SAXON of London
Photographer
Frederick Garner Wilkinson
(1901-1975)
Date5 February 1919
Object number00042223
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection
DescriptionFrederick Wilkinson took this photograph of the Union Castle liner SAXON painted with dazzle-pattern camouflage at the F&S buoy in Neutral Bay, Sydney on 5 February 1919 aboard the ferry from Cremorne. The SAXON had arrived in Sydney from England three days earlier with a contingent of 400 soldiers. The ship retuned to London on the 13 February with mail and general cargo.
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.
