Fisgard Island
Fisgard Island, and the cluster of rocks surrounding it, pokes out from the end of a narrow spit, into the western entrance to Esquimalt Harbour. The Island is home to British Columbia’s first lighthouse, built in 1860, which still functions in two capacities: as an automated lighthouse, and as a national historic site, so designated in 1972.1 The islands, rocks, and lighthouse draw their name from HMS Fisgard, which was captained by John Alexander Duntze from 1843-47, and was one of the first Royal Navy vessels to anchor in Esquimalt Harbour.2
  • 1. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 201.
  • 2. Ibid., 200.
Mentions of this place in the documents
People in this document

Duntze, Captain John Alexander

Vessels in this document

HMS Fisgard, 1819-1879

Places in this document

British Columbia

Esquimalt Harbour

The Colonial Despatches Team. Fisgard Island. The Colonial Despatches of Vancouver Island and British Columbia 1846-1871, Edition 2.0, ed. The Colonial Despatches Team. Victoria, B.C.: University of Victoria. https://bcgenesis.uvic.ca/fisgard_island.html.

Last modified: 2020-03-30 13:22:16 -0700 (Mon, 30 Mar 2020) (SVN revision: 4193)