First Voyage Covers.

Some US First voyage covers.
Any one able to supply ant extra information it would be much appreciated.

1. First voyage of S.S. Manhattan from New York to Queenstown, Plymouth, Le Havre and Hamburg 1932.



2. First Flight FAM route 24, New York to Helsinki June 19th 1947.



Gordon

3. First flight CAM route 20, Rome, Albany, Buffalo, New York State Jan 7th 1929.

Cover posted from Rome, New York at 10.30 am and arrived at Appleton, Wisconsin on Jan 8th 1929 1 pm. Posted with 5c Air mail stamp. Also has Christmas label on back.





Gordon

4. First flight FAM route 5, Miami to Kingston, Jamaica on Nov 28th 1930.

Posted with 10 c Airmail stamp at 9.30 pm and arrived Kingston December 3rd at 11 am. Has Kingston cancel, Jamaica slogan and First flight cachet on reverse. Also 'Return to sender' on front.






Gordon

Nice covers Gordon

I have one question though: I cannot entirely make out the cancel on the cover. I think it reads U.S. G (??) Sea Post?? Would you please fill in the other letters?

Thanks a lot

Chimo

Bujutsu

Oranges and apples - cannot really compare. The first one was carried in 1932 on the S.S. Manhattan which was a large ocean liner belonging to a private company called the United States Lines. The Manhattan was launched on December 5, 1931. Its sister ship was the S.S. Washington and they each could carry about 1,100 passengers plus some cargo. Manhattan's maiden voyage was on 10 August 1932 when she sailed from New York to Hamburg with calls at Cobh, Plymouth and Le Havre outbound, and then on her return to New York she stopped at Le Havre, Southampton and Cobh. This cover was one of a great many that was created and carried on this ship to commemorate her first voyage.

The other three covers you show are not first voyage covers, they are first flight covers. As such they were flown on aircraft and not carried on ships.

The 1947 first flight cover you show was flown American Overseas Airlines under their contract with the US Post Office to fly air mail from New York, across the Atlantic, to Helsinki on Foreign Air Mail Route number 24. It is listed in the American Air Mail Catalog as F24-45F. The cancelation is June 19 which was the original inaugural date to fly this new extension to Helsinki, but there were delays and the inauguration did not actually happen until June 24, 1947. The pilot on this flight was Robert B. Keeton and there were 6.676 pieces of mail flown from both the Air Mail Field station and the downtown station. These are very common and the catalog values then at $2. Covers canceled at the other legs of this first flight, including Reykjavik, Oslo, and Helsinki are uncommon and are cataloged at $10 each. To have a set of one cover from each leg of this this first flight you would need to collect 6 different covers.

The 1930 Miami first flight cover to Kingston, Jamaica is listed in the American Air Mail Catalog as F5-65b. It was flown by Pan American Airways on Foreign Air Mail Route number 5 leaving Miami on December 2, 1930 and arriving in Kingston, Jamaica on December 3. The pilot was E.G. Schultz. For some reason your cover was posted and canceled well before the flight was scheduled to take off, but it does have the correct December 3 arrival back stamp. This one is also considered to be a common cover with a catalog value of $3. To have a complete set of each of the legs on this first flight one would need to collect 16 covers with this being one of them.

Your last cover shown from Rome, New York in 1929 was flown by Colonial Western Airways on their first flight under Contract Air Mail Route number 20. This was an extension to include mail to and from the town of Rome, New York on this route. It is listed in the American Air Mail Catalog as CAM 20W8 and the pilot for this leg of the expansion was Frank Little. He carried 194 pounds of covers and cards which would have been approximately 7,760 first flight covers and cards making it a common cover with a catalog value of $3. It appears that this cover was carried from Rome to Cleveland which was the Western terminus of CAM 20 at that time (by 1931 it would go all the way to Fort Worth, Texas to the West and Boston to the East). From Cleveland it was forwarded to Appleton, Wisconsin.

If you are interested in first flight covers I would like to recommend looking into obtaining a copy of the several volumes of the American Air Mail Catalog as knowledge makes collecting really interesting.

Kimo,

Thanks for your very informative reply.
I will keep an eye out for the publications you mentioned, but will probably
have to order from US as I doubt that I will find a copy/copies in the UK.

Gordon

As you are in the UK, one possibility might be to borrow them through the British Air Mail Society's lending library. They are a non-profit club of people interested in airmail philately. If you are a member of the BAMS you can borrow books from their library through the post. Here is a link to their website: http://www.britishairmailsociety.co.uk/ I know they have books from the 5th and 6th editions of the American Air Mail Catalog, but I am not sure if they have any of the first 3 volumes of the new 7th edition. If not, you can buy them from the American Philatelic Society which is the main US non-profit organization for philately. I do not know the shipping cost to the UK, but at book post rates hopefully it would not be too steep. Another possibility might be to buy a used set of volumes of the fifth or sixth edition of the AAMC on ebay, or you might get lucky and find one or two volumes of the 7th edition. The 7th edition is still in the process of releasing a few more volumes in the coming years. Keep in mind that these are labors of love by volumteer experts and so they are not on a very predictable schedule and they do take a long time to get issued. Another thought if you are interested in airmail covers and first flights, especially US ones but also ones from all over the world might be to consider joining the American Air Mail Society which is the main non-profit club for airmail philatelists with a main, but not exclusive, interest in covers to and from the US and domestically within the US. This society is in the process of expanding its internet presence and making it easier for people from other countries to join at the same rate as US members by offering very soon its monthly journal electronically to avoid mailing costs. You can look into the AAMS at http://www.americanairmailsociety.org/ Currently members from the UK would be charged $60 for a membership but as I mentioned that is likely to change very soon to $30 which is the rate for members in the US. You can contact them and ask them about the details. They are also building a new Facebook page for people to ask questions and share expertise on air mail covers electronically. They are the ones who write and publish the American Air Mail Catalogs so they are the ones with the serious expertise and they welcome new members at all levels from complete beginners to seasoned expersts.