Friday, October 22, 2010

British Voyage of The Endeavour - 1997

Year of Issue: 1997

I am excited today to find this surprise treasure in my letter box. Many thanks to my friend, Laura Termes of Canada, presently pursuing higher studies at UK.

This is a Limited Edition Souvenir Aerogramme issued by Royal Mail in 1997 to commemorate voyage of 'replica' of HMS Endeavour around the world.  HMS Endeavour is the ship of Captain James Cook, (1728 - 1779) on his first voyage of discovery, to Australia and New Zealand from 1769 to 1771.

The front side shows the replica Endeavour in full sail at sea; Captain James Cook is depicted on the reverse, writing notes in his log book; the inner flap shows the sail routes of Endeavour in 1768 and replica ship in 1997.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Card #1 from Denmark

Received this wonderful postcard from Facebook and MyPhilately friend, Peter Gortz, Denmark. This is the first card on my theme from Denmark.

The ship depicted on card is the HDMY Dannebrog (A540) (HDMY - Her Danish Majesty's Yacht) was launched by Queen Alexandrine at Copenhagen in 1931, and commissioned on 26 May 1932. The yacht now serves as the official and private residence for HM The Queen of Denmark, HRH the Prince Consort, and members of the Royal Family when they are on official visits overseas and on summer cruises in Danish waters.

Since it was commissioned in 1932, the yacht has travelled more than 300,000 nautical miles (600,000 km) and visited most of the ports of Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands. The yacht has also visited European ports, especially in France and cruised the Mediterranean and the Caribbean Seas.

Source: Wikipedia

Monday, October 18, 2010

Kruzenshtern - Circumnavigation - 2006

Date of Issue: March 24, 2006

Many thanks to friend Mr. Vitaly Rymkevich of St. Petersburg, Russia for sending me this FDC.

This stamp was issued to commemorate circumnavigation of the sail ship Kruzenshtern in 2006.

Kruzenshtern is a Russian four masted barque and tall ship that was built in 1926 in Germany, under the name Padua (named after the eponymous Italian city). She was given to the USSR in 1946 as war reparation and renamed after the early 19th century Baltic German explorer in Russian service, Adam Johann Krusenstern (1770-1846).

In 1995/96 she made a trip around the world in the trail of her namesake. She again circumnavigated the globe in 2005-06 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Krustenstern's circumnavigation.

Source: Wikipedia

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Ships of the Union Castle Line


Date of Issue: December 05, 2007
Artwork: Peter Bilas
The South African Post Office celebrates the romance of traveling by ship with a set of stamps and a commemorative envelope issued on 5 December 2007.
The Union-Castle Line, famed for it’s lavender hulled liners that ran on a clockwork timetable between Southampton and South Africa, began as two separate companies: Union Line and Castle Line. The two amalgamated in March 1900.

The following ships of the Union Castle Line are featured on the stamps:

RMS Scot: Of all the steamships built before the Union - Castle amalgamation, the Scot stands out as the most famous. She was built on the Clyde and launched in 1890 and her early career marked the high-water mark of 20 years’ rivalry between the Union Line and Donald Currie’s Company. In 1893, the Scot had established a record time for the passage from England (14 days, 8 hours, 57 minutes), a record which stood until 1936, when the Stirling Castle reduced the time to 13 days 9 hours. In outward appearance her clipper bow, tall funnels and graceful lines easily made her one of the most handsome vessels afloat and she was popularly described as the `Albatross of the South’. Because of her reputation for speed, the Scot was a good advert for the Union Line. However, she proved to be a terrific coal eater and expensive to operate and was sold within a few years of the amalgamation of the Union and Castle lines. After changing owners a few times, she ended her days in 1927 at the shipbreaker’s yard.

The Dane: is depicted here after departure from Southampton in September, 1857, with the Needles off the Isle of Wight in the background. She arrived in Cape Town on 29 October. The Dane was the first Union Line mailship on the run and symbolises the beginning of an era. The Dane was moved from the mail service to the Mauritian service in 1864. During the following year she was used as an admiralty transport vessel in the naval operation to suppress slave trading on the East African coast. En route from Simons Town to East Africa, she was wrecked on Thunderbolt Reef near Port Elizabeth on 1 December.

Kildonan Castle: was built in 1899 by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. She was the last mail ship to be completed for the Castle Line before the merger, but commenced her career as H. M. Transport 44 for use during the Boer War. On her maiden voyage she carried 3000 troops to Cape Town and in December 1900 was used as a prisoner of war ship at Simonstown. During 1901 she returned to Fairfields for completion before undertaking her first commercial mail sailing on 7th December. At the end 1920 she was refurbished and returned to the mail run where she remained until replaced by the Carnarvon Castle in 1936 and put in reserve. When the building of the Dunbar Castle was delayed in January 1930 she was deployed on the Intermediate run until May when she was laid up at Netley pending disposal. In May 1931 she was sold for £11,250 and broken up in Norway.


The Edinburgh Castle: was built in 1910 by Harland & Wolff at Belfast. Sister of the Balmoral Castle, she was the last of a group of almost identical ships. On 14th August 1914 she sailed from Cape Town with mail and government-only passengers to Gibraltar, where she embarked troops before being escorted to England by HMS Minerva. She was then taken over as an auxiliary cruiser for the South Atlantic patrol and in January 1915 sailed from Devonport for South Africa with White Star’s Ceramic to hunt for the German ships Karlsruhe and Kronprinz Wilhelm. Edinburgh Castle resumed commercial operations in 1919 after a refit and during that year carried General Smuts back to South Africa. She was withdrawn from service in 1938 and laid up at Netley until she was bought by the Admiralty for use as an accommodation ship in Freetown, Sierra Leone for Naval personnel and survivors of sunken ships. In 1945, as towing back to England would not be cost effective, she was towed 60 miles out to sea and sunk by gunfire and depth charges.

Windsor Castle: Built by Cammell Laird in Birkenhead, the Windsor Castle was launched on June 23, 1959 by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. At the time of the launch, she was the largest liner built in England and the largest liner owned by the Union-Castle Line. Windsor Castle’s maiden voyage was from Southampton on August 18, 1960, arriving in Durban 11.5 days later. In December 1967 she celebrated her 50th voyage, having steamed 700,000 miles and carried 35,000 passengers with no breakdowns or delays. The great vessel was the flagship of the Union Castle fleet, but sadly her career was short lived. By the 1970s, with the advent of the jumbo jet and economy air travel to South Africa, Union Castle began to phase out its money-losing passenger services. August 12, 1977 saw her 124th and last sailing from Southampton. It was also the final mail sailing for Union Castle Line.

The Transvaal Castle later SA Vaal: The Transvaal Castle was launched in 1961 by John Brown & Co, Clydebank. She was delivered to Union-Castle Line, and served on their route to South Africa from Southampton from 1962. She remained in Union-Castle Line colours only until 1966, when she was transferred to the South African Marine Corp (UK), remaining on the same service under the British flag, with Union-Castle Line crew and management as S.A.Vaal. In 1969 she was transferred to the South African flag.

I thank my swap friend, Mr. Johns, South Africa for sending me both the mint set and the same on envelope.



Source: http://www.postoffice.co.za/

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Tug Lyttelton 1907

This is the first Cinderella stamp in my collection. Many thanks to my friend Corinne Pegler for sending me this sheet.

What is a Cinderella Stamp? - Definition from Wikipedia - "Virtually anything resembling a postage stamp, but not issued for postal purposes by a government postal administration..." The term also excludes imprinted stamps on postal stationery.  Cinderella stamps are not normally listed in the main stamp collecting catalogs. If they are, it is usually in a separate appendix within the publication, and so they are sometimes called back of the book stamps.

This sheet with four stamps shows the tug Lyttelton at Lyttelton harbor, the tug at sea, the tug in Akaroa Harbor, and the tug passing Akaroa lighthouse. This was issued by the Tug Lyttelton Preservation Society in 1990, and all proceeds from the sale of these stamps go towards helping to maintain tug Lyttelton.

Source: Wikipedia.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Ships on Banknotes #9 - Singapore $5

Date of first issue:  August 21, 1989
Size in mm: 133 x 63
Color: Green

This banknote is of 3rd series of Singapore Banknotes commonly termed as "ship" series issued and used between 1984 and 1999. The series starts with the merchant craft of bygone days, and progresses to the modern bulk carrier which is featured on the highest denomination. The nine denominations in this series are $1, $2, $5, $10, $50, $100, $500, $1,000, $10,000.

The vessel depicted on the obverse (front) side in this $5 banknote is a Twakow or sailing lighter, a locally built craft designed by the Chinese. It carried cargoes mainly from the Malay Peninsula.  It was also used to unload cargoes from large ships at the anchorages to many warehouses on the banks of Singapore and Kallang rivers. The Twakows subsequently lost their masts and sails after bridges were built across the rivers.

The reverse of the banknote depicts birds eye view of PSA Terminals at Singapore. PSA Singapore Terminals is the world’s largest container transshipment  hub, handling about one-fifth of the world's total container transshipment throughput, and 6% of global container throughput. It has a network of 200 shipping lines serving 600 ports in 123 countries.

Click here to see other banknotes in my collection with ships.

Source: Wikipedia, mas.gov.sg, shipstamps.co.uk

Thanks to blogger friend Ms. Malini,  (Encyclobanknotes) for sending me this banknote.
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