SS CERAMIC

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date22 March 1924

Object number00040991

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionSS CERAMIC is shown leaving Sydney Harbour for Liverpool and other ports on Saturday 22 March 1924. This image was captured from Dawes Point in the rain. CERAMIC was operating on the passenger trade route between Liverpool, England and Australia at this time.HistorySS CERAMIC was built in 1912 and operated for the White Star Line on the Australian trade run. It only operated on this route for one year before becoming a troopship during World War I. After the war it once more traded on the Australian passenger route between Liverpool and Australia. It was requisitioned once more during World War II for war services. CERAMIC sunk in 1942 off the coast of Azores when it was torpedoed by a German submarine. At the time it was owned by the Shaw, Savill and Albion Line.SignificanceThis photograph represents SS CERAMIC and its role transporting passengers between England 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.