SS EURIPIDES, Aberdeen Line, arriving from Brisbane via Newcastle on Sunday Morning 2 March 1924

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date1924

Object number00040980

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionSS EURIPIDES is shown arriving in Sydney Harbour from Brisbane on Sunday morning at 10.15 on the 2 March 1924. The vessel was used in the passenger and cargo trade between Australia and Britain.HistorySS EURIPIDES was a 14947 ton steamship passenger vessel built in 1914 by Harland & Wolff at Belfast for the Aberdeen and Commonwealth Line. It had a refrigerated cargo space and accommodation for 140 first-class, 334 second-class and 750 third-class passengers. EURIPIDES' maiden voyage from London and Brisbane, Australia started on 1 July 1914 and was completed on 24 August. After it first voyage EURIPIDES was requisitioned as a troopship and moved to Brisbane to ship Australian troops. After the war it was once more managed by the Aberdeen Line. In 1927 EURIPIDES went into service on the Liverpool to Australia trade run for the Blue Funnel and White Star-Aberdeen Line. In 1929 it came under the ownership of the White Star's Oceanic Steam Navigation Co and in 1932 was purchased by Shaw Savill & Albion. The vessel was refitted with passenger accommodation and cargo space and renamed AKAROA. It then started travelling on the Southampton - Panama - Wellington service in 1933. During World War II the vessel was once more taken into war service for the Ministry of War Transport. In 1945 EURIPIDES was reconditioned on the Tyne with an increased ton capacity and reduced accommodation for 190-cabin class passengers. In 1954 the ship was scrapped at Antwerp.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.