SS SONOMA

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date1919-1936

Object number00040963

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionAMS SONOMA is shown at wharf no 4 Circular Quay, photographed by Frederick Wilkinson from a passing vessel. SONOMA was a passenger liner active in Australia until the 1930s and operating for the Oceanic Steam Ship Company.
HistorySONOMA was a 6279 ton passenger liner built by W. Cramptsons Co. in Philadelphia in 1900. It operated for the Oceanic Steam Ship Company, which became a subsidiary of the Matson Line in 1926, travelling between San Francisco and Sydney making stops at Honolulu and Auckland. The vessel was scrapped in 1934.
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.