MS ALMKERK
Photographer
Frederick Garner Wilkinson
(1901-1975)
Date25 August 1935
Object number00040924
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection
DescriptionMS ALMKERK is anchored at wharf No 1 Athol Bight on Sunday 25 August 1935 at 11.30am. It was photographed from a vessel travelling between Taronga and Circular Quay.HistorySS ALMKERK was a twin screw steamship of 6810 ton and the second to bear the name Almkerk. It was built in 1923 by Nederlandsche Scheepsbouw Mij at Amsterdam. On 16 March 1941 it was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine in the Atlantic Ocean south off Cape Verde.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.
