Steered by rich river of a life

Loving husband, brother and father was thrilled to pilot Paddlewheel Queen and Princess up and down the Red River

By: Aaron Epp

Steve Hawchuk needed more than romantic love and oxygen to sustain his life. Some say he was married to his boats; others say he breathed them.

For more than 40 years, Hawchuk was the captain and co-owner of the Paddlewheel Queen and Paddlewheel Princess, massive riverboats that ferried people along the Red River.

By Hawchuk’s count, the Queen alone carried two million passengers during his time operating it from 1969 to 2013, and the Princess another 400,000. Hawchuk also ran the River Rouge, previously his competitor, for 13 years, during which time he carried another 240,000 passengers.

The boats made more than 10,400 cruises, attracting people from all walks of life — something in which Hawchuk took great pride.

“He enjoyed meeting all the passengers from around the world and the Winnipeg area,” said his wife, Esther Nagtegaal-Hawchuk. “I think being part of the province’s maritime heritage meant a lot to Steve.”

Hawchuk died in Winnipeg on July 4. He was 87 years old.

The entrepreneur was born to William and Tekla Hawchuk in Malartic, Que. A few weeks after Hawchuk’s birth, the family relocated to a farm north of Selkirk along the Red River. Growing up on a farm provided a strong foundation for the rest of Hawchuk’s life, and instilled in him a work ethic he carried with him until he died.

It was during these years that Hawchuk and his older half brother, Joe Slogan, fell in love with the water. They especially enjoyed watching boats cruise by the farm.

Hawchuk left school in Grade 11, eventually settling into a job as a bookkeeper at a concrete company. Hawchuk and Slogan didn’t know anything about boats when the Queen and Princess went up for sale at the end of the 1960s, but that didn’t stop them from purchasing the pair.

Slogan, a dentist, was the financier, and Hawchuk was the hands-on operator and manager, according to Nagtegaal-Hawchuk.

Hawchuk increased the number of daily cruises and expanded the menus of the on-board restaurants, working day and night during the seven-month boating season to create what would become a Winnipeg tradition for decades.

During the most successful seasons, the boats employed around 100 people and carried more than 80,000 passengers. In addition to the many local professional athletes who stepped on board over the years, celebrity guests included KFC founder Col. Harland Sanders, American singer Frankie Valli, and environmentalist and broadcaster David Suzuki.

In 1975, Hawchuk married Helga Harder. Daughter Cindy was born two years later, and son Andrew was born a couple of years after that. Helga ran the household, while Hawchuk tended to the boats.

“He was dedicated to his profession,” Andrew Hawchuk said in an email. “They were his means of supporting us (his family) but they also were kind of his first priority … So he was a man of his business, and then a family man, second.”

Andrew has fond childhood memories of riding the boats as much as he wanted, and celebrating his July birthday with friends on the Queen. At age 16, he started a five-year stint working with his father.

“I learned lots about not just seamanship but management as I watched him and worked with him running the boats,” he said. “He was a very good business manager and served as a good mentor in that area.”

Cindy Hawchuk recalls her mother saying that Hawchuk was married to the boats. According to her, Helga had a profound influence on many aspects of the business.

The boats “wouldn’t have been the same without her,” Cindy Hawchuk said. “I just look at them as such a partnership during those years.”

Cindy Hawchuk recalls happy times watching Disney programming together as a family on Sunday nights. Hawchuk called her Cinderella.

“I adored him so much,” Cindy Hawchuk said, adding: “(My mother and father) had extremely strong work ethics, and I see it in both my brother and I.”

Some time after Helga Hawchuk died from cancer in March 2011, Hawchuk started dating Esther Nagtegaal, a former River Rouge captain. The two had known each other professionally but not personally. They fell in love and were married by the end of 2012.

Nagtegaal had been a single mother for many years to her two children, son Jared and daughter Javan, and Hawchuk became their father. Jared was an adult at that time and no longer living at home, but Hawchuk took to his new role in Javan’s life.

“He just embraced her and the whole task of raising a special needs adult,” Nagtegaal-Hawchuk said. “Love, compassion, understanding — he just was able to give so much time.”

Javan Nagtegaal recalls Hawchuk’s kindness and generosity.

“Growing up, all I had and needed was my mom and older brother,” she said. “I didn’t have a dad and didn’t think I needed one. But when my mom married Capt. Steve, everything changed for the better … (He was) a father I never knew I needed …”

Jared Nagtegaal, who grew up around the riverboats, describes Hawchuk as dedicated and driven.

“For over a decade now I’ve called Steve ‘Dad’ and my children have grown up calling him ‘Opa,’” he said in an email. “I have many fond memories of Steve and the (riverboats), and beyond that, I watched him love my mom and sister, and care for them in an honourable way, and he’ll always have my respect and appreciation for that.”

Hawchuk’s eldest children were glad their father found Esther.

“She is an old soul — they have so many things in common,” Cindy Hawchuk said. “It just made so much sense to me.”

Hawchuk retired in 2013. Interest in Winnipeg’s riverboats had declined significantly by then. Only the Queen was on the river the last two seasons, with a combined 15,000 passengers those years. When Hawchuk left the business, the boats were retired in the Selkirk Slough.

Hawchuk spent his retirement with his wife in their West St. Paul home on the Red River. Listening to musicians like Dutch violinist André Rieu, studying the Second World War and riding his tractor were favourite activities. Hawchuk and Nagtegaal-Hawchuk also went to the Cayman Islands for two weeks each winter to visit Slogan, with whom Hawchuk remained close until Slogan’s death in November 2024.

In 2022, Hawchuk published a book, Welcome Aboard! My 44-Year Journey on the Red. His intention was to document not just his memories, but the wider history of riverboats in Winnipeg.

“People say to me that if the riverboats were brought back today, they would book passage in a heartbeat,” he wrote in the book. “I feel the same way. I’d steer them again in a heartbeat.”

The boats provided a good life for the captain, Nagtegaal-Hawchuk said, adding that Hawchuk breathed the boats.

“As long as the Red River flows into Winnipeg, I hope he’s remembered,” she said. “He meant so much to so many people.”

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca