Esquimalt ends dependence on American dry docks

Before Esquimalt had a suitable graving dock, ships requiring dry work had to go to Seattle in the United States. Reducing that foreign dependence justified surveying the site in the late 1860s, although funding and construction stretched over many years. The project cost roughly 1.2 million dollars by the time it was commissioned in 1887, a major infrastructure commitment for the period. Its continuing use by the Royal Canadian Navy shows that a naval facility can remain valuable long after its original strategic setting changes.