hmas

There were only about a dozen 4-funnelled warships in the Royal Navy about the time of this photograph. They were all armoured cruisers. This ship looks as if it was HMS Euryalus, one of the Diadem Class of cruisers. Euryalus was based at Sydney on the Australian station between 1903 - 1905, so this is probably the period when this photo was taken.

The ship in the foreground appears to be one of the Cadmus Class of steel screw sloops. This is probably HMS Clio which was commissioned in January 1904 and sent out to the Australian station. She arrived in Sydney on 9 May 1904 and left on 18 June 1904. There was only a three week period in May and June 1904 when both the Clio and Euryalus were together in Sydney Harbour.

Great stuff, Picture Esk. According to this Wikipedia article HMS Euryalus was involved in the Gallipoli campaign, and was the headquarters there. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Euryalus_(1901)

Yes, thank you for that very useful information Picture Esk.

The position of masts and funnel on foreground ship looks out of proportion for HMS Clio - funnel is too far foward, as is midmast. Is this due to distance distortion ?

This appears to be a Chatham design of a Town Class light cruiser, of which three were built for the Royal Australian Navy, and three for the Royal Navy. The RAN ships were the Sydney, the Melbourne and the Brisbane. I'm afraid I do not know which of the three is depicted above. Perhaps it is the HMAS Sydney visiting her namesake port. See the links herein: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town-class_cruiser_(1910) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAS_Sydney_(1912) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAS_Melbourne_(1912) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAS_Brisbane_(1915)

Not underway, she is anchored and has a boat alongside.

Kirribilli in the background and what looks to be the the large fire at the Pastoral Finance Association building. The fire broke out in the morning of 13 December 1921 and at the time was one of Sydney’s biggest. The building was full of bales of wool for export. The fire continued to burn and smolder for several days, so the photo may have been taken on 13 December or a day or two later. HMAS ANZAC is nearest the camera. The other two ships are most likely the destroyer HMAS STALWART (2 funnels) and with four funnels the cruiser HMAS MELBOURNE.

Nice cameo from a car ferry at left, and works in the background. Cracker!

Well Spotted 👍 I didn't realise the event had been captured in this image. We posted an aerial photo by MIlton Kent of the building from just before the fire to this photo-stream awhile back. flic.kr/p/MUBM9n