More Paquebot Cancels

It harkens back to the time when French was the official language of the world.
...and le Monde was le better for it USA still had surface mail (now gone) and Britain still did paquebot markings (no more of them now)

"BTW... nowadays a so called " surface mail" from Europe to USA for ex., or China to Canada go airmail and not by boat !"

I think you are confusing the USA with every other country in the world as it is common practice in lots of countries to include sending by sea as an option for surface mail.

Sorry. I am not talking abt USA but mail from Europe to US for example.

Nowadays there is not any Mail Boat in service to carry regular mail from Europe to US, or from China to Canada, US.

A " surface mail" is a letter, or standard or regular letter and is sent by a regular flight and it takes 4-6 days( depending on the EU sending point ) to reach US. Same across Pacific. A Registered letter could reach it in 3-4 days.
( I am not talking now abt DHL, TNT, etc. when delivery is faster )

What March stated is correct.

Roughly 5 or 6 years ago, our next-door neighbours took an Alaskan cruise on one of the Princess Lines ships. Before leaving, they asked me if I wanted a souvenir. I asked them if they could send a letter or a postcard directly posted from the ship.

They tried but were informed that this practice is no longer used. Below are scans of the ship they were on and the letter they sent showing how it was cancelled, which was by airmail and the stamp tied with a normal postmark.

Chimo

Bujutsu

Bujutsu,

I love this topic and thread.

I only have one cover to share, from Newfoundland, but perhaps the community has some comments.

Its a fairly common looking cover, with a Newfie #254....

but some unusual little aspects:

1. Franked with a "Depuis en Mer / Mailed on high Seas " cachet. Does this make it a "paquebot" cancel, correct?
2. Also with a purple cachet in UL "Posted on board....Empress of France". Would this have been done by the ship? On Oct 3?
3. Then a cancel of the stamp not in Newfoundland but at Quebec on Oct 4. Is this an unusual cancel? I note that it has a "CPO", assuming this is Central Post Office? I know a lot about unusual Newfoundland cancels but not abooout Canadian ones, eh?
4. Since Newfoundland as a separate country ceased on March 31, 1949 and it joined Canada--this stamp appears to have been used in October of that year. Of course, Newfie stamps were used well after, but again--a small little odd characteristic.

I paid about $20--any guesses on what it is worth? Just curious, I am a keeper and probably overpaid just because its little charms captured me.

Cheers

Nice cover Tommy

It may not be a "Paquebot" cancel per se but definitely a TPO one (Travelling Post Office) and does fit into the same category without any problems.

The $20.00 you paid for your cover would, in my opinion anyway, is within reason anyway simply because it does show commercial usage and not necessarily philatelic in nature, which would decrease the value.

I always found seapost mail fascinating and there are so many types of cancellations to be seen, and, still to be discovered.

Chimo

Bujutsu

The addressee was an officer of the Universal Ship Cancellation Society. He also wrote a column on stamp collecting in an amateur radio journal, RADEX [Radio Index].

I like the cover, but I think I would call it a Canadian cover, using a Newfoundland stamp.

My 2d.

Nice cover.

It was received on board ( DEPOSE EN MER ) , by the officer in charge with the mail's receiving/collecting from passengers/crew. The officer applied those ship's cachets then on arrival at Port of Quebec he handed over the mail to Post Office which applied the Post Office's postmark and then sent the letter to its final destination US.

I didn't see anyone else mention this yet, the CPO is acutally just PO, as the C is part of the city name of Quebec.

Question - I think this is an assumption I made based one what I was seeing, please correct me if I am wrong, but don't ships use the postage of the country they are registered in? Since the RMS Empress of France was a ship registered in the UK, why was it using Newfie stamps for postage? Or did they change postage based on the last port of call (St. Johns?).

The Quebec in the machine cancel was no doubt the city of Quebec, which means it was most likely posted on the high seas of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

$20 would be an appropriate retail price for this piece.

Well, le Monde would be much better off with the North American sense of puritanism, thats for sure.

Smauggie and All

I can't give you a definite answer, but, my findings in the past would indicate that the stamps used would depend on the 'next' port of call the ship was making??

I too would like clarification on this as well.

Chimo

Bujutsu

According to UPU Rules the stamps must be of the Country of the Port of call

Here is some information on the ship, including color pictures in her post-WWII Canadian Pacific dress:

http://www.liverpoolships.org/empre...pacific.html

Must have been a nice way to go, because the article says that the King and Queen were going to sail her to Canada in 1951 for a royal visit.

Thanks March. That makes sense!

Thanks for the clarification March

Chimo

Bujutsu