THEMISTOCLES of Southampton

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date26 January 1933

Object number00041668

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionFrederick Wilkinson took this photograph of the THEMISTOCLES at 8:35am on Thursday 26 January 1933 aboard a ferry travelling from Mosman to Circular Quay. The THEMISTOCLES is dressed overall as the flagship for the annual Anniversary Regatta, and is moored to the P&O buoy off Neutral Bay. 'The Sydney Morning Herald' reported on one interesting aspect of the day's festivities: 'Variety was given to the harbour scene by a representation of a huge sea serpent being propelled, apparently without effort, around the flagship, followed by a miniature "Ark Ararat" and other small craft symbolical of historical events.'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.