STRATHAIRD at No 4 Circular Quay on Saturday 31 December 1932

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date31 December 1932

Object number00041589

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionThe British passenger and cargo vessel STRATHAIRD was photographed at wharf No 4 Circular Quay on Saturday 31 December 1932. This image was captured from the 8.08am boat travelling from Mosman to Circular Quay, Sydney. STRATHAIRD was due to sail for London at 11.30am and was operating under the P&O Line.HistoryRMS STRATHAIRD was a steel-twin vessel of 22,544 tons used for carrying passengers and cargo. It was built by Vickers Armstrong Ltd in 1932 at Barrow-in-Furness, England. In 1932 it was owned by the P&O Steam Navigation Company and registered in the port of London under a British flag. It could accommodate 498 first-class and 670 tourist class passengers. During World War II it was requisitioned as a troop transport and returned to its merchant owners after the war. In 1961 it was sold to Shun Fung Ironworks Co at Hong Kong 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.