SS KATHLAMBA

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date20 December 1923

Object number00040916

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionSS KATHLAMBA is shown at wharf No 4 Wooloomooloo on Thursday 20 December 1923.HistoryKATHLAMBA was a steel screw steamship owned by Ellerman Bucknall Steam Ship Company Limited and launched in 1913. It was built by W Gray & Co at Hartlepool, Britain. The steel steam ship had a tonnage of 6382.SignificanceThis photograph 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 gradual decline of the coastal trade, and in a period which was probably the peak reached by commercial shipping in Australia. The backgrounds also reveal the changing face of the city and harbour foreshores.