RMS ORVIETO of the O.S.N Line at the Orient Line Wharf Saturday afternoon 22 December 1923

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date1923

Object number00041529

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionRMS ORVIETO of the Orient Steam Navigation Line was photographed at the Orient Wharf on Saturday afternoon 22 December 1923. This image was captured from a vessel travelling en route from Taronga Park to Circular Quay. ORVIETO was used for transporting passengers between Australia and Britain during the first half of the 20th century.HistoryThe ORVIETO was built by Workman Clark at Belfast in 1909. It was chartered by the Orient Steam Navigation Co until 1919 when it was taken over by the P&O Line. The passenger ship of 12,133 tons could accommodate 1117 people. Its maiden voyage in 1909 was from London to Sydney and Melbourne via the Suez Canal. During World War I the ship was used a minelayer and converted into an armed Merchant cruiser. In 1919 under the P&O line the ORVIETO resumed the passenger run between England and Australia, operating until 1930 when it was scrapped.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.