1850's Brooklyn To Tampa "Via Charleston", City Or Steamship.

From what I've found, there were a few years in the mid 1850's that no extra postage was necessary to have a letter sent by coastal steamship. Is that true?

I can't find one named Charleston and I don't know what the No.34 means in the upper left.

I'm assuming this cover made it to Tampa, Florida at least part way by ship. Any thoughts?

The back shows hand written R July 22/53. So it took 7 days. Traveling by ship from Brooklyn to Tampa wouldn't have taken 7 days, would it?

So, does the "via Charleston" mean it traveled through Charleston and then onto Tampa or was there a ship "Charleston" that I just can't find?

via Charleston (SC) is routing information as to which mail route the sender wanted this letter to take.

It means that from Charleston, there was a contract mail route to Tampa. It could have been via land, sea, inland waterway, rail or a combination thereof. Given Charleston and Tampa both being port cities, the likelihood of it being a coastwise steamer is high.

I'm assuming it was likely a contract mail route since there are no ship or due markings. The implication being the 3c stamp covered the postage to the destination.

Very nice (fort) cover by the way.

This is before US govt registered mail, and although there were various local "recorded mail" systems around, I'm guessing the No notation is the letter number in the correspondence.

This cover is in the July 2006 La Posta article entitled Fort Meade, Florida, the "Generals Town" by David C. Lingard.



Don

And the letter in the article being No 25 is an earlier letter in the correspondence. The CDS months bear that out.

Note different Fort names but same correspondence.

There is no need to ass-u-me that the letter would move every day, even if a steamer with a mail contract left Charleston every day.

A sick passenger drop-off, a minor repair stop, a bit of weather along the way (your cover traveled during hurricane season) ...

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

So I assume the answer is YES it could take 7 days or more from Brooklyn to Tampa.

Interesting that the No.34 is part of a sequence of correspondence. Would love to find others in the group and certainly one with content. That's a lot of letters.

Thanks all for the replies!!