CITY OF MANCHESTER
Photographer
Frederick Garner Wilkinson
(1901-1975)
Date14 September 1935
Object number00041620
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection
DescriptionCITY OF MANCHESTER was photographed at the P&O Buoy Neutral Bay on Saturday 14 September 1935. It arrived on its maiden voyage on Saturday 7 September 1935. This image was captured from the 1.45pm ferry travelling from Circular Quay to Mosman via Cremorne, Sydney.HistoryCITY OF MANCHESTER was a 5,527 ton cargo and passenger vessel, the fourth to be given the name of City of Manchester. Built in 1935 by Cammell, Laird at Birkenhead it was a steel twin-screw merchant ship. On 28 February 1942 CITY OF MANCHESTER was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine off Java.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.
