Commissioning of INS Sagardhwani (A 74)

This cover is latest addition to my collection. Special cover issued in July 30, 1994, on the event of Commissionong of INS Sagardhwani - Marine Acoustic Research Ship (MARS) of Indian Navy, built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers, Kolkata.

The hull and machinery are very similar to the Sandhayak Class survey vessels, but there are marked superstructure differences with the bridge positioned amidships and a helicopter platform forward. The vessel has been configured as a research vessel for the Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory, Kochi. The vessel is also based there. There are two large cranes and a gantry for deploying and recovering research equipment.

There are a total of eight labs to permit conducting acoustic, geological, meteorological, chemical and physical oceanography. Most of the laboratories are acoustically isolated from the ship's structure. Among the first vessels in the Indian Navy with accommodations for female personnel. Carries 116 tons fresh water. The vessel is painted white except for the lift equipment and two rescue boats which are painted in orange. The vessel was employed in advanced torpedo trials and missile range support.

Source: Bharat-Rakshak.com

NRP Sagres III

Received this postcard from a postcrossing user in Netherland, depicting the tall ship NRP Sagress III school ship of the Portuguese Navy since 1961. It is the third ship with this name in the Portuguese Navy, so she is also known as Sagres III. It is also depicted in a postage stamp issued by France in 1999. Click here to see the stamp.

Following a number of international training voyages, the ship was used as a stationary office ship after the outbreak of World War II and was only put into ocean-going service again in 1944 in the Baltic Sea. On 14 November 1944 she hit a Soviet mine off Sassnitz and had to be towed to port in Swinemünde. Eventually transferred to Flensburg, she was taken over there by the Allies when the war ended and finally confiscated by the United States.

In 1948, the U.S. sold her to Brazil for a symbolic price of $5,000 USD.[1] She was towed to Rio de Janeiro, and for Brazil she sailed as a school ship for the Brazilian Navy under the name Guanabara. In 1961, the Portuguese Navy bought her to replace the old school ship Sagres II (which was transferred to Hamburg, where she is a museum ship under her original name Rickmer Rickmers). The Portuguese Navy renamed her Sagres (the third ship of that name), and she is still in service.

Source: Wikipedia

Postmark: Queen Mary 2 Flag Parade, Hamburg

A special postmark was issued on the occasion of Queen Mary 2 Flag Parade at Hamburg, on August 12, 2012. Thanks for my friend, Mr. Wolfgang Beyer for arranging this postmark.

Queen Mary 2 at Port of Hamburg  -

- The envelope 

Source: image from hafencity.com