SS RONA
Photographer
Frederick Garner Wilkinson
(1901-1975)
Date22 March 1930
Object number00041512
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection
DescriptionSS RONA is shown anchored at Cremorne, Sydney on Saturday afternoon 22 March 1930. This image was captured from onboard the 3.40pm ferry travelling between Mosman and Circular Quay. RONA was operating for the Colonial Sugar Refining Company at the time.HistoryRONA was a steel screw-steam cargo ship of 6205 tons built in 1918 by Sir R Dixon & Company Ld at Middlesbrough. In 1930 it was owned by the Colonial Sugar Refining Co Ld and registered in Sydney under a British flag. In 1956 it was renamed SUVA BREEZE and used as a mollasses tanker. It was scrapped at Hong Kong in 1959.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.
