CLAN MACPHERSON

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date21 January 1934

Object number00041622

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionThe British merchant vessel CLAN MACPHERSON was photographed at No 2 Athol Bight on Sunday 21 January 1934. This image was captured from the 10.30am ferry travelling between Taronga and Circular Quay, Sydney. At the time CLAN MACPHERSON was operating for the Clan Line.HistoryCLAN MACPHERSON was a 6,940 ton cargo vessel built by Greenock Dockyard Co Ltd at Greenock, Scotland in 1929. It was owned by the Clan Line Steamers and registered in Glasgow under a British flag. While travelling from Calcutta to Britain with a general cargo including pig iron, linseed, tea, jute, mica and groundnuts, on the 1st of May 1943 CLAN MACPHERSON was hit by torpedoes from a German submarine and sunk.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.