SS NARKUNDA

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date6 December 1923

Object number00040919

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionSS NARKUNDA was photographed in Sydney Harbour on Thursday morning, 6 December 1923. The steamer played an active role in the transportation of passengers and mail to Australia during the first half of the 20th century.HistoryNARKUNDA was a 16,500 ton gross steamer that was active on the Australian passenger service run. It was built by Caird & Co at Greenock in 1920 and was capable of accommodating 650 passengers and 277,090 cubic feet of grain and 103,000 cubic feet of insulated cargo. During World War II the vessel was used as a troop transport. On 14 November 1942 it was sunk by German bombers after it left Bougie, Algeria having delivered troops for the campaign in North Africa.SignificanceThis photograph is representative of SS NARKUNDA's role in the transportation of passengers and mail to Australia in the first half of the 20th century.

It 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 of commercial shipping in Australia. The backgrounds also reveal the changing face of the city and harbour foreshores.