LURLINE

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date19 February 1933

Object number00041600

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionLURLINE is shown after her maiden voyage tourist trip where she berthed at 10am on the 19 February 1933 at No 2 Wharf East Circular Quay. This image was captured from the 3.25pm ferry travelling between Mosman and Circular Quay, Sydney. LURLINE left New York on 5 January 1933 under the Oceanic Steam Ship Company it travelled to San Francisco via Los Angeles, the South Sea and Orient.HistoryLURLINE was a steel twin-screw passenger and cargo vessel of 18,021 tons built in 1932 by Bethlehem Ship Building Corp Ld at Quincy, USA. It could accommodate 475 first-class and 240 tourist passengers. In 1933 LURLINE was owned by the Oceanic Steam Ship Company (Matson Line) and registered in San Francisco under an American flag. During World War II it was used by the US Navy to transport troops and then given back to the Matson Line who resumed service between San Francisco and Honolulu as a luxury liner. In 1963 it was renamed ELLINIS after it was purchased by Marfuenza CIA SA and fitted out with increased passenger accommodation for the service between Rotterdam and Sydney. ELLINIS was scrapped in 1987.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.