Collection of around 4000 ship's plans ranging from approximately 1912 to 1960 from Versatile Pacific Shipyards Inc.

The postcard is labeled SS Princess Victoria, Photo by “Trio”, Victoria BC. The annotation on the back dates it at 1908. The image shows the decks of the ship covered in people. In the background is the Pither & Leiser Importers building.
The Princess Victoria, built in 1903, was owned by the CPR Steamship Services and entered Vancouver-Victoria service. In 1934 she was used as a floating hotel in Nanaimo. She had made collisions from the time she was built until 1953 when she sunk while being towed after striking a rock north of Sechelt.

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

This parchment certificate is given as a certificate of competency as master of a passenger steamer in the minor inland waters to John Webber. It was signed by the deputy Minister (illegible) and the Minister of Marine and Fisheries (Louis Henry Davies). The back provides: certificate number 3263, Webber’s birthplace as 27th July 1860 in Newfoundland, his signature, and that the examination for the certificate was done on 18th March 1901. There are some missing letters, ink transferred, and dirt because of its originally folded state.

This slightly blurry photo is of a boat docked at a wharf, but the name of the boat is illegible. On the back the annotation states: Princess boat in Victoria Harbour.

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 article “Princess Joan Makes Last Romantic Midnight Run to Vancouver” was published in a Victoria published newspaper on the Thursday 26th February 1959 on page 17. Provided are four photos with corresponding caption. In the first caption there is reference to GE Mortimore’s “All Aboard” on page 2. The people in the photo include: Captain George Black, fireman David Rees working the boiler, Mr and Mrs WE Roskelley, Dorian John, and steward Nick Temofychuk.

Fonds consists of items related to the seafaring life on the S.F. Tolmie including a certificate to Frankham from 'Neptune' in the crossing the line ceremony and photographs of the crossing the line ceremony, S.F. Tolmie under heaving seas, and of the crew in general. The sound recording (1979) is a taped interview of Dan Frankham describing the voyage to Sydney, Australia in 1922 aboard the S.F. Tolmie.

Fonds consists of 16 logbooks of the motor yacht Discover Isle, written by Captain Beaumont. Also includes a photograph of the yacht.