SS THEMISTOCLES

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date1919-1936

Object number00040935

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionThe commercial vessel SS THEMISTOCLES is depicted on Sydney Harbour in this photograph. The vessel was active as a passenger ship for the Aberdeen Line and travelled between Australia and Britain.HistorySS THEMISTOCLES was a steamship built by Harland & Wolff at Belfast and launched on 22 September 1910. It could accommodate 103 first class, 256 third class passengers and a crew of 150. THEMISTOCLES operated as a passenger ship for the Aberdeen Line and conducted its maiden voyage from London to Sydney, Australia on 16 February 1911. During World War I it was requisitioned and used as a troop transport. THEMISTOCLES passed through management under the White Star Line in 1928 and then Shaw, Savill & Albion in 1932. In 1947 it was sold for scrap.SignificanceThis photograph represents the presence of SS THEMISTOCLES in Sydney 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.