tenyo Maru and Chinese freighter Tuo Hai collided within Canadian Territorial waters approximately 20 miles northwest of Cape Flattery. The Tenyo Maru, which was reportedly carrying 354,800 gallons of intermediate fuel oil, 97,800 gallons of diesel fuel, and 22,500 gallons of fish oil, sank after the collision. It initially leaked a large amount of oil and undetermined amounts were reported leaking for more than a month after the collision. Beaches were fouled with oil from Vancouver Island, British Columbia to northern Oregon. The Canadian Coast Guard brought in a remotely controlled underwater robot, the Scorpio, aboard the CCGS Martha L. Black to pump oil from the Tenyo Maru to tanks aboard a surface ship from the sunken ship in 100 fathoms. The Scorpio used the robot arms to install a suction cup and hose into a porthole leaking oil. The oil then was then pumped to a tank aboard a ship. This was one of the first occasions that GPS was used to position ships over the wreck.

In 1994 he went to the Arctic serving as Chief Officer in the Arctic Ivik and later in the Sir Wilfred Laurier. Some of his most memorable trips were in the Arctic. In 1995/1996 passage to the west was blocked by ice at Tuktoyaktuk and they were forced to travel east to Halifax completing a transit of the Northwest Passage in the Sir Wilfred Laurier. This period presented him with a steep learning curve building a solid foundation of knowledge and experience on which to base his future commands.

He then served as Master of the W.E. Ricker and the Bartlett. In 2000 he came shore as Superintendent of the Regional Operations Centre in Victoria for two years. While he says he always preferred to be at sea he concedes that every Master should have a stint ashore for the experience and to understand the back end’ of the business. This too was part of the on–going learning process.

This time ashore was followed as Master of the John P. Tully for 9 years at the Institute of Ocean Sciences in Patricia Bay. In 2009 he succeeded in the competition process (a written and oral examination) winning the position as Master of the Sir Wilfred Laurier. It was from this position that he retired back in 2019. Now he says, he has time to pursue his interests in nautical heritage and devote time to cruising in his boat, the Messenger III.

Bill Noon

Captain Bill Noon sharing the wreck discovery with the crew (Photo from the Bill Noon collection.)

The Sir Wilfred Laurier has employed since 1995 by the Canadian Hydrographic Service in extensive marine surveying program. On an opportunistic basis since 2008 Parks Canada also joined the ship while it was in the region thought to hold the remains of the lost ships of Sir John Franklin – HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. It was during the 2014 Victoria Strait Expedition with Parks Canada the wreck of HMS Erebus was located. In 2016 Parks Canada, supported by CCGS Sir Wilfred Laurier identified and did the first surveys and dives on the remaining lost vessel HMS Terror. Noon frequently lectures on the searches and subsequent archaeological research examinations carried out on the vessel to delight of audiences who hear him.

A marine incident in the Arctic stands out in his memory. On August 27, 2010 the cruise ship Clipper Adventurer ran aground ran aground on an uncharted rock in Coronation Gulf in the Canadian Arctic. She was left in a very precarious position with the midship section stuck on a rock on a underwater cliff bank in two metres of water with her stern in 150 metres of water. The ship’s bottom, Noon recalls, was seriously damaged and she remained afloat on only on her tank tops. Standing by in the Sir Wilfred Laurier she was the On–Scene Command vessel platform for the salvage operations and monitoring of potential oil pollution. After a month of salvage work, four salvage vessels managed to remove the vessel from her perch without leaking significant amounts of pollution.

Bill Noon

Captain Bill Noon with his two pride and joys – The Messenger III and the Sir Wilfred Laurier (Photo from the Bill Noon collection.)

The Messenger III is a long–time passion particularly after taking her over from Blayney Scott. Messenger III has participated in almost every annual Victoria Classic Boat Festival except three since 1984. Noon worked with the late John West for many years as Coordinator of Judges but took over as Chair in 2017 when the Maritime Museum of BC picked up the organizing and administration of the Festival. He credits the staff there for their work in organizing the event that has made his job easier. He still enters the Messenger III which serves as the headquarters for the event.

Bill Noon

Captain Bill Noon enjoying retirement on the Messenger III (Photo from the Bill Noon collection.)

Restoration on the Messenger III has continued throughout his ownership. Each year he has tackled a major project of renewal and now he says that she is complete. He intends to enjoy the work he has done while cruising the coast more extensively. This vessel now stands as one of the finest examples of sensitive restoration and preservation of an historical working vessel. It demonstrates what can be accomplished by a focused and dedicated owner.

With a rich personal history of marine service, we hope that Captain Bill Noon will continue to share his knowledge with written work as well as continuing to lecture to audiences.


To quote from this article please cite:

MacFarlane, John (2020) Captain Bill Noon – Master Mariner and Classic Boat Expert. Nauticapedia.ca 2019. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Noon_Bill.php

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