A Post Office On The Sea Floor :

October 7th 1950

A POST OFFICE ON THE SEA FLOOR

In 1931 Professor Auguste Piccard made history by ascending to a height of ten miles in a balloon.

A STAMP HONOURING PICCARD : BELGIUM


Now he is busy with plans to descend to a depth of over two miles in a "bathysphere" in the Gulf of Guinea, just north of the Equator, West Africa.

This bathysphere idea is not entirely new; indeed, there was once an official post office in a bathysphere resting on
the bottom of the sea!
The world's first undersea post office was established on Wednesday, August 16, 1939, at Nassau, Bahamas; West
Indies, with the official designation, "Sea Floor, Bahamas" post office and with the eminent author and
photographer-explorer, Mr. John Ernest Williamson an honorary postmaster.

The post office itself occupied a space of six feet by ten feet inside the bathysphere. Its designer, Mr. Williamson,
preferred to call it a photosphere: it literally created a hole in the sea.
A parent ship carried a strong flexible tube to give access to the sphere resting hundreds of feet below on th-e sea
floor. This tube was about four feet in diameter and was made of steel and drop forgings. It was capable of being
lengthened or shortened on an accordion-pleat principle according to the depth of water encountered as the ship
cruised slowly along.

The great steel photosphere was spherical in shape and fitted with a vast window to allow the occupants to view
and photograph life on the ocean floor. Illumination of wide areas was provided by banks of powerful lamps
lowered from the ship.
The Bahamas Government gave its official support to the marine-photography experiments of Mr. Williamson, and
for the use of the few visitors permitted to descend into the sphere each day installed the sea floor post office. Mail
posted by this limited number of daily visitors received the postmark "Sea Floor, Bahamas." Incidentally, a very
popular postage stamp of Bahamas was largely used on this unique mail— the 4d. orange and blue, showing a view
of the Sea Garden, Nassau.

The original plan was to use the photosphere for marine studies over a period of five years at suitable times each
year, but war intervened and the writer does not know whether this sea floor post office is still in operation.

(By Norman Hill in the "Post Office Magazine" London.)

Great stuff Rod !

Never heard of this before.
It seems like Stamps and Philately are everywhere.

Must be the most versatile hobby ever !

Londonbus1

That's it Lb.
The King of hobbies, the hobby of paupers.

isnt the hobby of kings -coins?

You got paupers right.

Surely now that Postal Services are available on the seabed, its a hobby of porpoises...?

This may have been posted here before, but if not, check out Vanuatu's underwater P.O.

http://www.vanuatupost.vu/underwaterPost.html

Good one Rod!

Gives a new meaning to doing mail under pressure!lol

No. This would be a hobby with a porpoise.

Is that how they speak in New York?

The hobby of Kings has been attributed to many things. Coins is indeed one as Spock says. Playing chess is another.

Tax collection?

Hobby? or blood sport?

Horse racing aficionados like to call their pursuit the sport of kings. Which brings to mind images of Henry VIII riding Lucky Lady in the sixth at Epsom.

Both, I was considering King John's wars trying to recover his
possessions in France. He taxed the poor English Barons to distraction, so much so they threatened war, and the pasty
King finally relented which led to The "Magna Carta"

...which, I might add, the concepts of such, can be seen
in the American declaration of independence 500 years later.