SS CROXTETH HALL
Photographer
Frederick Garner Wilkinson
(1901-1975)
Date12 October 1924
Object number00040983
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection
DescriptionSS CROXTETH HALL is shown at wharf No 3 Walsh Bay on Sunday afternoon 12 October 1924. The Ellerman & Bucknall House flag is on the funnel and the Hall flag is flying. In 1924 CROXTETH HALL was registered in the port of London and operated under a British flag transporting cargo to Australia.HistoryCROXTETH HALL was a German steel screw cargo ship of 4243 ton launched in 1909 as ETHA RICKMERS for the Rickmers Line. It was built by Rickmers at Bremerhaven. In 1914 it was captured by Russia and renamed KACA it was used for transporting German troops in 1918. In 1920 following World War I it was taken over by Britain and named CROXTETH HALL and operated for the Ellerman Line Ld. It wrecked off the coast of Belgium in 1929.
SignificanceThis photograph represents CROXTETH HALL and the transportation of cargo between Britain and Australia.
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.
