HMS DRAGON in Sydney Harbour
Photographer
Frederick Garner Wilkinson
(1901-1975)
Date1924
Object number00037700
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
DescriptionHMS DRAGON is depicted in Sydney Harbour on Fleet Day on 9 April 1924. This photograph was taken by Frederick Wilkinson from a ferry. DRAGON was stationed in the harbour as part of the Royal Navy's Special Service Squadron world tour between 1923 and 1924.HistoryFrom 1923 to 1924 the British ship HMS HOOD was flagship of the Special Service Squadron during its Empire Cruise, a world tour that stopped at many countries who fought and held allegiance with Britain in World War I. The tour started on 27 November 1923 and lasted until 28 September 1924 being largely a public relations exercise to express Britain's world sea power, particularly relevant in the aftermath of World War I.
HMS DRAGON was a Danae class cruiser of the Royal Navy launched in Glasgow in December 1917 and scuttled in July 1944 off the beaches of Normandy as part of the Arromanches Breakwater. Before World War II DRAGON carried HRH the Prince of Wales on a Royal tour to Canada; took part in the Russian civil war aiding independent Latvia and Estonia and was a member of the Special Service Squadron.
During World War II it was part of the Northern Patrol against German U-boats; took part in Operation Menace against the French fleet; served as an escort ship for Atlantic convoys; and in 1942 was attached to a task force in the Yellow Sea. In January 1943 she was transferred to the Polish Navy for further convoy duties and then took part in Operation Neptune as part of the Normandy landings. It was torpedoed and eventually scuttled in 1944.SignificanceThis photograph records the presence of HMS DRAGON on Sydney Harbour during 1924. 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.
