Researchers at the Great Lakes Museum confirm it was the ‘S.S. Commonwealth’ pictured in our previous post that was heading out over the bar at the time of the building of the Forster breakwall. This very early image of the ‘S.S. Wootton’ shows a second level featuring above the superstructure where the ‘S.S.Commonwealth’ (built by the Breckenridge’s) has only a single level superstructure.
The collection of shipping images are being prepared for digitising to museum preservation standards before being for uploaded to the clickHistory Great Lakes database. By meeting industry set standards valuable details such as the warehouse pictured in the background of this photograph will be available on screen to aid the research and interpretive ability of the collection.
This new level of information raises more research questions such as what port was the ‘S.S. Wootton’ moored in at the time of this photo? If you have any clues please let us know.
TL
clickHistory GREAT LAKES 
I worked for a Breckenridge in Sydney. He was an accountant. Where does he fit in.
Hi Judy, the Breckenridge’s were a prominent pioneering family of the area. John Wylie Breckenridge moved to Cape Hawke in the late 1860’s establishing timber mills and shipbuilding operations. When the mill in Forster was sold in the late 1880’s his son, John Breckenridge, moved up the Wallamba River to the site of a new enterprise where he erected another timber mill, shipyard, built a home and cottages for his workers, a general store and a hall. He named the area ‘Failford’ after the little village where he spent the first twelve years of his life. It was here where the ‘S.S.Commonwealth’ was later built by the Breckenridge’s. They were a very large family, it’s quite possible your accountant is related.