FRANCONIA

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date3 March 1934

Object number00041626

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionThe passenger liner FRANCONIA was photographed at No 4 West Circular Quay on Saturday morning 3 March 1934. This image was captured from the 8.10am boat travelling between Mosman and Circular Quay, Sydney. FRANCONIA was on a world cruise and arrived in Sydney on 2 March and departed on 3 March at 7pm.HistoryFRANCONIA was a twin-screw passenger vessel of 20,175 tons built in 1925 by J Brown & Co Ld. In 1934 it was owned by the Cunard Steam Ship Company Ld and registered in Liverpool under a British flag. It was used as a troopship in World War II and transported military personnel from 1939 to 1948. In 1945 it was used as head quarters for the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the Yalta Conference. After the war FRANCONIA was used on the passenger trade run between Britain and Canada. It was scrapped in 1956.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.