SS PORT ALBANY

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date4 November 1923

Object number00040941

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionSS PORT ALBANY was photographed as it was about to leave Pyrmont wharf for the United Kingdom, on Saturday 4 November 1923. This was taken from SSS & Giles. PORT ALBANY was under the management of the Commonwealth and Dominion Line which was specifically established to operate services from Britain to Australia and New Zealand.HistorySS PORT ALBANY was a 5,714 ton vessel built in 1914, the first of three vessels to bear the name Port Albany. It operated for the Commonwealth and Dominion Line on the trade route between Australia and London, Britain. In 1929 it was sold to Union Cold Storage Ltd and renamed OREGON STAR.It was scrapped in 1934.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.