USS MILWAUKEE
Photographer
Frederick Garner Wilkinson
(1901-1975)
Date1923
Object number00037676
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
DimensionsOverall: 82 x 103 mm, 2 mm, 0.04 kg
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineANMM Collection Purchased with USA Bicentennial Gift funds
DescriptionThe cruiser USS MILWAUKEE is depicted in Sydney Harbour off Neutral Bay. This is one of many photographs of naval ships taken by Frederick Wilkinson.HistoryUSS MILWAUKEE was an Omaha class light cruiser of the United States Navy commissioned on 20 June 1923. It was built in Seattle and conducted its first cruise to Australia via Hawaii, Samoa, Fiji and New Caledonia for the Pan Pacific Scientific Congress in Sydney in August 1923, during which time this photograph was taken.
Prior to World War II MILWAUKEE served in the Pacific region and with particular distinction in the Caribbean. Its primary duties were gathering information on the Pacific sea floor using sonic depth finding equipment. The Milwaukee seamounts are named after this ship. In the Atlantic the Milwaukee Deep was discovered by this ship in 1939.
During World War II MILWAUKEE served in the South Atlantic between South America and Africa on patrols and searched for German blockade runners. In 1944 it joined the Arctic convoys and was lent to the Russian Navy and renamed MURMANSK.
In 1949 the ship was sold for scrap when it was returned to the United States government after serving in and for the Russian navy.SignificanceThis photograph is representative of the American naval ship USS MILWAUKEE in Sydney Harbour in 1923.
The print 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 decline of the coastal trade. The backgrounds also reveal the changing face of the city and harbour foreshores.
