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One of the three harbors of the Port of Victoria, B. C.—Known as the Inner Harbor | Victoria Is Canada’s Pacific Gateway The First and Last Port of Call for the Pacific Northwest ROBABLY even the youngest P:: of a sailor or any man who takes an interest in marine mat- ters knows that Victoria, the capital city of British Columbia, is on the southern end of Vancouver Island and is the first and last Pacific port of call not only for Canada but also for all the Pacific Northwest. Situated as she is on the Straits of Juan de Fuca all vessels in or outward bound to or from Seattle and Vancouver pass her front door. And one should re- member that during recent years great changes have taken place in the movements of shipping on the Pacific Coast. In the past, San Fran- cisco was the principal port but to- day a great and growing volume of shipping passes through the Straits of Juan de Fuca en route to Seattle and other Washington ports and Van- couver City and _ British Columbia generally. Perhaps because she has been more interested in the past years in other commercial and _ industrial pursuits than in purely maritime matters, Vic- toria does not rank quite so highly as a port as her natural position and advantages should place her. Still the number of vessels arriving and clear- ing, both ocean and coastal, in 1924 was 10,674, with a tonnage of 10,- 099,978. While these figures place Victoria as the second largest port BY FRANK GIOIMA in Canada, the number of vessels is small when one considers the harbor facilities available. And in talking of Victoria as a port one should really use the plural, for Victoria has no less than three excellent harbors. The outer harbor comprising Rithet’s wharves with an area of 16 acres and the Canadian National docks at Ogden Point, covering some 380 acres; the inner harbor; and the famous Esqui- malt harbor, 940 acres in extent. The outer harbor and Esquimalt harbor are used chiefly by ocean going ships, while the inner harbor is. used by coastwise vessels. Besides these har- bors safe sheltered anchorage can be found in the Royal roads off the en- trance to Esquimalt harbor. The outer docks are able to berth any ship afloat and all vessels can enter and leave under their own steam. When the ships of the special] British Empire squadron visited Vic- toria, both the Hoop and REPULSE not only entered the Ogden Point docks under their own steam but tied up alongside each other in the same basin. The Ogden Point docks have two piers protected by a solid granite block breakwater 2750 feet in length. One side of the pier nearest the break- water is 1000 feet in length. The other side, and the sides of the adjoining piers are each 800 feet. The width 26 of each pier is 250 feet, separated by a minimum depth of 38 feet at low tide. These piers have a ware- house space of 180,000 square feet, fresh water hose connections every twenty feet, good passenger accom- modations and conveniences. All berths. on pier A are fitted with floating fender logs and the corners of both piers have spring buffers. As both piers are constructed of solid stone and cement they will carry any weight. There is ample berthage for eight ocean going vessels. Besides other merchandise, over 12,000,000 feet of lumber was shipped from the Og- den Point docks during the twelve months ending April 30, 1925, and the Canadian National railroads, man- ager of this property for the Cana- dian government, now has under ad- visement the organization there of & lumber assembly plant for the whole island, the lumber resources of which are over 120 billion feet, and the erec- tion of grain elevators, these latter to facilitate the shipping of Canadian wheat via the Pacific Coast and Panama to Europe. Rithet’s wharf, being the other sec- tion of Victoria’s outer harbor, com- prises three wharves in from 27 to 33 feet of water. The first of these known as No. 1 wharf'has a length of 688 feet by 100 feet wide and @ shed of 541 feet by 60 feet, with @