HMS WELLINGTON anchored at Farm Cove
Photographer
Frederick Garner Wilkinson
(1901-1975)
Date4 May 1935
Object number00037666
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
DimensionsOverall: 82 x 103 mm, 2 mm, 0.04 kg
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineANMM Collection Purchased with USA Bicentennial Gift funds
DescriptionThe Royal Navy ship HMS WELLINGTON is shown anchored at Farm Cove, Sydney on 4 May 1935. Photographer Frederick Wilkinson captured a number of navy vessels active in Sydney Harbour during the first half of the 20th century.HistoryHMS WELLINGTON was launched at Devonport Dockyard, Plymouth in 1934 for the Royal Navy and was a Grimsby class sloop. Prior to World War II WELLINGTON served in the Pacific region including operations in China and New Zealand. In the war years WELLINGTON conducted many convoy operations in the Atlantic.
The ship is currently moored on the Thames and has been recommissioned HQS WELLINGTON, the headquarters of the Honourable Company of Master Mariners. It is the last of the 13 ships of the class built in the 1930s to serve primarily as convoy escorts. Four of the class were built for the Royal Australian Navy (HMA Ships PARRAMATTA, SWAN, WARREGO and YARRA).SignificanceThis photograph is representative of the Royal Navy's HMS WELLINGTON in Sydney Harbour prior to World War II. The print is part of the F G Wilkinson Photograph Collection, comprising more than 700 glass plate negatives of ships in Sydney Harbour between 1919 and 1936. The collection provides an extensive and well-documented coverage of the changing styles of shipping in the port of Sydney before the decline of the coastal trade. The backgrounds also reveal the changing face of the city and harbour foreshores.
