Picture courtesy of historicplacesdays.ca
Kingston Dry Dock and Pumphouse, end of Lower Union St
Commemoration
Mississauga Point was for over 150 years the site of amajor shipyards where Kingston was one of the important ports and ship building centres on the Great Lakes. The significance of this industry led the federal government to construct the dry dock in 1890. Initially operated by the Department of Public Works as a repair facility for lake vessels, it was enlarged and leased in 1910 to the Kingston Shipbuilding Company, the first of a series of private concerns which operated the shipyard until 1968. During the Second World War naval vessels, notably corvettes, were build in this shipyard.
Background
The first ship laid down in the Kingston Drydock was PolanaI, a quarantine cutter built for the Department of Agriculture. It was completed in 1911. The last ship built was Scow #108, for the Department of Transport in 1967. Ships were also built for the Royal Canadian Navy, the City of Toronto (ferry), the Hudson Bay Co., the Coast Guard, the RCMP, the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Ontario Department of Highways (another ferry).
In the Second World War, corvettes were the most common ship in the Royal Canadian Navy. They did exemplary service on the North Atlantic protecting convoys.
Mississauga Point is named after the Mississauga people who lived here before the refugees from the south came and sold the land to the British government.