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Winter 2017 Newsetter
THE ROYAL MAIL STEAM PACKET COMPANY.
IAN JAKES
The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company (RMSP) was incorporated by Royal Charter granted by Queen Victoria on 26 September 1839. A few months later, it was awarded a subsidy of £240,000 a year for a fortnightly service, scheduled to start on 1 January 1842, from England to the West Indies. Fourteen wooden paddle steamers, each of about 1800 tons, were being built and two others bought second-hand. In January 1851, the service was extended to South America.
August 1852 saw preparations for a new route between Panama and Australia. The following month, moves were made to form a new company in partnership with the Pacific Steam Navigation Co. for the establishment of the Australian Pacific Mail Steam Packet Company. This article, which cannot possibly give a history about worldwide shipping, concentrates exclusively upon RMSP operations between Canada and the West Indies.
Following a report from the British Royal Commission of 1909, which had reported poor communications between Canada and the West Indies, a new service was prepared and a contract was signed with the Canadian Government to operate a fortnightly service from 1913. The Canadian agreement was initially for five years employing four ships with ports of call from Halifax- St John- Bermuda- St Kitts- Antigua- Montserrat-Dominica- St Lucia- St Vincent- Grenada- Barbados- Trinidad- Demerara, with a return route to the same ports terminating at Halifax.
The four vessels in this service were Caraque, Chaleur, Chignecto and Cobequid.The Cobequid was wrecked on the inward route of its first voyage on 13 January 1914 on Trinity Ledge Rocks, Bay of Fundy. She was on a voyage from Demerara to St. John, New Brunswick, with passengers and a cargo of sugar. She was replaced by an Elder Dempster vessel, Mandingo which became known as Chaudiere when she joined RMSP in 1914.
The Illustration: RMSP issued a set of eight souvenir labels for use by tourists and to attract publicity for the new fortnightly tours to the West Indies from Canada. A complete sheet of the eight labels in two halves is shown. Stamp 1 shows Antigua, Stamp 2 shows Roseau, Dominica, Stamp 3 shows St. Kitts and Stamp 4 shows Barbados. Stamp 5 carries an illustration of a banana estate in Trinidad, Stamp 6 an illustation of Castries, St. Lucia, Stamp 7 a view of Georgetown, Grenada and Stamp 8 an illustration of a sugar cane plantation in Demerara (British Guiana).
These labels are in full colour and are attractive enough to entice any Canadian to the warm weather to the south. The spell of this idyllic life- style was broken very early on with the outbreak of WW1 in 1914. None of these labels has yet been seen on cover.
Thirty eight Royal Mail vessels were to see war service. The four vessels on the Canada - West Indies service were seconded for other duties. There was an attempt by RMSP to revive the service after the war, without much success because the world recession was taking hold. On top of this, the vessel Caraquet went aground on 25 June 1923 in North Reef, twelve miles north of Bermuda, while on a voyage from Halifax, Nova Scotia to the West Indies. In 1927, RSMP ceased to carry on this business. Thereafter, the Canadian National (West Indies) Steamships obtained the contract and continued this scheduled service with the ‘Lady Liners’ until 1958.
Bibliography: ‘Steamship Lines to the Caribbean’- Michael Rego, 2005. ‘North Atlantic Seaway’, Vol 3- NRP Bonser, 1979.
THE POLDARK TIN MINE POSTBOX
DOUGLAS HARVEY
Deep below the surface in the Poldark Mine, on the Lizard Peninsula, near Helston, Cornwall, is a special postbox. Visitors to the mine can obtain stamps and stationery prior to descending to the tin workings. Cards and letters posted in the deep mine receive a special cachet before being transferred to a surface box for onward transmission. The mine is famous as the location for the television series Poldark.
The illustrations show a commemorative cover posted in 1986 and the underground postbox. From recent publicity, it would appear that the postbox is still operating. However, including the admission charge, it would cost at least £18.24 to post a single letter.
CINDERELLA'S GLASS SLIPPER
SANDRA POOLE
Cinderella’s Glass Slipper- Sandra Poole At the November meeting of the Cinderella Stamp Club, I spoke a few words on the origins of Cinderella’s glass slipper. This was because it was the day of their annual competition and the perpetual trophy for the winner is a mounted glass slipper.
The earliest recorded version of the Cinderella story dates back to around 100 years BC in Egypt. The slipper had a leather sole and was ‘gilded with rose-red gold’.There was also an old Chinese story where, apparently, the fairy-godmother was a fish. The mind boggles! There are numerous other variations on the theme, but according to JR Thorpe in a Wikipedia article, the closest story to ours (fairy-godmother, pumpkin and glass slipper) and on which ours is based was ‘Cendrillon’, written by a Frenchman, Charles Perrault, in 1697 (oh yes it was). The slipper was referred to as a ‘pantoufle en vair’, which actually means a ‘fur’ slipper. But the Old French ‘vair’ sounds identical to ‘verre’, which as you all probably know means ‘glass’. So, because of a translation error over 300 years ago, poor old Cindererella is now, probably for ever, saddled with the highly impractical glass slipper, whilst fur-lined slippers would be so much comfier!
Royal mail Christmas Stamp Booklet, 1985
TOURIST POSTS , PART 4
SANDRA POOLE
(Winter 2017 Newsletter)
In the last newsletter, I showed a ‘Post By Me’ label that I received on a postcard sent from Spain. Although I have visited both Spain and the Canaries since then, I have not found either stamps for sale or letter boxes. Bypost Global Mail, SL, a Spanish company specialising in tourist postal services, is the postal operator of Postby Me. (The spelling varies!) It claims to have a wide network of outlets located in popular tourist areas- hotels, campsites souvenir shops etc and the green letter boxes usually stand on the pavement outside the points of purchase. The company states that the QRC- Quick Response Code- identifies the point of purchase amongst other things and also provides a free advertising channel- I don’t know about the first, but I can certainly vouch for the second. When I scanned it with the QRC app on my phone, it came up with around 100 scenic photos, followed by possibly another 100. I clicked on just two and found advertisements for cheap Spanish holidays and excursions. I don’t know how long it would have taken to click on each one and take notes of all that was offered, but I wasn’t prepared to find out, even in the interests of journalism. Not to be outdone, Globe Postal Service (see Autumn 2014 newsletter) and Swiss Post also use the QRC. The GPS stamp directs you to its website and that of the Swiss Post again shows scenic pictures and its website address.
In the last newsletter, I mentioned City Post, that I had just discovered whilst on holiday in Spain. Like Sunpost, it is operated by Express Postal SL, which was set up in Madrid in 2013 offering an international service. I have yet to find a ‘stamp’, but a set of them can be seen on the front of the red postbox (left). The box seems to be identical to that of the Sunpost, which was shown in the Spring 2016 Newsletter. The first Swiss Post letterbox (centre) was found in Santa Cruz de La Palma and has a red cross next to ‘Swiss Post’, right at the top. The second one, (right) seen in Arrecife, Lanzarote, is blank in this area. Over the curved top of the box it has five different national flags, and interestingly, under each one, Swisspost boasts that it delivers to 220 countries However, the official number of countries in the world is apparently 194-198.
And some more stamps: Swiss Post and GPS
ISN'T TECHNOLOGY WONDERFUL (!?)
ALAN SQUIRES
I was going through some mail in my annual sort out so that I can throw away anything from last year. As companies now have their own templates, it can be difficult to find the date the letter was written amongst all the ‘official garbage’ they deem it necessary to plaster across the top two inches of the letter. I came across mail from a company that I dealt with for a few months last year. At the top of their mail was the heading “Date as per postmark”.
This is obvious to anyone with business office experience, that their IT department had set the template for their correspondence in this way to make it quicker for the typist. But even in a perfect system, we do not keep the envelope that the letter comes in. Not only that, I live in a house, not an office. I do not file receipts and invoices for the regulation 5 years (or whatever length of time it is), as I do not have the space or time or the inclination.
Nor am I efficient enough to date-stamp mail as I receive it, either mechanically or by hand. As this was mail for my mother, whose affairs I looked after, I simply added it to the top of a box where I kept all her correspondence. It’s called the heap method of filing and it keeps everything in a sort of order.
I wonder if any other companies are still using this method, which I remember was quite common at one time and, if so, do they realise its shortcomings? As it was a good way down the pile I threw it out. It was obviously old stuff and I need the room for all the official letters I am sure to receive in the coming year.
MISCELLANY
David Shipstone’s Winning Entry in the 2016 Egg Cup Competition. This Christmas card and cover had been chewed up by the sorting machine. The plastic bag in which it was delivered carries Royal Mail’s apology. Members were quite amused to note that, in addition to all the mechanical damage, someone in the Sorting Office had taken the trouble to deface the stamp with a ballpoint pen- and this one had already been cancelled!
1890 Christmas Card; Dennis Boot.
(Corrected) Dennis Boot kindly submitted this scan. It is a Post Office Christmas card, sold for 6d in November 1890, being the completion of celebrating 50 years of Uniform Penny Postage, The card includes illustrations of a chachet from South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum) with the date 2nd July 1990, being 100 years after their Penny Post Exhibition, and another cachet from the South Kensington Post Office which is dated 2nd July 1790.
From a Congress Display by Charles Kiddle.
Charles Kiddle, an expert on poster stamps and compiler of several catalogues on the subject, kindly gave permission for these stamps to appear in our newsletter. They will be of particular interest to those who collect Antarctica and/or Zeppelins. (SP)
I’ve Become a Postman !; Alan Squires
There have been a lot of complaints about the Post Office not cancelling mail or defacing it with biro. Both are only problems if you are a philatelist. I have come across another problem which I feel may involve a complaint against the Post Office very shortly.
I live on a main road. I live at number 233; there are two more main roads running at right angles to mine, both of which have houses numbered in the hundreds. I regularly get mail for 223, 231 and of course 237 (there is no 235 as mine is a double plot) for my road. It is no bother delivering this mail to my neighbours, nor do my neighbours have any problem delivering my mail to me when they get it.
In the last few weeks, starting mid-October to the present, I have been getting mail addressed to 233, but not my road!! One of these is just around the corner, so I delivered it as it looked quite important. To date, I have had four letters for this fellow just around the corner. However, the latest piece of mail is still for 233, but well over a mile away in the opposite direction down the road.
My neighbourly spirit says I should deliver it, but this is not my job. The postman should deliver it. Having spoken to my postman in the past about this, he said it was a problem at the sorting office, as that is where the mail is put into bundles for him to deliver to individual houses.
“Delivered to the wrong address” is going to be appearing on a lot more mail in the future, because I’ve already retired from the day job and do not need a part time job as a postman.
Plus ca change…….. Flicking through the latest auction results page in the January issue of Stamp and Coin Mart, I noticed a Trinidadian stamp- one of only three mint copies known- had just been sold for around £30,000 (Robert Siegel’s Auctions). The lot included an original letter dated 1902 from a dealer, recounting that there had been seven copies issued, but four of them, sent on letters, had been ‘thoroughly inked over by the Postal Authorities’ and were now of no use. Sounds familiar? (Sandra Poole)
DISPLAY REPORTS BY DOUGLAS HARVEY-
‘Portugal’- Jose Teixeira-Gomes’ and ‘Selection’- Gordon Low, 4 November 2016
Jose Gomes opened the evening with a collection of Portuguese stamps. The earliest issue, in 1853, showed Queen Maria II. This was followed by a succession of kings, terminating in 1908 with King Carlos, after which the country became a republic and many interesting and colourful commemorative issues followed. Jose mentioned the friendship with Britain which had continued over many years. The display concluded with the 1985 year presentation pack.
Gordon Low chose to show seven aspects of his world collection. He started collecting the GB Machin stamps when they were first introduced. He has an interest in US airmails and when his sister was living in Kenya, he collected the stamps of that country, including KUT issues. ‘Railways on Stamps’ was followed by football World Cup stamps and lighthouses. The last board was devoted to the attractive ‘Free Gifts’ which occasionally accompany the monthly SG magazine. David Shipstone thanked the two speakers for producing an interesting and varied display.
'RAF Mail'- Mick Britton, 18 November 2016
The larger RAF bases had their own post offices with appropriate cancellation postmarks. As the force grew in importance, the mail diversified to involve overseas bases and the RAF took responsibility for administration of some British occupations. Mail in wartime was usually censored and appropriate cachets were applied, although privilege mail was excluded and some mail transmission used the airgraph system of transporting the correspondence in microfilm. The display also included photographs and some interesting RAF publications, including maps and guidance for navigation in desert regions. Our enjoyment was greatly enhanced by personal recollections from Mick, who has retired from a lengthy career in the air force.
'Europa Postal Communication'- Mick Inger, 2 December 2016.
The annual issue from the European nations commenced in 1956 when the countries in the Common Market all issued a set of stamps depicting a common design, ‘The Tower of Strength’. This continued with a different common design each year, until control passed to the CEPT the postal authority for the whole of Europe. Countries outside the Community then joined in with the annual issue, which subsequently (1972) changed from a specified design to a specified subject theme for each year. For particular anniversaries, a common design was chosen, in particular for the year 2000, when the Tower of Strength featured again. In recent years, over 60 postal authorities have used Europa stamps, making provision for a substantial Europa collection. For the display in Part 1, Mick Inger showed an issue for each year from 1956-2016 and in Part 2, an issue for each of the participating postal authorities.
New Acquisitions & Recently Mounted-Members, 6 January 2017
Whilst most of the members are now consolidating their collections, a few recent stamp issues were shown. In part one, the display items included GB, postal history, printing colour variations, South Atlantic Islands, Zeppelin stamps, new Sweden stamps, Leeds Railway parcel labels, prints from the USA Postal Museum in Washington, toll road halfpenny tax surcharge in India and Isle of Man stamps. The part two
displays included old maps on stamps, Australia covers, personal memorabilia, Japanese NVI stamps, Victorian GB, 2012 Olympics and Canada 2016 issues.
'Revenues'- Chris Tennant, 20 January 2017
The first part of the display centred around newspaper tax and the distribution of newspapers by railways. Newspaper tax was introduced in 1712, but in 1855 the tax became optional, to include postage if tax
was applied. The railway companies realised the advantage of distributing untaxed newspapers and began printing labels to be attached to newspaper parcels. Prior to the grouping of the railway companies, many diverse labels were produced. In addition, railway stations had parcel labels printed, some indicating the point of departure and others specifying the destination. A cash on delivery parcels service began in 1928’
The second part of the evening commenced with an interesting collection of taxation documents covering hackney cabs and private hire vehicles, many pre-dating motor transport. Chris then explained how tobacco and playing card taxes had been introduced and showed a variety of taxation labels, together with some original packaged goods.
Society and Other News
Midpex 2017: 8 July, 10am to 5pm, at the Warwickshire Exhibition Centre, Fosse Way, Leamington. This takes place every 2 years and should not be missed!
Christmas Eggcup Competition- 19 members took part (out of an attendance of 21) and the standard this year was very high. David Shipstone, by popular vote, was proclaimed the winner and was awarded
the prestigious wooden eggcup trophy. The winning entry, showing a chewed up card and envelope alongside RM’s ‘sincere apologies’, may be viewed on this page.
2017 Subscriptions (£10)-these are now overdue, so if you have not already paid them, please send them to David Shipstone, or hand them in at the next meeting.
Sorry to see you go- Wendy Orr and Steve Speak have sadly resigned from the Society,
From Steve Speak- It’s ‘au revoir’ from Steve, but hopefully not ‘goodbye’. It’s now well over 2 years since I moved to the North West. During this time, I have become a member of both Crewe and Northwich stamp
clubs. Consequently, after a lot of thought and not without regret, I have decided to resign from Notts PS. I thoroughly enjoyed my 42 year-long membership and did my best to help by being president, secretary,
treasurer and Deputy Auctioneer (on one memorable occasion, I actually was auctioneer!) at various times. Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep in touch and to return. I’ll keep you informed of stamp developments over here. I wish the Society and all its members all the very best for the future. (and all the best and thanks from us as well, Steve- Ed.)
Royal Mail Issues 2017
17 Jan Ancient Britain
6 Feb £5 definitive (which may not be available at all POs.)
15 Feb Windsor Castle and Post & Go- Mail by Rail
14 Mar Music Giants
20 Mar Opening of Postal Museum
March New tariff definitives
6 Apr Racehorse Legends
4 May Songbirds
Members displaying to other Societies-
The indefatigable Ingers were at Rotherham, on 1 Nov, then on 9 Nov, they were at Barnsley, Mick Displaying ‘The Zeppelin Story’, Barbara ‘The Isle of Bute’. The next day, they were at Leicester showing ‘The Scottish Isles and on 18 Nov, Mick was at Alfreton-‘How I got sidetracked’. Mike Siverns displayed ‘Bangladesh' on 2 Nov to Stratford-upon-Avon. Chris Tennant gave a display entitled ‘Beyond the Back of the Book’ at Leicester on 8 Nov and to the National PS on 14 Jan. Alan Squires gave a presentation on the Falklands at Radcliffe-on-Trent on 10 Nov.
Forthcoming meetings at our Society:
3 Feb Postcards, Members
17 Feb 'Hungary', George Kirkham
3 Mar Visit from Derby PS
4 Mar Annual Auction at St Peter’s Rooms, Ruddington
27 Mar President’s Evening
7 Apr 'All Things Military', Doug Stubbings
21 Apr AGM and one page displays
Meetings at the Greater Nottingham Co-operative PS
11 Jan Anything but Stamps
8 Feb To notify, Doug Stubbings
8 Mar Something to show Members
12 Apr To notify, Dennis Boot
Meetings at Radcliffe-on-Trent PS
9 Feb AGM
23 Feb 'The Kingdom of Italy', Tony Clayton
Meetings at Loughborough PS
9 Feb Egypt Chas Ford
'Double trouble', Mags and Brian Phipps
23 Feb President’s Cup & 1 sheet comp’n
9 Mar 'The Northern Isles', Christine Haines
13 Apr 'Romania', Pat Jackson
Spring Stampex: 15-18 Feb at the Business Design Centre, Islington
Please send any articles or other philatelic items for the next newsletter before the end of March.
Email Editor: Sandy.poole@ntlworld.com
DISCLAIMER: While every care is taken during the production of the reports, neither the editor or Society Officers can accept any liability for views or unintentional publication errors that may occur.
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