AWATEA

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date1936-1942

Object number00042344

NamePostcard

MediumInk on paper

Dimensions90 x 140 mm

ClassificationsPosters and postcards

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

HistoryThe 13,482 ton motor vessel AWATEA was launched in 1936 and built by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness. It operated under the Union Steam Ship Co and was designed for the trans-Tasman passenger run. During World War II it was used as a troop transport. On 8 November 1942 AWATEA was bombed by German aircraft while moored in Bougie port, Algeria and sunk soon after.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.