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The naval shore facility at Esquimalt was commissioned as HMCS Naden on 3 September 1922. It was named for the facility’s Depot Ship, HMCS Naden, a small wooden schooner built in 1913 that previously had been used for coastal surveys and cadet training. During WWII, Naden became the primary naval training centre for Western Canada. When CFB Esquimalt came into being on 1 April 1966, HMCS Naden became part of the base.

Prior to the unification of the Canadian Forces, shore establishments of the Royal Canadian Navy were designated as “ships”. HMCS Naden comprised the naval barracks and training schools located on the north side of Esquimalt harbour. The Department of National Defence area on the south side of the harbour was described as HMC Dockyard. After WWII, all naval personnel in Esquimalt, other than naval reservists belonging to HMCS Malahat, were administered by HMCS Naden. In the early years of the Royal Canadian Navy, shore-based naval personnel were borne on the books of an actual ship; initially HMCS Rainbow, and later HMCS Naden, a schooner which was a tender to the Royal Naval College located in the Dockyard after 1918. In 1922 administration of personnel was moved ashore to the embryo base on the north shore of the harbour and the name HMCS Naden came ashore as well. During WWII, the dockyard was administered as HMCS Givenchy. The Commanding Officer Pacific Coast moved to Vancouver in 1942 to operate out of a joint headquarters with the senior army and air force officers in British Columbia. HMCS Burrard administered naval personnel on the lower mainland and formally flew the Admiral’s flag. HMCS Naden became Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt in 1966.

B.C. Ferries

Coastal freighter built in the United Kingdom. She was sunk as artificial reef off Portland Island near Sidney, BC in 1991.

Steel twin screw, 5,875 tons gross, passenger steamer operated by Canadian Pacific Railway, served as troop transport in WWII. She was grounded in Lynn Canal Alaska in 1952 and foundered.

Worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway during the 1950s.

903 grt ferry, in B.C. Ferries' V-class. Later enlarged to expand capacity.

21,939 gross ton, belonging to B.C. Ferries. Along with the other Spirit-class vessel, it is the largest in the B.C. Ferries fleet. This ship was designed by a Danish naval architect and assembled from modules built in several shipyards. They inaugurated a new standard of passenger amenities and interior style in the B.C. Ferries fleet that has been matched in subsequent retrofits to older ferries and in new construction vessels built in Germany and Poland.