RMS ORCADES

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date16 March 1924

Object number00040990

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionRMS ORCADES is shown at wharf no 4 West Circular Quay on Sunday morning 16 March 1924. The Royal Mail steamship was used for transporting passengers and mail between Britain and Australia.HistoryRMS ORCADES was a steel twin screw vessel of 9764 tons. Built in 1906 by Akt. Ges Vulcan at Stettin, Germany and originally launched as PRINZ LUDWIG. It operated on trade routes in Asia prior to World War I and was taken over by the British government after the war. It was purchased by the Orient Steam Navigation Company in 1921 and served on the passenger trade route between Britain and Australia. It was scrapped in 1925.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.