SS AJANA

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date1919-1932

Object number00040966

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionSS AJANA is shown at wharf no 1 Woolloomooloo. AJANA was involved in the transportation of cargo and passengers to Australia during the first half of the 20th century.HistorySS AJANA was a 7,759 ton vessel built by Russell & Co at Port Glasgow for the Australind Steamship Co Ltd of London. It had a refrigerated cargo space and passenger accommodation. During World War I it was requisitioned as an Australian Expeditionary Force transport and named HMAT AJANA. It served as a troop transport and also carried horses and military stores including wool, metals, meat, flour and other foodstuffs, mainly for Britain and France. Its control under the Commonwealth stopped on 12 May 1917. On 25 November 1919 the vessel was purchased by the New Zealand Shipping Co and renamed OTARAMA. It was once again sold on 29 February 1928 to D & E Fratelli Bozzo, of Genoa and renamed AMARANTO and eventually scrapped in 1932.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.