BITTERFELD
Photographer
Frederick Garner Wilkinson
(1901-1975)
Date30 July 1932
Object number00041579
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection
DescriptionThe German cargo vessel BITTERFELD is shown anchored off Cremorne Point on Saturday 30 July 1932. This image was captured from the 2-6pm boat travelling from Mosman to Circular Quay, Sydney.HistoryBITTERFELD was a German steel-screw steam cargo vessel of 7,659 tons built in 1930 by FRD Krupp Akt Ges at Kiel. In 1932 it was owned by the Hamburg Amerik Packett Akt Ges and registered in Hamburg under a German flag. In 1940 it was seized by Holland and renamed MARISMO. MARIASMO was destroyed on 20 March 1943 when it was torpedoed by a German submarine.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.
