SS KENTUCKY

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date26 April 1924

Object number00040994

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionMerchant steam ship KENTUCKY was photographed at wharf no 21 Jones Bay on Saturday afternoon, 26 April 1924. This image was captured at 2pm from a vessel travelling between Sydney and Baldrock.HistorySS KENTUCKY was a cargo ship of 6588 ton built by Workman Clark at Belfast in 1912. In 1924 it was registered to Bucknall Steam Ship Lines Ld at North Shields. In 1927 the vessel came under new owners and was renamed CITY OF MOBILE. It was bombed and sunk on 16 September 1940 in the Irish Channel.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.