SS KING CADWALLON
Photographer
Frederick Garner Wilkinson
(1901-1975)
Date19 January 1924
Object number00040915
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection
DescriptionSS KING CADWALLON was photographed anchored in Snails Bay, near Balmain in Sydney Harbour on Saturday afternoon 19 January 1924. The vessel is listing to the right with a cargo of timber on deck.HistorySS KING CADWALLON was a steel screw merchant vessel of 5138 tons, built in 1920 by Hong Kong & Whampoa Dock Co Ld at Hong Kong and owned by the King Line Ld. Originally called WAR PIPER when launched, the ship was soon renamed STATHIS and managed by the Greek owners N E Ambatielos. In 1923 it was renamed again as KING CADWALLON and registered in the port of London under a British flag. In 1929 the vessel was abandoned after it caught fire and was eventually wrecked off the English coast.SignificanceThis photograph records the presence of SS KING CADWALLON in Sydney Harbour and the Australian commercial trade in lumber during the first half of the 20th century.
It is part of the F G Wilkinson Photograph Collection, comprising more than 700 glass plate negatives of ships in Sydney Harbour created between 1919 and 1936. The collection provides extensive and well-documented coverage of the changing styles of shipping in the port of Sydney before the gradual decline of the coastal trade, in a period which was probably the peak reached by commercial shipping in Australia. The backgrounds of the photographs also reveal the changing face of Sydney and the harbour foreshores.
