MV ERIDAN
Photographer
Frederick Garner Wilkinson
(1901-1975)
Date27 February 1930
Object number00041511
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection
DescriptionMV ERIDAN is shown approaching Athol Bight on Thursday 27 February 1930. This photograph was taken by Frederick Wilkinson from a passing vessel. ERIDAN transported passengers between Dunkirk, Scotland and Australia in the early 20th century.HistoryERIDAN was a steel twin-screw passenger and cargo vessel of 9928 ton. Built in 1928 by Soc Rio Vencale de Inst Nav La Ciotat it accommodated 61 first-class, 91 second-class and 1200 steerage passengers. In 1930 it was owned by Soc des services Contractuels des Messageries Maritimes and registered in the port of Dunkirk under a French flag, travelling on the Dunkirk to Australia passenger run. In 1942 it was seized by the United States and converted to a troopship. It was repaired after World War II from damage received by a torpedo and in 1951 began transporting passengers on the Indian Ocean run. It was scrapped in 1956 at La Seyne.
SignificanceThis photograph represents MV ERIDAN and passenger transportation between Britain and 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.
