SS CEPHEE
Photographer
Frederick Garner Wilkinson
(1901-1975)
Date8 March 1924
Object number00040981
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection
DescriptionPassenger liner SS CEPHEE is shown anchored off Cremorne, Sydney on Saturday afternoon, 8 March 1924, 4.10pm. This photograph was taken from a passing vessel by Frederick Wilkinson.HistoryCEPHEE was a 9155 ton passenger and cargo steamship built in 1912 and originally launched as BUENOS AIRES (3). The vessel was built by Bremer Vulkan at Vegesack for the German operated line Hamburg-Sudamarikanische DG at Hamburg. In 1919 BUENOS AIRES was surrendered to France following World War I and in 1922 was purchased by the French line Messageries Maritimes who renamed it CEPHEE. CEPHEE was active on the passenger trade route in the Pacific and was scrapped in 1936.SignificanceThis photograph represents SS CEPHEE and the transportation of passengers to Australia during the first half of 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.
