There may be no better way to mark the arrival of warmer weather in Midland than to witness the annual top hat ceremony for the first commercial vessel to arrive in its waters.
Held at the waterfront beside ADM Milling and with the Canadian Steamship MV Frontenac as a large backdrop to the event, Captain Brandon Durant was presented a ceremonial top hat on Friday by Midland harbour master Rick Dalziel and Mayor Bill Gordon.
“This hundred-plus-year tradition,” said Gordon to the attending crowd, “was first started by James Playfair – one of Midland’s most prominent citizens and owner of over 50 ships. Mr. Playfair passed away in 1937, but he created the Midland Navigation Company in 1900 and then began a friendly competition by offering a black silk top hat to the first ship captain in the harbour every season.”
Gordon added that the ceremony symbolized the maritime heritage of the town and deep-rooted connection to the history of the bay.
Accepting Playfair's own top hat was Durant, who quipped upon wearing the headpiece that he felt like Edgar Allan Poe. He was then presented with further gifts from the town including a painting and ceremonial key, and shared a laugh with the mayor and harbour master.
“A long time ago, I left university and shipped out as a young man, and did a job that I could do without a computer,” Durant told MidlandToday. “I learned 200-year-old navigation techniques.
“It’s nice to see people carrying on the tradition of a community that honours its history.”
The ceremony was the second top hat presentation for Dalziel as harbour master, with a return after a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The hat, however, had seen many other ceremonies in its days.
“This top hat will be getting refurbished; it’s quite old now and it’s starting to show its age,” said Dalziel. “This top hat actually came from England and we are in the midst of looking to see who we can get to do the refurbishing of it.”
While the top hat was exchanged and photos were being taken, a small boat was seen navigating the nearby waters of the ceremony with some of the crowd joking that its captain had just missed out on getting a top hat too.
