The PAQUEBOT Marks of Southern Africa
As there is a lot of interest in PAQUEBOT marks I attach a few here and encourage others to do the same.
R. M. Hosking, author of 'Paquebot Cancellations of the World", is the authority on Paquebot marks. Like most books tied to paper and print, his work has been outdated by new discoveries and knowledge. Like Ralph Putzel who gave us the cornerstone on which to build our knowledge of SA postmarks, his research and documentation is a start, not an end, rather a constant work in progress. Aler Visser now continues Ralph's work but who continues Hosking's?
1]. Suitably, the first cover is a LUDERITZ PAQUEBOT mark on cover addressed to Hosking, dated 26 SEP 67. I found this among my SWA accumulation. It will be a part of my planned SWA display. I am reluctant to part with it.
2]. The second is an 'Airmail' CAPE TOWN/KAAPSTAD PAQUEBOT mark from the "ATHLONE CASTLE" THE UNION-CASTLE MAIL STEAMSHIP COMPANY LIMITED dated '23 SEP 48'. I imagine the addressee, Gerald P. Todd., was, like Hosking, a Paquebot mark collector. A brief search on Todd reveals nothing. What are these worth? I think they are great!
3]. The third is another but different 'Airmail' Paquebot mark, also addressed to Todd, this time from the "ARUNDEL CASTLE", with CAPE TOWN over KAAPSTAD at top.
4]. Here is a PC that throws up a more traditional Paquebot mark query. This is a CAPE TOWN KAAPSTAD PAQUEBOT MC (machine canceller) from 'SEP 20 1920'. It is taken from the SAPC's forthcoming SA & SWA King's Head Postal History display. Has this PAQUEBOT MC been previously recorded? I imagine it must have but can find no info on it.
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My 5d worth.
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Only worth 5p? Never! Well, if that's the case, here are three more throwaway Cape Town Paquebot items.
I imagine that these letter were sent from the ship in Cape Town to notify the importer, Burmeister & Co. of East London, of the incoming cargo manifest, sailing and arrival times, etc. The letters travelled overland by rail.
1]. From SS Clan Forbes bearing the dumb (no town, no date) PAQUEBOT canceller of WW2.
2]. Two low-res images from the SS Perthshire bearing standard Cape Town Paquebot marks of the time, 1944 - 1950.
TOP: I imagine that this is the more modern of the two.
BOTTOM: The 'dumbness' suggests this was a WW2 canceller. It is probably being used here in Cape Town post-WW2.
I have decided to start a Club Collective display on Paquebot marks, if only for myself. I have found that I have quite a few of these covers despite never actively collecting this area. I have found Ralph Putzel's 'The Postmarks of South Africa' unhelpful'. He only lists Paquebot marks under Cape Town and Durban but not elsewhere under a town. He does include a short, rather hodge-podge Paquebot section under 'Maritime' but this is far from a helpful broader reference.
In order to gain greater knowledge of Paquebot marks I recently bought the 'Paquebot Cancellations of the World And More", from Mike Dovey who with Keith Morris has updated Hosking's original work. While this contains a mass of detail and many images of these marks, it gives only a generic number to a type without showing or listing the varieties fully, as Putzel attempts to do. See below. This is a reference to my Cape Town Paquebot machine cancellation shown above in the first post and also below. The accompanying image for this listing does not show the same circular datestamp. I reported my cover as a new discovery to Mike Dovey only to be told that no, the listing says 'circular portion varied'. It would be helpful if this variation was shown as an example. It would cut out this confusion. Anyway, the good news is that I can and will show all three examples of this machine canceller, and more if they are found.
I think that a 'Paquebot Marks of Southern Africa, including Angola, South and South West Africa / Namibia and Mozambique' that shows and describes all southern African Paquebot marks including varieties will provide the South African collector with a quick and easy to use reference work. I will post a section on Mossel Bay which will provide a tentative format for presentation and discussion.
Below, how you would identify the postcard (bottom) using 'Paquebot Cancellations of the World And More". Note that it spells Cape Town as 'Capetown', so searching on 'Cape Town' will not find this section of the PDF file.
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Here is a wartime paquebot cover that may be "philatelic" I suppose. Sent from a paymaster at Naval Headquarters at Tricomalee, Ceylon to South Africa. Censored using Type n.710 Naval censors stamp in Ceylon, and post marked using the "dumb" Durban paquebot canceller.
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Very nice. Yes, I would guess "definitely" philatelic. Interesting mix of Ceylon and SA stamps.
So here's my continuing beef with the standard Paquebot mark reference book - "Paquebot Marks of the World - and More". Your (this) postmark is recorded in it but not illustrated. The earlier pre-war version of this postmark showing 'DURBAN' top and 'PAQUEBOT' at base is listed as No. 2775 with a reference that says ' 1937 - 44 .... Also with 'Durban' removed during WW2'. That may be enough for some but I am more 'visual' and like to see illustrations. This is, after all, an important but common wartime Paquebot mark.
I think a substantial alteration to the postmark, as used on your cover above, deserves an illustrated example. But no, you won't find it in the "standard Paquebot reference" book. This is because it aims to cover all the world's Paquebot marks of which there are simply too many to include every variation. As a result, only the original is shown with a text reference to any changes made. I think that if we try to produce a Paquebot reference for southern Africa, the exercise will be do-able due to a much smaller number of marks, each one of which can be shown with all its varieties, rather like Putzel's 'Postmarks of South Africa'.
I wonder if anyone can advise about this cover. What intrigues me most is the postmark cancelling the 'stamp'. This is not a SWA postmark. Sadly it is incomplete and faint but I believe it says 'MAIELLA' at the base of the postmark. Someone has also written 'Maiella' in on the LHS of the postal stationery cover. I believe this refers to the Maiella, an Italian cargo ship built 1913 and owned by Lloyd Triestina. She was sunk by British submarine HMS Una near Straits of Messina on 05/04/1942.
This Paquebot cover is most unusual. Paquebot covers are typically stamped when they come ashore by the forwarding postal authority, not on board ship. What's going on? If anyone can advise, please help!
I have tried to enhance the postmark in the second image, alas to no good effect.
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I emailed Mike Dovey, co-author of "Paquebot Marks of the World - and More" about this cover. He replied:
"Re: your MAIELLA cover, it all seems OK to me and I have to assume you have the right ship although I would check a fleet list for the company just in case there is a ship with a similar name MAILL........, you never can tell. It is a nice cover and if the ship is correct you have some good info on it". Thanks Mike!
I now know more about these curious Italian cancels. I recently bought a cover from Paul van Zeyl - wishing you a speedy recovery broer and a quick return to selling postal history! - that lead to my learning more about them.
This new cover from Paul and the Mariella one suggests that some Italian ships in SA waters in the 1930s cancelled Paquebot mail aboard ship with their own ship or shipping line handstamp before sending it ashore to be mailed. See the attached cover dated 20 NOV 1934 from the DUCHESSA D' AOSTA. The fact that this cover is dated just months after the Mariella cover, above, which is dated 2: 01 1935, suggests a common practice. Mike Dovey writes "it was a done thing for many Italian ships to cancel stamps with a ship cachet".
Paul's auction description stated "Union 1934 cover with Ship 1d stamp cancelled BLUE ship’s cachet + separate dater ‘20/11/1934’, also headed ‘Pfo DUCHESSA D’ AOSTA’; PO-cancelledd transit ‘MOSSEL BAYBAAI, 22/11’ (P#23), addressed to CT, very fine used & extremely scarce shipping canc at local port [1] (Note: not found in RD Allen’s publications; Italian or Spanish line)."
These Italian datestamps on Paquebot covers are perhaps not as scarce as Paul suggests but I have no gripes. This cover is unusual and there is a place for it in my Paquebot display. The cover was cancelled in MOSSEL BAY -BAAI on '22 NOV 34'. There is a single line cachet at top which identifies the ship. There is a single line datestamp of '20 NOV 1934' in the same blue-grey ink as the cachet and triple circle ship's shipping line handstamp - which is NOT a datestamp - below the stamp. The ship's canceller appears to say "NAVIGAZONE LIBERIA TRIESTINA S. A." The name of the ship, "DUCHESSA D’ AOSTA" runs across the middle of the inner circle.
Now, the magic of postal history intervenes to embellish this cover with a twist of intrigue!
OPERATION POSTMASTER
The Italians invaded Ethiopia in October 1935 - just over a year after this cover was posted. Some argue that this date and or the invasion of China by Japan was the start of WW2. There is an interesting wartime story involving the DUCHESSA D’ AOSTA. During WW2 this cargo liner of 8,500 tons found herself stranded in neutral Spanish waters around the West African island of Fernado Po in the Gulf of Guinea. A piratical British 'special operation', Operation Postmaster, was carried out by the Small Scale Raiding Force and SOE (Special Operations Executiv)e in January 1942 to capture three Italian and German ships in the harbour and sail them to Lagos. While the Axis ships' officers were attending a party ashore arranged by an SOE agent, the commandos entered the port aboard two tugs, overpowered the ships' crews and sailed off with them, including the DUCHESSA D' AOSTA. She was transferred to the Ministry of War Transport, sailed to Greenock and managed as the Empire Yukon by Canadian Pacific until 1946. She was renamed Petconnie in 1947 and returned to Italian ownership only in 1951 as Liu O. She was scrapped in 1952.
Was the DUCHESSA D' AOSTA named after the wife of the Duke of Aosta, the defeated C-i-C in Italian East Africa?
1]. The DUCHESSA D' AOSTA ship cancelled cover.
2]. The ship, the DUCHESSA D' AOSTA. Was the lady a tramp? (Wikipedia.)
3]. The Duke of Aosta surrenders at Amba Alagi in May 1941. (Its a Long Way to Addis. Carel Birkby.)
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