SS RONA
Photographer
Frederick Garner Wilkinson
(1901-1975)
Date29 March 1930
Object number00041513
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection
DescriptionSS RONA is shown anchored off Cremorne, Sydney Harbour on Saturday afternoon 29 March 1930. This image was captured at 5.10pm from a ferry travelling to Taronga from Circular Quay. It is one of a number of photographs taken of the vessel while it was moored in Sydney Harbour.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 molasses 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.
