BTSS MADRAS

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date1919

Object number00040937

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionBT (British Transport) SS MADRAS is shown in Sydney Harbour at P&O's wharf. This photograph was taken during the vessels only voyage to Australia as a troop transport in 1919. Between 1914 and 1920 MADRAS conducted war services before it was returned to its commercial owners and used on the passenger trade route.HistoryBTSS MADRAS was a 6956 ton passenger cargo vessel originally called TANDA and built in 1914 by Stephen at Linthouse. It was owned by the British India Steam Navigation Company Ltd of Glasgow. In 1914 it was requisitioned as a British transport for World War I making its only troop voyage to Australia in 1919. In 1920 it was given back to the British Steam Navigation Company and once more renamed TANDA. On 15 July 1944 operating for the Eastern & Australian Steam Ship Co Ltd, TANDA was hit by a torpedo from a German submarine and sunk enroute to Melbourne - Colombo - Bombay.SignificanceThe photograph records the return of Australian troops from overseas after World War I.

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.