The Pacific Ocean included the following main British controlled naval dockyard areas by 1845:
The British steadily expanded their presence in Hong Kong from 1844 until 1900, starting just with Hong Kong Island, then obtaining the Kowloon Peninsular and in 1899 the New Territories. Hong Kong proved a major entrepôt for trade with China.
Wei Hai Wei was something on an anomaly with the Royal Navy trying to utilise this Island much the same as they did Ascension Island. The location was primarily used as a summer anchorage for the Navy and many locals from the area where recruited into the 1st Chinese Regiment which had is depot on Wei Hai Wei Island.
As with Hong Kong the initial impetus for expansion was primarily trade and Singapore became an import hub location between the Indian Empire and Hong Kong.
Eastern Seaboard of Australia and Tasmania
A dispersed collection of coastal defences were built along the Eastern Seaboard of Australia. Sydney was the principal naval base.
New Zealand had a number of valuable harbours, although Auckland and Wellington were the principal defended ports.
On the Western coast of Canada, Esquimalt was over 7,500 miles from Halifax. It was heavily defended from the 1850s onwards.
