SAROS
Photographer
Frederick Garner Wilkinson
(1901-1975)
Date18 February 1934
Object number00041624
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection
DescriptionThe British cargo vessel SAROS was photographed anchored at Neutral Bay near the P&O Buoy off Cremorne on a rainy Sunday, 18 February 1934. This image was captured from the 12 noon ferry travelling between Circular Quay to Mosman via Cremorne, Sydney.HistorySAROS was a 3,297 ton British cargo vessel originally called BALTISTAN and built in 1910 by Gray at West Hartlepool. It was owned by the Anglo Algerian SS Company at Swansea. The vessel was renamed SAROS in 1912 when it was purchsed by F C Strick & Co of London. It was wrecked at Cape Everard, Victoria during a fog on 25 December 1937.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.
