Buy Real Estate in Esquimalt and you are Buying into it's Rich Naval History

Esquimalt has a rich naval history going back to when Her Majesty's ships of war rounded Cape Flattery and entered the Strait of Juan de Fuca in the tense spring and summer of 1846, the year in which the Oregon Boundary Dispute boiled over. The sailing frigate, H .M.S. Fisgard, 1,069 tons, mounting 42 guns, came first under the command of Captain John Alexander Duntze. A fine picture she would make against the background of the snow crowned Olympics. Running before a following wind from the Pacific, every sail drawing full, her frigate lines smooth and graceful as a gull's, her sharp bow cutting a silver streak in the blue-green waters of the Strait, as she headed toward Port Discovery. The Fisgard dropped anchor at Port Discovery on April 30th. From May 5th to 13th, she was anchored near Fort Victoria taking on supplies. On May 13th, she sailed for Admiralty Inlet where she remained near Fort Nisqually until October. From there her officers could keep in close touch, via the overland Cowlitz route, with affairs at Fort Vancouver. One small vessel with steam as well as sail patrolled these waters during the summers of 1846, '47 and '48, H.M. steam vessel Cormorant, a paddle-sloop of 300 horse-power. Commander George Thomas Gordon, described by Rear-Admiral Sir George Francis Seymour, the newly appointed Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Station, as "one of the best steam officers in Her Majesty's service," commanded the Cormorant.

Admiral Seymour had sent her to act as a tender to the naval sailing ships in the North Pacific. In the strong tides and variable winds of these waters, her services for towing were invaluable. "you are to obtain," ran one of Admiral Seymour's instructions to Captain Duntze, "every information in your power as soon as possible after your arrival. whether the Coals which are represented to abound on the Northern part of Vancouver's Island can be collected in sufficient quantity to afford a Supply for Steam Fuel, and respecting the Provisions which the Hudson's Bay Company may have the means of affording to your Ship's Company." The Cormorant was dispatched, late in the summer, to Beaver Harbor to report on the coal deposits there. In his report to Captain Duntze, Commander Gordon mentioned "The difficult and dangerous navigation of Sir George Seymour's Narrows." This is the first use of the name, since shortened to Seymour Narrows, of this well-known rapid with its tidal race and Ripple Rock of ill repute. On June 24th, two surveying ships arrived off Cape Flattery. They were the barque, H.M.S. Herald, in command of Captain Henry Kellett, C.B., R.N., accompanied by a smaller vessel, the brig, H.M.S. Pandora,, Lieutenant Commander James Wood. The Cormorant took them in tow and according to Berthold Seemann, the naturalist aboard the Herald, "lugged us up about sixty or seventy miles, until we had passed Port Victoria. Our knowledge of the place not extending beyond Vancouver's information, we did not know where to look for the Hudson's Bay Company's settlement." The Cormorant was herself a new arrival at Port Discovery and Captain Gordon had not visited the Fort. tucked away in Victoria's inner harbour.

The three ships anchored for the night in Cordova Bay. Next day, the Cormorant towed the Herald and the Pandora. back to an anchorage near Fort Victoria. Seemann wrote delightfully of Fort Victoria as he found it, the beauty of the country around it and the success of its farming activities. Of the Songhees Indian village he wrote: "On the opposite side of the harbor is a large native village; the distance across is only 400 yards, and canoes keep up a constant communication between it and the fort. Certain supplies to the chiefs keep them in good humor with their intruding visitors." He was not impressed by Victoria Harbor but of Esquimalt Harbor he wrote: "Although the entrance of the latter is less than a quarter of a mile wide, yet the depth of water is so convenient that there would be no difficulty in warping a vessel in, and then the most perfect little harbor opens out. The first bay on the right hand going in is sheltered from every wind, and has a depth from five to seven fathoms within a hundred yards of the shore. Victoria may be the farm, but Esquimalt will be the trading port. At present, however, subsistence being the chief object, Victoria no doubt is the most advantageous site for the settlement." The Herald and Pandora. had been charting the west coasts of South and Central America. Their summer occupation of surveying the adjacent harbors of Victoria, Esquimalt and Sooke, with their green, forest-clad shores would be a refreshing interlude.

The Herald, under the command of her distinguished Captain, Henry Kellett, surveyed Sooke Harbor, not altogether to his own satisfaction owing to persistent fogs in August. He intended to return in 1848 but instead was ordered to the Arctic to search for the ill-fated Sir John Franklin Expedition by way of Bering Strait. The Herald spent the summers of 1848, 49 and 50 iii this fruitless search.

The first hydrographic survey of Esquimalt Harbor was commenced in the summer of 1846 by Lieutenant Commander James Wood in the Pandora, assisted by Robert M. Inskip, naval instructor, in H.M.S. Fisgard. Aboard the Fisgard were fourteen young midshipmen. A small school building was erected for them at Fort Nisqually while their ship was anchored there. This building was popularly known among the junior officers as "the castle of indolence." To give practical instruction to his pupils, Mr. Inskip set the midshipmen to work surveying Esquimalt Harbor. They made several surveys under his expert supervision. No doubt the results of their work were useful to Lieutenant-Commander Wood who had only two officers in the Pandora qualified to assist him. The association with the Fisgard was evidently a happy one for we find on Wood's chart of Esquimalt Harbor, published in 1848 by the Admiralty, all the points and islands around the harbor named after the officers of the Fisgard. The rocky island in the harbor's mouth was named Fisgard Island after the ship.

The lighthouse on the island with its unique iron stairway was built in 1859-60 by the Imperial Government. James Douglas, then Governor of the two Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, had previously carried on a lengthy correspondence with Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Secretary of State for the Colonies, urging the erection of this lighthouse and the one on Race Rocks. · The headland on the right 'as you enter the harbor was given the name of the Captain of the Fisgard, Captain Duntze, and is known as Duntze Head. It was on Duntze Head that the first naval buildings were erected on the first land to be reserved for naval purposes on Vancouver Island. Duntze Head is today the site of H.M.C. Dockyard, Esquimalt, with the original reserve of seven acres increased to sixty-one and a half acres. With the Captain's name on the right, the name of the First Lieutenant, John Rashleigh Rodd, was given to Rodd Hill and Rodd Point on the left of the entrance to the Harbor.

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