For the week of March 2, 2026.
On March 5, 2004, the Government of Canada designated shipbuilding at the Burrard Dry Dock Company a national historic event. Founded in 1894 as a one-man operation, it expanded rapidly over the first half of the 20th century. This critical facility built many warships and merchant navy vessels during the world wars and became one of the largest shipbuilding and repair operations in Canada by the 1950s.
In 1891 Alfred Wallace (1865–1929) left England for Vancouver, British Columbia. He loved his work as a shipwright, even building wooden boats in his backyard in his spare time. In 1894 he began a small shipbuilding and repair business on False Creek, which he incorporated in 1905 as the Wallace Shipyards Company. The next year he established a new shipyard on the north shore of the Burrard Inlet in North Vancouver.
During the First World War (1914–1918), the company began building steel cargo vessels for the Imperial Munitions Board and the Canadian Government Merchant Marine. The North Vancouver shipyard expanded in 1916 to accommodate wartime demand. The company added a dry dock in 1921 and was thereafter known as the Burrard Dry Dock Company Limited. By 1929 it was the largest shipyard in British Columbia. Alfred Wallace died that year, leaving the company to his sons Clarence and Hubert.
The company expanded again during the Second World War (1939–1945), building another shipyard across the harbour to the south. Between 1940 and 1946, it built 126 ships for the war effort and repaired countless more. It produced more 10,000-ton ships than any other Canadian outfit and each of these 109 steel vessels took roughly 100 days to complete. To keep up with demand, the workforce expanded from roughly 200 men to about 12,000 men and a thousand women. Women were hired to do the same shipbuilding work as men for equal pay after 1942, as the departure of men for military service created a labour shortage. All of the women lost their jobs when the war ended.
The Burrard Dry Dock Company was the largest shipbuilding firm in Canada by the 1950s. It continued to expand, adding heavy lift cranes and two more dry docks. From 1951 to 1961, the company repaired 4,001 vessels and built ships for the Royal Canadian Navy, the government of British Columbia, and the British Columbia forest industry. It declined thereafter. Its worst year on record was 1971, when it received no shipbuilding orders. The next year, the Wallace family sold the company to Cornat Industries (later the Versatile Corporation). It was renamed twice in the years that followed and finally closed in 1992.
Shipbuilding at the Burrard Dry Dock Company was designated a national historic event in 2004. The Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada advises the Government of Canada on the commemoration of national historic events, which evoke significant moments, episodes, movements, or experiences in the history of Canada.
The National Program of Historical Commemoration relies on the participation of Canadians in the identification of places, persons and events of national historic significance. Any member of the public can submit a subject to the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. Learn how to participate in this process.