SS CLAN ROSS
Photographer
Frederick Garner Wilkinson
(1901-1975)
Date14 April 1924
Object number00040992
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection
DescriptionSS CLAN ROSS was photographed at wharf no 11 Woolloomooloo on Monday 14 April 1924. This image was captured from the deck of SS KOONDA of Melbourne at wharf no 9. These vessels were both involved in commercial trade in Australia during the first half of the 20th century.HistorySS CLAN ROSS was a 5897 ton vessel built in 1914 and operating for the Clan Line shipping company. In 1938 it transferred to new owners, the Houston Line. It served in both World Wars and was sunk in 1942 by a Japanese submarine after it was torpedoed off the coast of Bombay.
SS KOONDA was a 1631 ton British cargo ship originally owned by Harrison, Tidswell and Co of London and called HARGROVE. They ordered the vessel be built in 1910 by Gray shipbuilders at West Hartlepool, Sunderland. HARGROVE was purchased by McIlwraith McEacharn and renamed KOONDA and used to transport general cargo between Britain and Australia. In 1946 it was purchased by United Corp of China and named CHUNG LIEN. The vessel was scrapped in 1947.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.
