GERA

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date5 February 1933

Object number00041597

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionThe general cargo vessel GERA is shown anchored off Cremorne Point on Sunday morning 5 February 1933. This image was captured from the 11am ferry travelling between Circular Quay and Taronga, Sydney. In 1933 GERA was operating for the Hamburg American Line and was registered in Hamburg under a German flag.HistoryGERA was a steel-screw cargo vessel of 5,155 tons built in 1923 by Blohm & Vos at Hamburg. It was the second ship to be named Gera. In 1926 it came under the power of the Hamburg American Line. In 1942 it was renamed EMPIRE INDUS and managed by the Ministry of War Transport. In 1948 it was renamed PAN OCEAN under the Pan Ocean Navigation Company. It foundered in 1958 near Alexandria, Egypt.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.