Emplacement
This is now a lookout on a high point of Gonzales Hill just to the east of the observatory. It was constructed in WWII as part of the naval harbour defences. I believe it held a search light.
When built it had a gable roof where the viewing platform is in order to make it look like a house on the hill. Likewise the “wood siding” moulded into the concrete. There are terrific views from here to the west over Gonzales Bay (in more nautical times called Foul Bay due to it being foul with rock) as well as to the east out over San Juan Island to the mainland.
To open the gallery below click on any image and use the arrows to navigate and escape to return to this page.
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- foul
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- pony-tail?
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- rise
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- hand
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- sealed
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- look!
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Canon EOS 5D MkII, Canon 50mm/f1.4 lens, ISO100
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burnt embers 
A fine place to see a giant, 72,000 ton Japanese battle ship nosing round the corner into Haro Strait. “The guns on the Yamato and the Musashi made the ships unique…… They reportedly both possessed 18.1 inch guns. Nothing afloat was comparably equipped. The ships had nine of the giant guns apiece, each of which could hurl a shell 35 miles and pierce 16 inches of steel plate”.
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If they could fire from 35 miles, then this search light would have been useless, as would the guns on this side of the Strait. However, the Americans had some huge (45 feet long) artillery pieces across the way at Camp Hayden capable of hurling a 1 ton projectile 28 miles – it is an interesting place to visit, or at least was when I was there 35 years ago. Aircraft carriers would have been a major concern I think. As it turned out, the only action on land along the BC coast came from Japanese submarines firing on lighthouse(s) and letting loose balloons with incendiary devices in a futile attempt to set the forests on fire.
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Lovely shots =)
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Thank you!
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