PERU
Photographer
Frederick Garner Wilkinson
(1901-1975)
Date21 October 1933
Object number00041616
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection
DescriptionDanish cargo ship PERU is shown at the P&O Buoy Neutral Bay on Saturday afternoon 21 October 1933. This image was captured from the 1pm ferry travelling from Circular Quay to Cremorne Point, Sydney.HistoryPERU was a 5,584 ton twin-screw cargo motorship built in 1916 by Burmeister & Wain at Copenhagen, Denmark. It was owned by the A/ S Det Ostasiatiske Kompagni at Copenhagen but seized by the British Government in 1940 and used in their war effort. The vessel was torpedoed on 13th November 1941 and sunk, under the ownership of the United Baltic Company, London.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.
