Canal Zone FDCs (Show And Tell)

Here are three FDC's I picked up recently, Canal Zone Scott 148, 149 and 150. Bought them for $1 apiece which might be a bit much for non-cacheted. What can I say, I love CZ.

Lets start with 148.




Scott 148 commemorates the 75th Anniversary of Gorgas Hospital. My sister was born in that hospital (I was 1 yr old when our family came to the Canal Zone). I also spent a summer as a Red Cross volunteer there. Fun place to walk around. The campus had some 15 wings and buildings by the time it was turned over to Panama. The two apartment buildings were later converted into Panama's Supreme Court.

Gorgas Hospital was named after Gen William C. Gorgas who combined a masterful medical mind with an aptitude for entomology in bringing an end to the reign of terror which mosquito-born illness had in the tropics (but that is another stamp). In its earliest days, as Ancon Hospital, it was surrounded by large free-standing tubs of stagnant water as it was thought that stagnant water deterred whatever vector it was that caused tropical diseases. This was before they realized (and Gorgas publicized) that the mosquito was the vector for the dreaded tropical diseases, and that it needed stagnant water to breed.

Once Gorgas had had his successes, he went on to eradicate diseases in other tropical countries, but the hospital named after him became the premier research hospital for tropical diseases in the world. It was just as well, because there are still some nasties out there if you aren't careful (and I am not talking about the vampire bats).

Among Panamanians, it was known as the best place to end up if you were in need of medical treatment, through most of them only saw treatment there in emergency cases, as the hospital was strictly for treatment of canal workers, the US military and their dependents. My Panamanian uncle was treated there after a horrific car accident (he came out of it with flying colors).

After the Carter-Torrijos Treaty took effect, Gorgas Hospital was renamed twice. First, to Gorgas Army Hospital, and then later to Gorgas Army Community Hospital. The hospital continued to be under the direction of the US Army until the final handover of territories and structures on October 1, 1999.

Today, Panamanians call it . . . you guessed it, Gorgas Hospital, and the research continues, if now sometimes in Spanish. The original Administration Building of the hospital (pictured on the stamp) still stands. The building still contains the offices of the hospital administrators and a medical post office.

Thank you for all the info about Gorgas Hospital and the Canal Zone. That's why I like philately, it's a source of infinite knowledge with the use of internet.

Smauggie I will look around..i have Panama covers and I must have something on Canal Zone even if only a fdc postal card..but of course I am dis organized so I will have to look through 5 boxes of covers... and then reduce to under 90 kb !

Yeah, I am at the point of looking to get a second box for my covers. I also make use of those cool cover "albums" for my best stuff.

Here is Scott 149. This commemorates the 20th Anniversary of the launching of the USS Ancon.



This ship was put into service by the Panama Railroad Company, or PRR (then an agency of the US government) to serve as a transport and supply vessel between the ports of New York, NY and Cristobal, Canal Zone. A sister ship, the USS Cristobal, was launched the following year with service between the ports of New Orleans, LA and Cristobal, Canal Zone.

The USS Ancon was launched on September 24, 1938 at the Quincy, Massachusetts Bethlehem Steel shipyard. The ship served to bring to the Canal Zone supplies and equipment from the US that could not be procured locally. Panama did not have much of an industrial sector in 1938 (and still does not). The ship also transported PRR workers and even their vehicles to the when they went on leave to the US.

After only four years of service to the Panama Railroad, the ship was commandeered by the US Navy for service in World War II. The USS Ancon then served as a troop transport and supply ship for both the European and Japanese fronts. It was from the deck of the USS Ancon that world learned of the surrender of Japan, as it was at that time serving as a press corps ship.

After the war, the ship name was struck from US Navy records and returned to its owner, the Panama Railroad. The ship was scrapped in 1973.

As an added note, there could be confusion between the USS Ancon as commemorated by this stamp, and the SS Ancon, a commercial steamer ship built in 1906, which was the first ship to transit the Panama Canal in 1914.

Ok, heres a canal zone..it has the 1 cent Balboa stamp overprinted Canal Zone..paying laborers on Panama Canal

and heres just one of the postal stationary FDC's

Great info and history. Thanks smauggie for posting!

The pay of laborers is a fascinating story, and I love the postcard, Phil. The airmail embossed enveloped was issued just two weeks or so after I was born. I like that design, too.

Canal Zone Paquebot :
United Fruit Company cachet "SS San Jose"

Though it competed with the Standard Fruit Company for dominance in the international banana trade, it maintained a virtual monopoly in certain regions, some of which came to be called Banana Republics
(but I don't recollect them coming to Australia )

Mr. Gorgas you mentioned earlier.

Replete with detachable collar shirt, and necktie pin.

Great cover, Rod! I wish I knew more about the Paquebot cancels in Panama and the Canal Zone. It does strike me as odd that the Panamanian stamp was canceled with a Canal Zone postmark. I don't think I have seen that before. Plenty of US stamps were used for postage from the CZ though.

Canal Zone Early Counterfeits

In the first issue of Canal Zone, the three
stamps overprinted with a handstamp, "Canal
Zone," Scott's Nos. 1, 2 and 3, there are
many counterfeits.

Some of them are very deceptive and one
brand in particular is frequently seen
cancelled and many of these are on covers.

The cancellations are the towns where the
stamps were used, and a standard type of
long horizontal bars used in the Zone at
the time.

In these, I could always detect the fraudulent
Canal Zone overprint but the cancellations
had me baffled because they matched so
perfectly the known originals, --
until I discovered that the faked overprints
were made while the stamps were in current
use (about three weeks during June and July,
1904), and then placed on covers and sent
through the mails.

The stock of the genuine issue was limited and
sales at the post offices were restricted to
small quantities hence the incentive to fakery.
The fakes on cover are usually postmarked at
Ancon, and addressed to "Eisemann & Eleta," or
"G. Sopardo," at Panama, and the covers back-
stamped at Panama.

Quite a number of them were used during the
period. In the case of the 2¢ rose, many
of the stamps are on the wrong basic Panama
issue, the stamp having the large "Panama"
where in the originals only the small
"Panama" was used. So we have interesting
fakes, postally used on covers.

- George B. Sloane
Sloane's Column
Stamps
March 27, 1948

Canal Zone Scott 150

This is the second and last time the image of the flag of the USA is featured on a Canal Zone stamp (the first being Scott 148 featured above).



This stamp was issued to commemorate president Theodore Roosevelt on his 100th birthday (1858-1958). Less obvious is that the stamp is also commemorating those who worked on the construction of the Panama Canal. The medallion with the image of Roosevelt on the stamp is the obverse image on the Roosevelt Medal. The other side featured the seal of the Canal Zone.



Each person who worked at least two years during the construction era of the Panama Canal (1904 to 1914) received one of these. Additional bars were attached above it for each additional two years of service. The most bars one could have is four (for a total of ten years).

There is still an active Association of Roosevelt Medal Descendants in Panama.



The medals do occasionally come up on the collectors market, but most are jealously guarded by their descendants. Each medal and bar has its own serial number, and so can still be tracked down to the original recipient.

Growing up in the Canal Zone, TR was one of our heroes. Quotes of his were painted on our high school walls. He was a giant among presidents from our perspective, and most definitely worth of commemoration on a postage stamp.

smauggie sorry this is not a fdc..cover from 1955 Albrook AF base...told you I had some somewhere !!

That's a good example of an Albrook Air Force Base cancel. All the Zonians who stayed behind to work on the Canal Got their mail through the US Military Postal System, and picked it up at Albrook Air Force Station (at some point Albrook got downgraded from a "base" to an "air station").