Origin of Durban Dumb Paquebot Mark

#1 · June 26, 2023, 12:29 pm

Quote from Steve on June 26, 2023, 12:29 pm
I went to a stamp show this last weekend and bought the blue cover below. It is a good example of the Durban PAQUEBOT mark before it was made dumb ie. had the name removed to confuse the Nazis, the Japs and the Ossewa Brandwag, South Africa's very own racist pro-German Fifth Column. Ja ja, I know, the were never Nazi-loving anti-Semites, simply freedom-loving anti-British republicans. Well, they won the election in 1948 once the Boy's Up North came Home to no jobs and the rest is sad South African history.

The covers below show the development of the DURBAN PAQUEBOT mark as a dumb one. Durban. close to the Transvaal's industrial heartland, was a very important port, more so than Cape Town. Almost all military supplies, mostly ammunition, manufactured in the Union were sent up the East African coast to North Africa and or across the Indian Ocean to SE Asia via Durban. In addition, Durban was a better, more sheltered port than Cape Town where Table Bay was wide open to submarine attack. Tens of thousands of Allied troops passed through Durban en route to the various operational theatres of WW2. The Japanese even went so far as to twice fly a submarine-based reconnaisance plane over Durban with a view to attacking it and its vital wartime shipping.

1]. The first cover is from Durban to the USA dated '6 JUL 38'. It has come off an American ship, the MV City of New York. It bears the United States 1937 3¢ brown 'Army stamp' showing Sherman, Grant and Sheridan. ("There's three aces for you, boy!" Captain Nathan Brittles. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. John Ford. 1949.) I am a great fan of General U. S. Grant. Anyone who hasn't read it should get hold of 'Grant' by Ron Chernow. His attempts to build better race relations after the Civil War were much resisted by Democrats who today heap all the mistakes of the US's slave past on Republicans. Nothing is further from the Truth. Shame on you!

The ship's stamp on this cover shows the start of Paquebot mail as an area subject to great and awful embellishment. By 2000 the average Paquebot mail cover would have more marks applied to it than the original Tattooed Lady.

2]. An Airmail wartime cover from Durban dated 28 MAR 40 dated '6 NOV 40' and going to England.

3]. My recent purchase with the classic Union 1936 green and gold Gold Mining stamp dated '6 NOV 40' and going to England. This postmark states Town Name with full date and Time details. It now becomes a dumb Paquebot stamp.

4]. An Air Mail Letter Card bearing the dumb DURBAN PAQUEBOT mark dated '31 DEC 43' going to England. The purple BTA circular cachet is for 'British Troops Africa'. The sender was an RAF serviceman 'IN TRANSIT'. The time has been replaced by a square black slug.

5]. An Air Mail Letter Card bearing the dumb DURBAN PAQUEBOT mark dated '3 JAN 44' going to England. The purple BTA circular cachet is for 'British Troops Africa'. The sender was an RAF serviceman 'IN TRANSIT'. The time has been replaced by a square black slug.

I went to a stamp show this last weekend and bought the blue cover below. It is a good example of the Durban PAQUEBOT mark before it was made dumb ie. had the name removed to confuse the Nazis, the Japs and the Ossewa Brandwag, South Africa's very own racist pro-German Fifth Column. Ja ja, I know, the were never Nazi-loving anti-Semites, simply freedom-loving anti-British republicans. Well, they won the election in 1948 once the Boy's Up North came Home to no jobs and the rest is sad South African history.

The covers below show the development of the DURBAN PAQUEBOT mark as a dumb one. Durban. close to the Transvaal's industrial heartland, was a very important port, more so than Cape Town. Almost all military supplies, mostly ammunition, manufactured in the Union were sent up the East African coast to North Africa and or across the Indian Ocean to SE Asia via Durban. In addition, Durban was a better, more sheltered port than Cape Town where Table Bay was wide open to submarine attack. Tens of thousands of Allied troops passed through Durban en route to the various operational theatres of WW2. The Japanese even went so far as to twice fly a submarine-based reconnaisance plane over Durban with a view to attacking it and its vital wartime shipping.

1]. The first cover is from Durban to the USA dated '6 JUL 38'. It has come off an American ship, the MV City of New York. It bears the United States 1937 3¢ brown 'Army stamp' showing Sherman, Grant and Sheridan. ("There's three aces for you, boy!" Captain Nathan Brittles. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. John Ford. 1949.) I am a great fan of General U. S. Grant. Anyone who hasn't read it should get hold of 'Grant' by Ron Chernow. His attempts to build better race relations after the Civil War were much resisted by Democrats who today heap all the mistakes of the US's slave past on Republicans. Nothing is further from the Truth. Shame on you!

The ship's stamp on this cover shows the start of Paquebot mail as an area subject to great and awful embellishment. By 2000 the average Paquebot mail cover would have more marks applied to it than the original Tattooed Lady.

2]. An Airmail wartime cover from Durban dated 28 MAR 40 dated '6 NOV 40' and going to England.

3]. My recent purchase with the classic Union 1936 green and gold Gold Mining stamp dated '6 NOV 40' and going to England. This postmark states Town Name with full date and Time details. It now becomes a dumb Paquebot stamp.

4]. An Air Mail Letter Card bearing the dumb DURBAN PAQUEBOT mark dated '31 DEC 43' going to England. The purple BTA circular cachet is for 'British Troops Africa'. The sender was an RAF serviceman 'IN TRANSIT'. The time has been replaced by a square black slug.

5]. An Air Mail Letter Card bearing the dumb DURBAN PAQUEBOT mark dated '3 JAN 44' going to England. The purple BTA circular cachet is for 'British Troops Africa'. The sender was an RAF serviceman 'IN TRANSIT'. The time has been replaced by a square black slug.

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#2 · June 26, 2023, 5:06 pm

In April 1942, the dumb DURBAN PAQUEBOT mark still retained the Time as per the original datestamp.. The last two covers in the preceding post show that the Time had been removed by December 1943 and replaced with Blocks.

The DURBAN PAQUEBOT datestamp morphed into three varities - 1]. as originally issued, 2]. when made dumb for wartime security and 3]. when it later had the Time removed and replaced with Blocks. Other varieties may exist.

The 'Paquebot Cancellations of the World and more...' by Mike Dovey and Keith Morris (4th edition), is visually disappointing. Although it tells us that the life of the DURBAN PAQUEBOT datestamp was 'from 1937 - 1944', it only shows the original DURBAN PAQUEBOT datestamp as issued, (their no. 2775). They do not show an example of the dumb version of this datestamp. (In their defence, I guess that when you are attempting to document the paquebot marks of the world you need to conserve space in any way you can. For this reason we need a dedicated and unconstrained southern African listing.) While they do acknowledge the dumb DURBAN PAQUEBOT mark's existence, saying 'Also with 'Durban' removed during WW2', they do not list the variety with Time removed and replaced by Block

1]. 1942. Large folded OHMS cover DURBAN ‘17 APR 42’ to Suez, Egypt. Marked 'AIRMAIL' in Green.

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