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It covers a wide range of West Coast maritime history. Starting with the photo of the disaster of Point Ellice Bridge in 1896 that belonged to a Mrs A Haggart. It also contains a postcard of HMS Hood, photos of different ships in Victoria, photos of DGS Samson and crew, postcard of the Inner Harbour, Dawson Steamer journeying to White Horse, and a panorama view of the workers of the Foundation Co BC Ltd and some of their ships. The newspaper clippings cover the last trip of SS Princess Joan to Vancouver.
The fonds consists of:
1 series that contains 2 newspaper clippings
1 certificate
12 photographs

The series contains 2 newspaper article clippings regarding the final Canadian voyage of the Princess Joan between Victoria and Vancouver in 1959.
The Princess Joan was built in 1930 in Scotland by the Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd. for the Canadian Pacific Steamships. Since the beginning of her trips she has had a number of collisions, including with the Bamfield (who was rum running), and the Squid (who was carrying 400 cases of dynamite to the Britannia Mine), both who sank. Princess Joan was withdrawn from service in 1959 and sold to a company in Cyprus.
George Mortimore wrote for the Daily Colonist from 1945 to 1962, and from 1950 he did a portion of the newspaper called “All Aboard” that continued for 11 years were he wrote profiles on many different types of people. From the time of his return from serving in the military until he moved to Toronto to write in The Globe and Mail. He would later go on to teach anthropology in universities in Guelph, Edmonoton, Vancouver and Victoria.

The oversize postcard provides a view of the inner harbour. There is a ship docked on the left side of the image, there is one boat in the harbour and a seaplane docked in the harbour in front of the Empress. The Johnson Street Blue Bridge can be seen in the distance. There are two buildings in the middle of the photo, the one in the back is the Post Office, and across the street to the right is the Belmont Hotel. On the bottom right corner of the postcard is the words Inner Harbour, Victoria BC. There is a crease down the middle of the postcard and there are some marks of dirt and other creases on the postcard.
The back of the postcard provides more information about what is being shown: Inner Harbour Causeway. This striking panorama, taken from the dome of the Provincial Parliament Buildings, shows Victoria Inner harbour and a section of Victoria City, looking north on Government Street. The CPR Empress Hotel appears on the right, and also seen are the Belmont Building and the Post Office. The Cenotaph, situated on the grounds of the Parliament Buildings, is a fitting memorial to the heroes of 1914-1918. Victoria, capital of British Columbia is a magic combination of modern metropolis and garden city. Photo Courtesy CNR.
From the view of an expansion and the ivy covering a portion of the Empress hotel this postcard was made around 1930s. The hotel was built in 1908, with one expansion occurring in 1910-1912 and another in 1928.

This photograph is formed by two large photos taped together. The panorama on the bottom half of the photograph is made up of 5 photos showing the workers of the Foundation Company BC Ltd. Their motto on a banner placed behind them that says: go easy. One ship a week. That’s all.
Although the 5 photos are placed together well there is still some faces that were lost in the making of the panorama. There are also the visible torsos of people sitting and standing on the roof of the building that were cut off.
The panorama photo along the top half of the photograph is made up of another 5 photos, but they were less well placed so there are obvious cuts in the image. This panorama shows boats that were in the company’s dock. One of the 5 photos shows a sign that says: Foundation Company BC Ltd SO Pier Hulls 211, 220, 221 9/15/19. There are two visible ship names, the Trois Rivieres and the Montreal (whose port of registration is Le Havre).
Regarding damage to the photo, there are quite a few things. There are four holes where it appears that when the two photos taped together they were held together with a ribbon or something similar. There is also some discoloration because of the age of the photo, but also because of what appears to be some water damage, all of this primarily over the faces of people. There are also a number of creases. The back shows a number of stains from liquids and also potentially a burn from where something hot was placed.
The foundation Company leased the shipyard in 1917 until 1928 which would be named Point Hope Shipyards in 1938 by the then owners Island Tug and Barge. During that time they built 25 wooden cargo ships. The list of the 25 ships that they built between 1917 and 1919 show that only 5 were for The Shipping Controller, with the rest being owned by the French Government, which includes Trois Rivieres and Montreal which were both built in 1919. Trois Rivieres and Montreal were scrapped in 1925.

The photo shows 27 men standing on the ship in front of the bridge. The annotation on the back says: This is the crew of the DGS Samson and the Government Surveying party bound for the (illegible) with the initials JSK (James Stanley Keefe). DGS stood for Dominion Government ship and by the 1950s the term Dominion of Canada was no longer used by the United Kingdom. Parts of the image have faded and the card has some slight creases.

The photo shows the profile of HMS Hood with six tenders in the water with people in them.The postcard under the photograph provides the information regarding length (860’7”), beam (105’2.5”), displacement (44,600 tons) and complement (1,510.
Hood was built in Scotland in 1920. It was built as a warship for the British Royal Navy. Hood and Repulse visited on 25 June 1924.

The photo shows 24 men on different parts of the boat for the photo, including laying on the roof. The boat has an a-frame crane at the stern. The photos is slightly faded. The annotation on the back says: This is the DGS Samson & Crew with the initials JSK
DGS stood for Dominion Government ship and by the 1950s the term Dominion of Canada was no longer used by the United Kingdom. Parts of the image have faded and the card has some slight creases.

This photo is focused on the bridge and mast with all the satellites, and a half-brick chimney. At the stern of the boat there is an A-frame crane. The annotation on the back say says Navy boat in Esquimalt. It was placed together with three other photos.

This photo shows a profile view of FY16, out possibly for a sea trail upon being built. It was placed together with three other photos.
It was built in 1942 in Victoria for the government. From 1942-45 it was in the Fishermen’s Reserve where it served as a patrol vessel and a tender to HMCS Givenchy and HMCS Chatham.

This photo shows the profile of the Dawson with people on its decks. The caption at the bottom of the photo says B-Y Navigation Company Steamer leaving Dawson for White Horse (June 13, 1901) by Goetzman. The sternwheeler’s name is visible in this profile view.
Dawson was originally built in 1897 for Canadian Pacific but was sold in 1899. In 1901 she was rebuilt in Dawson for the British-Yukon Navigation Company until she foundered at Rink Rapids in 1926. She was named after the geologist George Mercer Dawson. She was 167 feet long.
The British Yukon Navigation Company was registered in Victoria on 28 March 1901.