Down Under Ship Photographs is the black and white, colour negative and colour slide collection of ships held by Russell Priest in Melbourne, Australia. The collection currently contains images of more than 20,000 ships mostly post World War II but many predating that.

The collection contains an almost a complete record of British shipping trading to Australia and New Zealand post World War II but is not confined to that as a comprehensive coverage of other nation’s vessels are also represented plus vessels which did not trade "down under".

An almost complete coverage of Australian and New Zealand flag vessels is available. Many colour views of these vintage vessels are also held, perhaps the most comprehensive colour coverage of vintage ships held in this part of the world.

The vintage collection contains the works of photographers Jim Freeman, David Finch, Bill Volum, Lindsay Rex, Roger Martin, Kingsley Barr, Ken Lunney, Bruce Nicol, Ross Walker and also includes images held via exchange from Vic Young (Wellington), Trevor Jones (Durban), Ian Shiffman (Cape Town) (Hans Krayenboch and Kees Loos (Holland), Marc Piché (Montreal) and Douglas Cromby (Southampton). It also contains images, in collections purchased, of ships taken in Vancouver and various ports in the United Kingdom.

A comprehensive coverage of SD14s and a good representative coverage of war-built standards, many in colour, are also available.

The catalogue is available on this site and 6 X 4 prints can be provided for A$5.00 each. Orders for 20 prints or more are A$2.70 each. Enlargements are available depending on the quality of the negative and as a guide an A4 print would be A$10.00.

The catalogue is not inclusive and many vessels are yet to be included. If there is a particular vessel you desire, don’t be discouraged if it is not in the catalogue as I may well have it. Just ask!

For orders contact Russell Priest.

Russell originally hails from Christchurch New Zealand where his love of ships and shipping began with boyhood visits to the local port of Lyttelton. He went to sea at the age of 16 in the Royal New Zealand Navy where he served as a Seaman/Radar/Navigator’s Yeoman for eight years after which he joined the Merchant Navy as a deck seaman. Over the next 14 years he served on New Zealand, Australian and British flags ships; general cargo, containers, bulk carriers, reefers, tankers and four years in the off-shore oil industry. He left the sea in 1985 but has continued to retain a love of ships and shipping.

He took his first photograph of a ship in 1959 with his father’s folding 620 camera but unfortunately, much to his regret, he never took a photograph while serving at sea. Perhaps familiarity breeds contempt, but after leaving the sea his old boy-hood enthusiasm returned and he took up the camera once more.

Russell’s collection now boasts one of the largest in Australia and New Zealand and is possibly one of the most centralised collections of quality colour images readily accessible.

He is also the editor of The Log, the quarterly journal of the Nautical Association of Australia now in its 52 year of publication.

01 | Orient Line’s Orion at Hobart 28 May 1959 (Rex/Priest)
02 | The US war-built standard Pecos (Martin/Priest)
03 | Ports Line’s Port Huon anchored Melbourne 24 May 1965 (R.A.Priest)
04 | British India’s Rajula at Singapore in the 1950s (Finch/Priest)
05 | Shaw Savill’s Tamaroa at Auckland in the 1950s (R.A.Priest)
06 | United States Line’s trans-Atlantic liner United States in the Solent in the 1950s (R.A.Priest)
07 | The Swedish flag, 1930 built Victoria, a true veteran when this was taken in the 1960s (Marc Piché/Russell Priest)
08 | Farrell Line’s US flag Austral Pilgrim (R.A.Priest)
09 | Ben Line’s Benvannoch had been Ellerman’s City of Worcester (R.A.Priest)
10 | Ellerman’s City of Brooklyn at Montreal in May 1956 (R.A.Priest)
11 | Clan Line’s Clan Menzies in 1958 (R.A.Priest)
12 | Blue Funnel Line’s Laomedon at Singapore 3 May 1977 (R.A.Priest)
13 | Caltex Dublin at Hobart
14 | Caledonia Star anchored Melbourne 24 May 1965 (R.A.Priest)
15 | Royal Interocean’s Straat Lagos at Singapore (R.A.Priest)
16 | Royal Fleet Auxiliary Tidereach arriving Sydney (R.A.Priest)
17 | Union Steam Ship Co’s Waikare anchored Melbourne 24 May 1965 (R.A.Priest)
18 | The BP tanker British Explorer at Hobart 4 November 1957 (Martin/Priest)
19 | Australian National Lines Cape Hawk underway (R.A.Priest)
20 | Howard Smith’s Australian coaster Century at Hobart 22 February 1959
21 | Federal Steam Navigation’s Dorset from the Hobart Bridge 1 May 1961
22 | Bank Line’s liberty ship Edenbank at Hobart 1 May 1959 (Rex/Priest)
23 | Port Line charter Port Hardy at Hobart 1 November 1958 (Martin/Priest)
24 | Cunard’s classic trans-Atlantic liner Queen Elizabeth on the Solent 13 June 1961 (Rex/Priest)
25 | The SD14 Rich Ascent arriving Singapore anchorage 3 June 2000 (R.A.Priest)
26 | Wilhelmsen’s classic Norwegian freighter Tallyrand at Hobart 26 November 1958 (Rex/Priest)
27 | Wilhelmsen’s Tungsha arriving Wellington 21 August 1971 (R.A.Priest)
28 | Union Steam Ship Co’s Waipori in the 1960s (Freeman/Priest)
29 | Blue Star Lines Wellington Star in the Keil Canal (R.A.Priest)
30 | The Royal Navy 'C' class destroyer HMS Cavendish (D15) at Hobart 19 May 1960

To contact Russell Priest please email: waimea@bigpond.com

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© Russell Priest 2007