Then and Now

By Bob Tuomi

Then...

Image F-09699 courtesy of the Royal BC Museum, BC Archives

It was 1939 and Canada was at war. To aid the war effort and as part of the industrialization strategy for Canada, Ottawa embarked on a major ship building program.

In response, Victoria Machinery Depot purchased the old Rithet piers and adjoining property at 33 Dallas Road. The new shipyard was designed with 2 launching ways able to handle large cargo vessels and to facilitate the "new way" of ship building, involving welding and prefabrication. Three locomotive type cranes were installed to move prefabricated sections elsewhere on the site for final assembly. At the peak of wartime production VMD had as many as 3000 employees working 3 shifts, 7 days a week, and completed 5 warships and 20 "Victory Ships." Canada, in all, turned out 487 warships and 438 merchantmen, a major contribution to the Allied war effort as well as the establishment of Canada as a major shipbuilding nation.

The photograph, courtesy of the B.C. Archives, is of the S.S. Seven Oaks Park being launched at the Victoria Machinery Depot's Shoal Point Yard. Note the Ogden Point wharves in the distance.

...Now

Victoria Machinery Depot discontinued use of the Shoal point site in 1975. The property in time became the home for the Canadian Coast Guard Regional Operations Centre; the HMCS Malahat,, home for Victoria's Naval Reserve, and for the award-winning Shoal Point condominium complex.