ALSTER
Photographer
Frederick Garner Wilkinson
(1901-1975)
Date6 January 1935
Object number00041635
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection
DescriptionThe German passenger and cargo vessel ALSTER is shown anchored at No 1 Athol Bight on Sunday 6 January 1935. This photograph was taken at 11.22am near Taronga wharf, Sydney. At the time ALSTER was operating for the North German Line and carried passengers and cargo.HistoryALSTER was an 8,541 ton passenger and cargo vessel built in 1928 by Deutsche Schiff-Machfwerk Vulcan at Hamburg. In 1935 it was owned by Norddeutscher Lloyd (North German Line) and registered in Breman, Germany.
In 1940 during World War II ALSTER took part in the German invasion of Norway and was captured by allied forces. The vessel was brought to Britain where it was renamed EMPIRE ENDURANCE. On 20 April 1941 it was hit by torpedoes from a German submarine and sunk after it broke in two.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.
