Graveyard of the Pacific – Shipwrecks of BC

100 years ago, Victoria was the second largest city on the west coast of North America, second only to San Francisco.

It was the port through which thousands of miners of the 1858 Cariboo Gold Rush passed through on their way up to BC’s interior.  Miners and adventurers from the gold fields of California, Australia, and all parts of the world flocked to Victoria which was the only ocean port and outfitting centre for the gold fields of the Cariboo. 

Before the trans-canada railroad was built in 1885, the only way to access western Canada was by ship, so that for nearly 50 years after Victoria was founded by the Hudsons Bay Company in 1843, the City was the western jewel in Canada’s shiny new crown.

The coastal waters around Vancouver Island are also known as the Graveyard of the Pacific. Based only upon the larger vessels – working tugs, lumber barges, freighters, tall ships, war ships and passenger ships – which have been documented it is safe to say there is a wrecked ship for every mile of coast along Vancouver Island.

The Vancouver Island landscape was formed by glaciation. The deep waters and vertical rocky cliffs create unique hazards for coastal ships. The now world-reknowned west coast hiking trail itself traces an old telegraph route that once connected Victoria with Cape Beale near Bamfield. The telegraph line was first carved through the coastal wilderness in 1890, to aid in the rescue of vessels in distress off the southwest coast of Vancouver Island. Many an earlier shipwrecked person has used the trail to “walk-out” of the wilderness.

Shipwrecks Marine Tours

Victoria’s Maritime museum is an excellent source of maritime history. Artifacts from old shipwrecks and ancient settlements can be seen on Mayne Island.

Actual viewing of shipwrecks is limited in most cases to the locations as the ships themselves have in most cases sunk or been washed off the reefs and shores. Locally, here in Victoria the Robertson II was shipwrecked off the coast of Saturna Island in July 2007 and can still be viewed by boat. None of the approximately half a dozen crew members and passengers were injured in the accident, but damage to the ship was fairly significant.

The schooner served for 20 years as a training vessel for thousands of young people in the Sail and Life Training Society, or SALTS. The Robertson II was one of the best-known vessels on the South Island, since she was anchored for a prolonged period in Victoria’s Inner Harbour.

The Robertson II Tall ship schooner shown to the right lays shipwrecked July 2007 on a reef by Saturna Island

Lighthouses Marine Tours

Some 45 staffed and automated lighthouses remain in operation along the coastlines of British Columbia, most off the shore of Vancouver Island.

For a complete list of lighthouses of BC click here

Day trips from Victoria can easily include the lighthouses at Sheringham Point in Sooke, Race Rocks (2nd oldest lighthouse) in Metchosin, Fisgard, Trial Island and Discovery island in Victoria, the Gulf Island of Saturna, and Active Pass. Wildlife viewing is almost always incidental to these trips.

Multi-day trips can also be arranged to view any number of the other 37 lighthouses further up the coast.

Trial Island Lighthouse is located off the southeast tip of Vancouver Island near Victoria, BC

Fisgard Lighthouse is

The first lighthouse on Canada’s west coast is still in operation! There hasn’t been a keeper here since the light was automated in 1929, but every year many thousands of visitors step inside a real l9th century light, and capture some of the feeling of ships wrecked and lives saved.

Built by the British in 1860, when Vancouver Island was not yet part of Canada, Fisgard’s red brick house and white tower has stood faithfully at the entrance to Esquimalt harbour. Once a beacon for the British Royal Navy’s Pacific Squadron, today Fisgard still marks home base for the Royal Canadian Navy.

Inside the building are two floors of exhibits, dealing with shipwrecks, storms, far- flung lights, and the everyday working equipment of the light keeper a century ago. Right next to the tower stirs on the second floor, a specially-made video evokes the loneliness and isolation that was the lot of the l9th century keeper.

Fort Rodd Hill is a National Historic Site and now attached to Fisgard Lighthouse. It is a coast artillery fort built in the late 1890s to defend Victoria and the Esquimalt Naval Base. The Fort includes three gun batteries, underground magazines, command posts, guardhouses, barracks and searchlight emplacements. There are numerous interpretive signs and audio-visual stations, as well as period furnished rooms and friendly, knowledgeable staff.