SS PORT AUCKLAND
Photographer
Frederick Garner Wilkinson
(1901-1975)
Date6 August 1924
Object number00040927
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection
DescriptionSS PORT AUCKLAND is shown at wharf No 3 Woolloomooloo Bay on Wednesday 6 August 1924. The British cargo steamer was active on the Australian trade route during the first half of the 20th century.HistorySS PORT AUCKLAND was a British cargo steamer of 8789 tons. It was built by Workman, Clark & Co Ltd in 1922. PORT AUCKLAND sunk on 18 March 1943 after it was torpedoed by a German submarine on its passage from Brisbane, Cristobal & Halifax to Belfast, Lough & Avonmouth with a cargo of 7,000 tons frozen produce & 1,000 tons general cargo & mails. Eight of the 108 crew were lost when the vessel sunk.SignificanceThis photograph represents trade conducted by the SS PORT AUCKLAND in Australian waters during 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 reached by commercial shipping in Australia. The backgrounds also reveal the changing face of the city and harbour foreshores.
