PANAMA

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date14 October 1934

Object number00041633

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionThe Danish vessel PANAMA is shown at Neutral Bay on Sunday 14 October 1934. This image was captured from the 11.25am ferry travelling between Mosman and Circular Quay via Cremorne, Sydney.HistoryPANAMA was a four-mast twin-screw cargo vessel of 6,650 tons built in 1915 by Akt Burmeister & Wain at Copenhagen. In 1934 it was owned by the East Asiatic Company and registered in Copenhagen under a British flag. It capsized due to ballast shifting and engine failure in 1945.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.