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P&O RMS MALOJA at the P&O Wharf on Saturday afternoon 1 March 1924
P&O RMS MALOJA at the P&O Wharf on Saturday afternoon 1 March 1924

P&O RMS MALOJA at the P&O Wharf on Saturday afternoon 1 March 1924

Photographer (1901-1975)
Date01 March 1924
Object number00040934
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection
DescriptionRMS MALOJA was photographed at the PO Wharf on Saturday afternoon, 1 March 1924. MALOJA was under the operation of the P&O line during the 20th century and carried passengers and mail to Australia.HistoryThe Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company was founded in 1837 when the partnership of Wilcox and Anderson secured a contract to carry the mails from the UK to the peninsular ports, Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon, Cadiz and Gibraltar. In 1840 the company secured a new contract to extend the service to Alexandria in Egypt, and in 1844 this contract was extended to Madras, Ceylon, Calcutta, Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai. P&O established the Far East route to Australia in the 1850s, when it took over from less efficient services such as the East India Company. The P&O Company placed the order for RMS MALOJA with Harland & Wolff Ltd in 1918 and the ship was constructed in Belfast. The ship was designed as a luxurious passenger vessel and it was launched on 19 April 1923. It was used to provide a regular passenger service between London and Sydney via Colombo and Melbourne. During World War II MALOJA was requisitioned and refitted as a merchant cruiser for the Admiralty. After the war MALOJA was returned into commercial service on 15 January 1947 for the P&O Line. It was sold and scrapped in Scotland in 1954.SignificanceThis photograph represents the role of RMS MALOJA as a Royal Mail service vessel in Australia 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 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.