George Robin Hooper

Canadian Merchant Navy

George Robin Hooper was born on 9 August 1926 in Alberta. His family moved to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, during his childhood. As a young teenager growing up on the ocean, he desired to sail the seas. While the Second World War raged on, he received written permission from his mother to acquire an apprenticeship with the Merchant Navy. 

At age 16, George signed a four-year contract as an indentured cadet, training to become a naval officer. His apprenticeship began in the port cities of Montreal and Quebec City. In May 1943, he found himself aboard the Riverview Park, a 7,130-ton Park Class ship with a crew of 26, designed for vital wartime cargo transportation. 

Just before George’s first convoy, a family friend who was in the Navy was killed. An enemy torpedo sank his ship. While a British destroyer initially rescued him, the rescue ship was also sunk the following day. 

Shortly after launching from a Quebec shipyard, the Riverview Park joined dozens of ships in Halifax Harbour’s Bedford Basin. The new ship launched out from the safety of the harbour to join a convoy destined for Liverpool, England, the first of many convoys George would experience. 

Merchant shipping was especially crucial to England. As Western Europe was primarily occupied by Germany, the North American supply chain was essential to providing the country with food, fuel, steel, lumber, aircraft, and munitions. 

While the German surface fleet could provide a challenge for allied shipping to avoid, the invisible threat of the U-boat submarine proved most challenging. The dangerous nature of the job resulted in over a thousand Canadian merchant sailors perishing during the Second World War. A loss rate of approximately one in every ten sailors. 

His ship had five personnel from the Royal Canadian Navy aboard who operated the ship’s primary armament, a four-inch cannon at the stern and four Oerlikon 20mm cannons. George and his crewmate were permitted to fire the ship’s pair of .50-calibre machine guns as part of their training. The duty was very cheerfully carried out.

Convoys were long and stressful, as the ships navigated the sea at the speed of their slowest vessel. The trip across the Atlantic typically took just over two weeks to complete. Under conditions of radio silence, George quickly learned how to communicate through flags and shutter lamps that could relay messages in Morse code. 

George had no complaints about working conditions aboard the Riverview Park. There was never a lack of food, and he shared a cabin with another cadet. The cadets were tasked with all kinds of deck duties. The only place he recalls being off limits was the engine room. His focus was strictly on training and building up his sea time. The young cadets were told that they required four years of sea time to qualify for consideration to become an officer.  

Luckily for George, the convoys he was involved in were never attacked. He only recalls one submarine alert, which resulted in nothing but heightened anxiety on deck. He did have one close call shortly after the war. He was one of the highest-ranking officers onboard a different merchant ship, serving as second mate and navigating the ship through the English Channel. He spotted something peculiar straight in front of him. It was a large black sphere covered in prongs and seaweed. It was a mine. He knew that the ship was too close to react in any meaningful way. He held his breath and watched as the wash from the ship thankfully kept the mine no more than a few feet from the hull. The incident highlighted the struggles of postwar munitions cleanup. While the Axis powers had been defeated, many of their traps remained. 

George eventually became the captain of various auxiliary ships throughout his career. He served on Government ships from 1952-1976 and the Coast Guard from 1977-1983. In later years, he became a marine surveyor and accident investigator. In retirement, he captained the False Creek Ferry during Expo 86. 

As of 2025, George resides in Broadmead Veterans Memorial Lodge in Victoria, British Columbia.