LS LINA, HMS FANTOME and HMS NEW ZEALAND
Photographer
Frederick Garner Wilkinson
(1901-1975)
Datec 1924
Object number00037688
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
DescriptionLS LINA of Sydney, HMS FANTOME and HMS NEW ZEALAND are shown at Garden Island, Sydney. This photograph was taken by Frederick Wilkinson from the Domain near Mrs Macquarie's chair.HistoryHMS NEW ZEALAND was an Indefatigable class battle cruiser financed by the New Zealand Government and given as a gift to the Royal Navy. It was the sister ship to HMAS AUSTRALIA, also an Indefatigable class Battle Cruiser. It was launched on 1 July 1911 and sold to be broken up in 1922. NEW ZEALAND was active during World War I in the Battle of Heligoland Bight (1914), the Battle of Dogger Bank (1915) and the Battle of Jutland (1916). Under the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 NEW ZEALAND was sold to be broken up.
HMS FANTOME was a Cadmus class sloop built for the Royal Navy Survey Service in 1901. From 1907 to 1914 it undertook survey operations in Australian waters, particularly of the Great Barrier Reef. Commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy and renamed HMAS FANTOME, the ship was despatched to New Guinea to take part in operations against German settlements. It returned to Sydney in 1915 to be fitted with armament and was detached for Blockade Patrol operating mainly in the Bay of Bengal. This was followed in 196 by patrols east of Singapore with home base being Sandakan in Borneo. HMAS FANTOME returned to Sydney late in 1917 and was then despatched to the western Pacific to undertake police duties, based at Suva, Fiji.
The ship was paid off in January 1919 and returned to the Royal Navy - taking up the name HMS FANTOME again in April 1920 and resuming survey duties. On 9 January 1924, having completed surveys of the western approaches to Endeavour Strait and the Prince of Wales Channel (Torres Strait), HMS FANTOME returned for the final time to Sydney. It was paid off for disposal on 17 April 1924 and sold in Jnuary 1925 to William Waugh Ltd of Balmain. FANTOME was hulked and used as a barge until it was destroyed in 1956.SignificanceThe 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.
