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Photograph of an auxiliary steam ship in a harbour
Photograph of an auxiliary steam ship in a harbour

Photograph of an auxiliary steam ship in a harbour

Date1930-1949
Object numberANMS1110[017]
NamePhotograph
MediumPhotographic print
DimensionsOverall: 122 x 166 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Malcolm Everitt
DescriptionFour scrapbooks relating to shipping in the 1930s and 1940s, with several loose photographs of northwestern Australian Aboriginal people circa 1940 and a handwritten history of the Eastern & Australasian Line by John Brown, circa 1940. HistoryThe scrapbooks contain news clippings relating to shipping in the 1930s and 1940s. They include with several loose photographs, many of them depicting northwestern Australian Aboriginal people circa 1940s, possibly from a manuscript for a publication about a journey in the area. Several photographs include images of pearling luggers, including one of the FLYING FOAM leaving Roebuck Bay 'under full sail for the pearling beds'. The image caption on verso describes the vessel as 'manned by Malays and Koepangers and the only aborigine in the pearling fleet'. The handwritten manuscript history of the Eastern & Australasian Line by John Brown describes the operations of the line in opening 'the sea routes connecting Australia with Europe and the East'. John Brown commenced work in the London offices of the E&A lines in 1899 as a clerk and retired in 1936. The history appears to have been written around 1940. In 1873 Bright Bros. & Co., Melbourne joined with James Guthrie of Singapore and McTaggart, Tidman & Co. to form the Eastern & Australasian Mail Steamship Co. to operate a four weekly mail and passenger service from Sydney to Brisbane, Batavia, Singapore and Hong Kong. The Australian terminal was transferred to Melbourne and bookings to and from London and European ports were possible by a connection at Singapore to P&O Line and Messageries Maritimes ships. The mail contract passed to British India S.N. Co. in 1881 and Eastern & Australasian SS Co. then concentrated on the Australia - China - Japan service. The company later became associated with Australasian United S.N. Co. and in 1919 came under the control of British India S.N. Co. BISN Co. in turn became part of the P&O Group and the manuscript and scrapbooks were collected by Malcolm Everitt, former Group Chief Internal Auditor at P&O Australia. SignificanceThe handwritten manuscript history of the Eastern & Australasian Line by John Brown - who worked with E&A from 1899 to 1936 - is a rare first hand account of the operations of the line in opening 'the sea routes connecting Australia with Europe and the East' from the 1870s.

Apart from the 1930s and 40s news clippings, the scrapbooks contain some rare photographs of Aboriginal people in northwest Australia, as well as pearling operations in the area around 1940.