Seattle Now and Then

Seattle Now & Then: Elliott Bay, 1982

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THEN: Showcased by the Seattle skyline, newly licensed as captain for Seattle Harbor Tours (renamed Argosy Cruises in 1994), Paul Dudley hangs off the starboard side of a company tour boat in the middle of Elliott Bay in 1982. (Courtesy of Paul Dudley)
NOW: Framed by a more intensely developed downtown skyline, Dudley strikes the same pose from close to the same location as the 1982 photo. “As soon as you pull away from the dock,” he says, “within five minutes you’re a mile from anybody, and that’s a really special thing about Puget Sound.” (Clay Eals)

Published in The Seattle Times online on Sept. 10, 2026
and in Pacific NW Magazine of the printed Times on Sept. 13, 2026

Waterborne warmth

From Puget Sound ‘office,’ colorful captain
creates extraordinary moments for kids

By Clay Eals

Aboard an Argosy tour boat in Elliott Bay, a winsome 10-year-old boy looks to the pilothouse, a gleam in his eye.

NOW: Aboard the 1976 Argosy boat Goodtime II, Lizzie Rallo, 8, grabs the wheel while sister Lilly, 10, and Paul Dudley look on during an early August cruise of Puget Sound. Newer boats replaced such large wheels with small, double-handled levers. When letting kids “steer,” Dudley keeps his hand on the boat’s real levers. (Courtesy of Paul Dudley)

“Want to come up?” asks the captain. The boy nods. “Come on up.” The captain points out a worn chair and double-handled lever. “Crawl right up here. You want to drive the boat? Grab this thing right here. Push it that way. OK, now let go. See out there how the whole boat’s moving? Yeah, you did that. Now, push it that way. There we go. You didn’t even crash. I’m so proud of you.

“Oh my gosh, you just ran over a salmon. …”

Classic seafaring shtick, honed for nearly half a century. It enchants every time.

Meet Paul Dudley, better known by a ludicrous yet felicitous moniker: “Mooselips.” He worked for the old Seattle Marine Aquarium in 1975-76, moved to Seattle Harbor Tours (now Argosy) in 1978 as a sidewalk barker and in 1979 as a deckhand, graduating in 1982 to captain.

NOW: On a weekday morning in August, Dudley, in colorful duds, leads veteran Camp Sealth campers to an Argosy cruiser affably dubbed “DABOATA.” He identifies with children leery of a first sleepover trip away from home. “I was that kid who was so freaked out about going to camp,” he says. “When I was 8 or 9, my parents drove me all the way to some horse camp in eastern Washington, and I wouldn’t get out of the car.” (Clay Eals)

Skippering summertime waterfront cruises, Dudley dresses the part. But on select mornings, escorting boatloads of kids from Pier 55 to 106-year-old Camp Sealth on Vashon Island, he’s ablaze with color. Tie-dyed from headband to jacket, pants and shoes, a rainbow cape fluttering behind, microphone in hand and in perpetual motion, he’s a nonstop josher and pied piper.

Dudley’s jovial journeys derive from Bellevue high-school years when, as yearbook editor, “I was the guy who was always, ‘Wouldn’t this be a great moment? We’ll look back on this one day, and it’ll be incredible.’ ”

THEN: A youngster’s colorful depiction of “Mooselips” Paul Dudley and “DABOATA” that he pilots to Camp Sealth on Vashon Island. (Courtesy of Paul Dudley)

For decades, doubling as a professional photographer, the Poulsbo resident has created memorable moments waterborne. He’s especially proud of having volunteered since 1984 to work Argosy-sponsored party cruises at Vashon-based Camp Goodtimes for children with cancer and their siblings.

Dudley today entertains children and grandchildren of adults he first entranced as kids. “It’s cool to see people tearing up when they see me.” Winking, he adds, “I’m not sure it’s because they’re sentimental, or because they’re so sad to see how much I’ve aged.”

NOW: Passing the Space Needle, Dudley pilots an Argosy cruise boat on a one-hour tour of Elliott Bay. (Clay Eals)

“Look at this,” he gestures from an Argosy pilothouse. “My office is 100 miles from north to south. Not many people have orca whales swim through their office. … It takes such little effort to turn an ordinary day into an extraordinary day if you put a little oomph into it.”

On an August morning, as hundreds of parents wave goodbye from Pier 55 to a Dudley-piloted boat full of camp-bound youngsters, one mom sighs: “They’re going to have so much fun. They’re the luckiest kids.”

WEB EXTRAS

Big thanks to Paul Dudley and Dina Skeels for their invaluable help with this installment!

To see Clay Eals‘ 360-degree video of the “Now” prospect and compare it with the “Then” photos while hearing this column read aloud by Clay, check out our Seattle Now & Then 360 version of the column.

Below, you will find 1 additional video, 3 additional photos and 5 historical clips from The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer online archive (available via Seattle Public Library), Newspapers.com, Washington Digital Newspapers and other sources that were helpful in the preparation of this column.

THEN: In the early 1990s, kids bound for Camp Sealth on Vashon Island shower Dudley with packages of Hostess Twinkies as part of a tradition he started while “inspecting” campers’ lunch boxes. Over the years, campers have brought him Twinkies, or if not, as he asks, at least a smile. (Courtesy of Paul Dudley)
NOW: True to tradition, campers in August again shower Dudley with Twinkies. By this summer’s end, he will have collected (and then distributed) 60,000 Twinkies in some 35 years. (Clay Eals)
THEN/NOW: Dina Skeels of Normandy Park rides with Capt. Paul Dudley on an August cruise. (Clay Eals) Inset: Skeels as a camper in 1984. (Paul Dudley)
June 12, 1984, Seattle Times, p6.
Aug. 21, 1984, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p25-26.
Oct. 11, 1989, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p2.
June 29, 1995, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p21.
June 25, 1996, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p19-20.

 

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