Submarine Base Honolulu Cancelation?

OK, My friend Sam found this while sorting a bulk lot and we were trying to find out about it. I thought this would be a great place start. Does anyone know anything about where this came from or it's usage? Thank you for any help.

I like stamps, but am not a serious collector and I love the stamps you picture here. I do have a pair of 20 cents Trans Pacific Air Mail stamps with a round cancellation mark for 7:30 AM 12 Nov 1940 from the USS Altair. Did US Navy ships do a lot of stamp cancellation, if so I would love to see some pictures of them.

In the past 100 years, there have been tens of thousands of different U.S. ship cancels. Some of them, like yours, do not have a specific ship's name; sometimes this was done for mission secrecy.

The first scan shows U.S. Fleet Flagship (Navy Day in bars); Naval Air Station; Submarine Division Ten (----, China in bars); and Submarine Division Seven (Pearl Harbor, T.H. in bars). These old cancels fade over the years and get hard to read, especially in low resolution images like ours.

My second scan shows cancels from the 1st and 3rd U.S. Navy ships designated the U.S.S. Altair (see Wikipedia). Below the Altair's is a cancel that merely says "Scouting Force," a good example of high security.

Thanks for the info. Great pictures. I learned something new today which is hard for an old dog like me.

The Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, is quite large. I think it is a safe assumption that the sub base area of Pearl Harbor would have it's own post office, hence, the Submarine Base Station cancel.

Cheers, Robert

I agree that Robert's assumption is correct -- all permanent U.S. military bases (and many expeditionary ones) have post offices to service the mail.

It certainly is a nice cancel on a nicely centered block!

I think it also safe to assume that whatever piece those stamps originally graced was prepared by a collector -- who else would be using stamps issued in 1937 to send a letter in 1963?

The item that was mailed might have been a parcel as the domestic letter rate for the first ounce was raised from 4c to 5c on January 7, 1963. The cancel at the outer edge of the upper left stamp suggests that additional postage may have been on the original piece.

Steve

Although I have no reason to question the authenticity of the 1963 postmark of Honolulu, HI Submarine Base Station on 1937 issued stamps, as the usage was certainly possible, there have also been reports of fraudulent postmarks (including ones from the Honolulu Submarine Base Station) as outlined in this article. A fascinating read on yet another aspect of postal history:

http://www.uscs.org/images/fakes_fo...t08_fff7.pdf

NOTE: Upon closer examination, the Honolulu Submarine Base Station postmark could be 1968, not 1963.

An amazing story wt1 -- it is comforting to know that the society policed its own ranks!

As to the year, I identified it as 1963 due to the absence of ink in the location noted on the image. It is possible that the digit is an underinked "8" but I think it more likely is a "3."

That's fascinating stuff. This isn't mine but friends on another board. We werent sure exactly what it was like you pointed out the issue of the stamps and the late usage and theusubmarine base cancellation just made it a curiosity and thought someone may know about it.