When Esquimalt was the Pacific Station for the Royal Navy

For some reason the City of Vancouver Archives have a bunch of pictures from outside of the city.  In browsing through them I found some photos of Royal Navy ships at the Pacific Station.

HMS Amphion  - Leander Class Protected Cruiser based in Esquimalt from 1897 to 1904
This picture is from 1900

 Esquimalt was the Pacific Ocean home for the Royal Navy from 1865 till 1910.  The first ship based here was earlier, in 1848 the HMS Constance made Esquimalt home.

Having the Royal Navy here for 62 years certainly meant that this region had a closer and stronger connection to the UK than the rest of Western Canada.   Vancouver never had this same sort of direct connection as we had here but oddly enough that is where these pictures ended up.

The single masted ship is the HMS Hermione, a Astarea Class protected cruiser,
the nearer ship and the one in the distance are both Leander Class protected cruisers,
the HMS Amphion and the HMS Arethusa - photo is 1901-1903

Officers of the HMS Reindeer - 1868

HMS Reindeer in Esquimalt in 1868 - this ia Camelion Class sloop

The larger ship is the HMS Shearwater, a Condor Class sloop and eventually the HMCS Shearwater
Small ship is the HMS Egeria, a Fantome Class sloop.  This ship conducted coastal surveys from 1898 to 1910

HMS Zealous a Bulwark Class battleship - flagship of the Pacific Station from 1866 to 1872.
She was built as a wooden hall but converted in iconclad

Officers of the HMS Zealous in 1868