HUNTINGDON
Photographer
Frederick Garner Wilkinson
(1901-1975)
Date27 August 1933
Object number00041613
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection
DescriptionThe cargo ship HUNTINGDON was photographed at the P&O Buoy Neutral Bay on Sunday morning 27 August 1933. This image was captured from the 10am ferry travelling from Circular Quay to Mosman via Cremorne, Sydney. HUNTINGDON was operating for the Federal Steam Navigation Company at the time.HistoryHUNTINGDON was an 11,509 ton cargo ship built in 1920 as MUNSTERLAND by Bremer Vulkan at Vegesak, Germany. It was taken over by the British Government after World War I as war repatriation. In 1921 it was purchased by the Federal Steam Navigation Company and renamed HUNTINGDON. It was sunk by a German torpedo on the 24th of February 1941 500 miles west of The Hebrides. The crew were rescued by the Greek Steamer PAPALEMOS, which was also torpedoed a few weeks later on 28th May 1941.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.
