SS MADRAS

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date1919-1936

Object number00040960

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionSS MADRAS, also known as SS TANDA, was photographed at the P&O wharf in Sydney Harbour. The vessel was used for carrying passengers and cargo to Australia during the first half of the 20th century.HistorySS TANDA was a 6956 ton passenger cargo vessel owned by the British India Steam Navigation Company. Built in 1914 by Stephen at Linthouse, it was immediately requisitioned as a hospital ship for the Indian government during World War I and renamed SS MADRAS. Sailing to Australia in 1919, the ship was returned to the British Steam Navigation Company in 1920, reverting back to its original name SS TANDA. In 1924 the ship was transferred to the Eastern & Australian Steamship Company. Continuing to sail during WWII, SS TANDA was torpedoed by German submarine U-181 near Mangalore off the Indian coast on 15 July 1944. Eighteen crew and one passenger perished.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.