Floating households

Summary

Victoria's Inner Harbour in 1912.
Image courtesy of BC Archives, A-05639.

This iconic picture of Victoria’s Inner Harbour was taken from the top of the Empress Hotel in 1912 by a professional photographer, Edgar Fleming. Over the years, it was reprinted by the firm of Fleming Brothers many times as a postcard, with the aim of evoking the prosperous, bustling character of the provincial capital.

As this research project has shown, beneath the visible activity of ships and wharves in the photo, there existed a series of distinctive floating households, each organized according to different forms of labour, hierarchy, and economic purpose.

Floating households differed in both scale and organizational structure. Tugs comprised the smallest units, operating with minimal crew members. In contrast, coastal freighters and government vessels accommodated several dozen personnel, while passenger steamers maintained large, highly structured crews. Compensation methods also varied: crews on sealing schooners and certain whaling boats received piece-rate payments, whereas most other vessel crews in Victoria were employed under fixed annual wage arrangements.

Nominal census records offer a remarkably detailed overview of the pay structure for maritime wageworkers. Captains of large passenger steamships earned the highest wages, closely followed by chief engineers on these vessels. Next in line, generally in order from higher to lower pay, were deck officers and department heads (such as chief stewards and pursers), then wireless operators, winchmen, firemen, seamen, deckhands, waiters, and mess boys.

Census records also show recognizable patterns within this workforce. Seafarers from Atlantic Canada, Great Britain, and Scandinavia (notably Norway) predominated in the senior ranks; Chinese cooks were common on most vessels and were relatively well paid; Indigenous crew were exclusive to sealing schooners.

The 1911 census captures this maritime world at a moment of transition. Sealing was in decline, while a steam-powered whaling fishery was booming. At the same time, passenger and freight services, supported by the everyday work of tugs and harbour maintenance vessels, reflected Victoria's buoyant economy.

Viewed together, these vessels reveal Victoria's harbour in 1911 as a complex and dynamic environment. And the Fleming Brothers photo from 1912 is all the more interesting if we visualize the ships as homes of maritime workers.