SS SONOMA

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date1919-1936

Object number00040963

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionAMS SONOMA is shown at wharf no 4 Circular Quay, photographed by Frederick Wilkinson from a passing vessel. SONOMA was a passenger liner active in Australia until the 1930s and operating for the Oceanic Steam Ship Company.HistorySONOMA was a 6279 ton passenger liner built by W. Cramptsons Co. in Philadelphia in 1900. It operated for the Oceanic Steam Ship Company, which became a subsidiary of the Matson Line in 1926, travelling between San Francisco and Sydney making stops at Honolulu and Auckland. The vessel was scrapped in 1934.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.