RMS BALMORAL CASTLE in its WWI dazzle camouflage

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date1914 - 1919

Object number00040973

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionRMS BALMORAL CASTLE is shown at Union Castle Line, P&O. It is painted in a camouflage geometric paint scheme in an effort to make the vessel harder for the enemy to pinpoint. This photograph captures the vessel some time during World War I when it served as a troop transport.HistoryBALMORAL CASTLE was a passenger vessel built by Fairfield Govan and registered in London. The steam ship with twin screw engine was launched on 13 November 1909 and built in 1910. It operated on the South African Mail Service run and was ownede by the Union-Castle Mail Steamship Company. During World War I it served as a troopship. BALMORAL CASTLE was scrapped in 1939 at Newport. 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.