SS LEEDS CITY
Photographer
Frederick Garner Wilkinson
(1901-1975)
Date1 March 1924
Object number00040979
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection
DescriptionSS LEEDS CITY is shown at the Wheat Silos in Sydney Harbour on Saturday afternoon 1 March 1924.
HistorySS LEEDS CITY was a 4809 ton passenger and cargo steamship built in 1913 and launched as DALEHAM. Constructed by Richardson Duck at Thornaby and initially owned by the London & Northern Steamship Company of London. In 1919 it was purchased by British owners and renamed LEEDS CITY travelling on the passenger trade route between Italy, Britain, Germany, West Indies and New York. In 1923 it was owned by Reardon Smith & Sons. It made two trips to Australia arriving on 17 January 1924 and 14 September 1924. In 1925 LEEDS CITY wrecked off Bawean Island.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.
