1878 Queen Victoria India Cover

Tonight, I will share a cover from my collection from India, scanned below.

I have a few questions:

Does OUTW. mean "outward" bound?

Does the hammer B-I mean Bombay, India or British India, or Bombay #1?

Was there a ship named "Brindisi" in the year 1878? I found a British ship named "Brindisi" that was newly launched in 1880, so this letter could not have been carried on it.

Any comments welcome.

Thanks,
Linus

Hi Linus,
"Via Brindisi" is a port in southern Europe
Mail could go (to London) over various routes,
Via Marseilles etc.

Brindisi was a popular early route.

PS: Lovely cover.

Example:

Thomas Cook's Handbook for the Egypt, The Nile,and the Desert 1897

POSTAGE.

For Egypt, which is included in the General Postal Union,
mails are made up in London for Port Said, Alexandria, Cairo,
Suez, etc., via Brindisi, every Friday evening.
For Alexandria, Cairo, Port Said, Suez, etc., by French
packet, via Marseilles, every Tuesday night.
For Smyrna, via Constantinople, daily.
For Smyrna, via Marseilles, every Thursday evening.
For Jaffa and Syria (and Jerusalem if specially addressed),
by Austrian mail, via Brindisi, leaving London every Tuesday
morning (post letters on Monday).

Rod -
OK, a port, that makes sense now, I thought it was a ship. It appears to be a port city in Italy.

Thanks for the kind words and info,

Linus

Linus,
this may help,
from my mentor, Blair Stannard (Canada) circa 2005 ?

The "via Brindisi" route was 6 days faster, than the Southampton (All ship) route.

Ahh yes, the Suez Canal opened in 1869 making the mail run from the UK to India (and back, in this case) much faster.

What I learned today ...The Suez Canal is really old!

Linus

The Postmarks of India, are highly specialised.

I only "meddle", keep that in mind

I have the B1 as The All India Service
Type 17
1873-1884
Locality : "The Bombay Circle"

From your chart, at least I know it is a "one" and not the letter "I" on the hammer strike.

Thank you, Rod.

Linus

Would the cover have been carried by the British India Steam Navigation Company's Mail Packets?

Is there any information on the sailing data available?

Agents for the sale of books published by the Assam Administration
Printed at the Assam Secretariat Printing Office.

Agents in England

Messrs Gundlay & Co
54 Parliament Street
South West London.

Bib: The report on the administration of Assam 1915-1916

That is one discipline that is beyond me, Bobby

There might be something here:

https://philaliterature.com/india-postal-history/

Not a bad transit time.
456 hours depending on when the packet disembarked. (19 days)
1878 not a leap year (divide by 4)

30 years later, the expected time was 278 hours (12 days)

Not a Monsoon period (June through September)

Reginald Kirk's books may cover the sailings data. Can anyone confirm?

https://www.poheritage.com/our-arch...ps-movements

I found it clunky,
Try to link to P&O /41
takes one to a muddled search box array

I had the same problem Rod. The books are listed in the link provided though.

Bobby,
I don't see it
There are two links here, the page shown P&O movements,
the a second link in blue (P&O series 41)
That leads to nowhere ?

I find that often, esp with ebay, you find the perfect image, you click
on the image, and ebay cannot find it.

Peter can read a book (Saiyat Thai) I click the link, and it returns "not available to read"