[Prisoner-built model of the German ship ‘Preussen’ on the Wingecarribee River, Berrima Internment Camp, between 1916 and 1918] / photograph attributed to D. Speer

SSV/170

fonds

[between 1916 and 1918]

Graphic Materials, Photographs

9649926

1 photograph - gelatin silver - 8.9 x 13.8 cm

The Berrima Internment Camp was set up in the disused Berrima Gaol in 1915. The internees were mainly German officers from a maritime background and were allowed a large degree of freedom within the camp. They built very-well crafted boats, models and canoes which were floated on the Wingecarribee River during festivals and attracted many visitors on weekends. The last of the internees left the camp in 1919.

David Speer started his photography business in Bowral, New South Wales in 1914. In June 1919 he registered an application for copyright in the the book titled '48 views of the Concentration Camp, Berrima, New South Wales, Australia, 1914-1919'. In the early 1930s he joined the staff of the Daily Telegraph as a press photographer, but returned to his business in Bowral again four years later.

The ‘Preussen’ was a German ship built in 1902 for the F. Laeisz Shipping Company. It was the world’s only ship with five masts carrying six square sails on each mast. It sank in 1910 following a collision with another ship near Dover, England.

References:
Berrima Internment Camp. Migration Heritage Centre. http://www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/ (accessed 29 April 2020)
'Thirty years in the business'. The Southern Mail, 19 March 1946, p. 1. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page11915509 (accessed 29 April 2020)
'Proceedings under the Copyright Act 1912.'Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, 17 July 1919, p. 1146. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article232511899 (accessed 29 April 2020)
Preussen (ship). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preussen_(ship) (acceesed 29 April 2020)

Black & white photograph, printed on Empire postcard stock, featuring a prisoner-built model of the German ship 'Preussen' floating on the Wingecarribee River at the Berrima Internment Camp in New South Wales.

Out of copyright:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

'Preussen Berrima Camp' in pencil on verso