CANADIAN CHALLENGER

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date6 December 1923

Object number00041556

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionCANADIAN CHALLENGER was photographed moving towards the berth at Woolloomooloo Bay from Gore Bay on Thursday morning 6 December 1923. This image was captured from Dawes Point.HistoryCANADIAN CHALLENGER was a steel-screw vessel of 5,439 tons. It was built in 1921 by S B Davie Ship Building and owned by Canadian Challenger Ld. In 1923 it was registered in the port of Montreal under a British flag. In 1939 it was renamed BARNHILL by new owners Ernels Shipping Company, Leadenhall st., London. The BARNHILL sank on 20th March 1940 with 5 of the 31 crew lost.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.