SS KEELUNG
Photographer
Frederick Garner Wilkinson
(1901-1975)
Date26 October 1924
Object number00041506
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection
DescriptionSS KEELUNG was photographed anchored in Neutral Bay at the F & S Buoy on Sunday morning 26 October 1924. The vessels steam funnel shows the logo of the Ellerman & Bucknall Line.HistorySS KEELUNG was a 5168 ton steel screw steam ship. It was built in 1919 by Earle's Shipbuilding Co Ld at Hull, England to be named WAR WALRUS. In 1924 it was owned by the Ellerman & Bucknall Steam Ship Company Ld and registered in the port of London under a British flag. In 1936 it was renamed CITY OF KEELUNG and in 1947 sold to China Hellenic Lines. In 1951 it was renamed NICHIAN MARU and operated for Nissan Kisen K K. It was scrapped in 1960 in Japan.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.
