P&O RMS CORFU entering Circular Quay to berth at No 4 on Thursday 14 July 1932

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date14 July 1932

Object number00041578

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionCORFU was photographed with a tug boat entering Circular Quay to berth at No 4 from Pyrmont on Thursday 14 July 1932. This image was captured at 12.30pm from the end of Wharf 7A, West Circular Quay, Sydney.HistoryCORFU was a steel twin screw passenger liner of 14,293 tons. It was built in 1931 by Alexander Stephen & Sons Ld. In 1932 it was owned by the P&O Steam Navigation Company and registered in London under a British flag. CORFU could accommodate 177 first-class and 214 second-class passengers. In 1939 it was requisitioned by the Admiralty for service during World War II. It was renamed CORFU MARU in 1961 after it was sold to Mitsui Bussan Kaisha in Japan for scrapping.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.