In the 1930s, the Comox Logging and Railway Company needed a breakwater to shelter its log-boom storage at Royston, six kilometres south of Courtenay. Rather than pour concrete, they bought a series of retired wooden and steel ships and sank them in a line offshore. By 1961 there were fourteen of them, including former Royal Canadian Navy minesweepers, a steam tug, and a converted American whaler.
The hulks are still there, rusting in the shallows just off the Royston seawall. At low tide their ribs, boilers, and engines emerge from the water; you can walk most of the way out to the nearest wrecks on the gravel beach. The site has been protected as a heritage marine landscape since 2010.