SS CLAN SKENE
Photographer
Frederick Garner Wilkinson
(1901-1975)
Date29 April 1924
Object number00040997
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection
DescriptionSS CLAN SKENE is shown at wharf No 3 Woolloomooloo on Tuesday 29 April 1924. This image was captured from Central Jetty.HistoryCLAN SKENE was a 5247 ton steel screw cargo ship. Launched as WAR ADDER in 1918 for the British WWI Shipping Controller it was completed as CLAN SKENE in 1919 by C Connell & Co Ld at Glasgow for Cayzer, Irvine & Co Ltd. In 1920 it was bought by the British & South American Steam Navigation Company and renamed HALOCRATES. In 1923 the ship was again owned by Cayzer, Irvine & Co Ld and re-registered as CLAN SKENE in the port of Glasgow under a British flag. In 1940, enroute to North America from Cape Town it was torpedoed by German submarine U333, nine people perished.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.
