Opinions On Zeppelin Cover Id: Is It Sieger 29B?

I recently purchased this Weltrundfahrt cover at auction. The auction house listed it as Sieger 29B (Los Angeles to Friedrichshafen), which would constitute LZ 127 Flights 31 and 32. This designation is clearly typed in the lower left-hand corner on the front of the card. The CDS is dated August 28 at 6:30 PM and has the words "Air Mail" inside the elliptical killer bars.

However, according to the Sieger catalog, Flight 31 left Los Angeles on August 27 (at 12:15 AM) and arrived in Lakehurst on August 29 (at 7:12 AM). This is where my confusion lies. Are the listed flight times the local time or German time? In addition, the Michel and Frost zeppelin catalogs both seem to indicate that the circular "Round-The-World" flight cachet was NOT applied to mail traveling on Flight 32 (Lakehurst/September 1 to Friedrichshafen/September 4).

Is it possible that this cover missed Flight 31 and was flown by airplane to Lakehurst and loaded onto Flight 32 for its final destination in Germany?

Any opinions are greatly appreciated. Hopefully, Bill Weiss, Kimo and/or PostmasterGS will see this thread as they have been great resources on Zeppelin matters.

I'm without access to my references until this weekend, but if you don't have an answer by them, I'll see what I can dig up.

Thanks, Postmaster. I'm in no rush. I welcome your opinion.

I see another Sieger 29B on ebay that is marked the same way, though I think the time in L.A. is 1800 hours. I hope that gives you a little comfort.

The Graf Zeppelin left Los Angeles on Aug. 27. Arrived in Lakehurst on Aug 29th. So yours does seem to be a day late.

I believe the postmarked times are the local times of the post offices applying it.

I have the leg of the flight that starts in LA, and terminates at Lakehurst. On that cover the LA PM is Aug. 26, 6PM, Arcade Sta. The Lakehurst PM is Aug. 29, 9:30 AM.

My cover does have the purple RTW cachet. But I guess it's a different flight than what you're asking about. Sorry.

It's certainly a mystery. There was difficulty in L.A., of course, and very possibly some letters were left behind because of their weight. This would explain why there is a cachet; it would still be applied--wouldn't it?--and the postmark reflects the later departure (by plane.) Nees, I think you've got it!

Is there any significance to one of the 'ovals' having 'Air Mail' inside and the other having '21'?

Stampcrow:

Your cover is clearly a 29B (Los Angeles to Lakehurst), which was carried solely on Flight 31.




You are correct. In my post, I was referring to the departure and landing times listed in the timetables contained in the Sieger catalog.




KGB:

Good point. I would very much like to know the answer to this question.




Can you expand upon this at all? What was the difficulty? Too much mail to process?

Nees, there was a heat inversion in L.A. as the Graf landed. The Captain ordered hydrogen released so as to make the landing safe and perhaps even possible. As L.A. had no means to resupply the craft, the Graf took off the next day with less buoyancy--if that's the word for it. In fact, they almost hit power lines as they left the field.

The Graf Zeppelin flew from Los Angeles, California to Lakehurst, New Jersey departing on August 27, 1927 and arriving in Lakehurst, New Jersey on August 29, 1929. It flew this leg its around the world flight, a distanace of 4,822 km in 51 hrs 57 mins. It left Lakehurst on September 1 and arrived in Friedrichshafen, Germany on September 4. There is a note in the American Air Mail Catalog on this flight from Los Angeles that reads: "Z-75 - The same official cachet as used at Lakehurst on Augusty 8 was applied to covers dispatched from Los Angeles. Some covers were received too late to connect with the Zeppelin and bear a rubber stamped cachet reading 'Received too late to connect with Graf Zeppelin Flight'. They have a souvenier value of about $1.50. Some mail was flown by plane across the United States to connect with the Graf at Lakehurst. These have the official cachet applied at Los Angeles. Rates of postage were: To Lakehurst, 30 cents for cards and 60cents for letters; to Friedrichshafen, 90 cents for cards and $1.80 for letters. Covers were backstamped at Lakehurst on August 29 and at Friedrichshafen on September 4." What you have is a card franked at the correct 90 cent rate to fly from Los Angeles to Friedrichshafen that was one of the pieces of mail that did not get returned for being too late because while it was too late to be flown on the Graf from Los Angeles to Lakehurst, it was in time to be put on an ordinary airplane airmail trip to Lakehurst to catch up with the Graf there and be flown on the Graf from Lakehurst to Friedrichshafen and get backstamped with the correct Friedrichshafen receiving backstamp. If I were to try to give it a Sieger number I would say it is a 32 with a footnote. The only leg it actually flew on the Graf was the 32 leg, but it was being mailed to get on that flight from Los Angeles - even though the sender was hoping to have it go all the way from Los Angeles to Friedrichshafen on the Graf.

Kimo:

Thank you so much for your input.

Kimo, you're a wonder!

Nees, good for you! (I was so worried you had purchased a rather goofy counterfeit.) Truth, again, is better than fiction!