SS BERWICKSHIRE

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date21 October 1923

Object number00041568

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionSS BERWICKSHIRE is shown arriving in Sydney Harbour from Newcastle on Sunday 21 October 1923 at noon. In 1923 it was operating for the Clan Line and transported cargo between Australia and South Africa.HistoryBERWICKSHIRE was originally launched as CLAN MACARTHUR in 1912 and built by Armstrong, Whitworth & Co at Newcastle. The British cargo ship of 5,815 tons was first owned by Cayzer, Irvine & Co Ltd at Glasgow. In 1920 it was renamed BERWICKSHIRE and transferred to Turnbull, Martin & Company. On the 20th August 1944 it was torpedoed near Durban, Madagascar and sunk, with 94 of the crew surviving and 8 missing. 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.