German Pisa Provisional Of 1902

Another show-and-tell from deep in the collection -- the Pisa Provisional of 1902.

In the year after a massive influx of German troops into China (see previous post here), there was a large restructuring of the German forces in China, necessitating the turnover of thousands of troops. To transport the replacement troops to China, Germany chartered several commercial steamers. Among these were the König Albert of the Norddeutscher Lloyd Line and the Pisa of the Stoman Line.

Pisa

The König Albert and Pisa departed Hamburg in company on 26 June 1902 bound for China. The Pisa had on-board approximately 1,000 troops in addition to her normal crew. By 7 July 1902, the Pisa had exhausted her supply of 5 Pfennig stamps, which covered the postcard rate. This was an unusually high usage rate, and it's not known whether the shortage was due simply to the troops writing a lot of correspondence or some other unknown reason.

German naval post regulations at the time required that, in the absence of postage, the postal clerk was to apply the MSP cancel (in this case, MSP No. 2) at upper left and handwrite the value paid in cash. The item would then receive the proper postage and be canceled upon arriving at a German post office.

From 7 July 1902 to 6 August 1902, this procedure was used on numerous pieces of mail posted on-board the Pisa during the outbound voyage. The cash franking procedure was then used again on the return voyage from 22 August 1902 to 25 September 1902.

As of the last census performed by Wolfgang Hermann in 2008, 141 pieces were known. The vast majority were sent to Germany, where they received German postage and either "Berlin C 1 Marine-Postbureau" or "Berlin C 2" cancels. There are rare varieties (approx. 13 as of 2008) that were addressed to China, so they received postage from the German Offices in China and Tientsin cancels.

My copy was canceled on 19 September 1902 when the Pisa was between Colombo and Aden on its return voyage. The handwritten "5" can be seen at lower left. The stamp was applied at the Berlin C 2 post office and canceled on 4 October 1902.

I sent scans of several postcards off for deciphering, and I got the results back today. Not very exciting, but the message on this one was:


So here's the updated album page.

I recently won three more of these at auction, so here they are.

The first was sent 27 July 1902 while the Pisa was in Singapore en-route from Germany to China. It was sent to Herr Wilhelm Roeder, a master painter in Koszalin, Katowice, Upper Silesia. It bears the 5 Pf German stamp applied upon arrival in Germany, cancelled with the Berlin Marine Postbureau cancel. It also bears a Ceylon stamp that was presumably attached as a curiosity.

It reads as follows:



And here it is on the album page:

The second was sent 2 September 1902 while the Pisa was in Singapore on the return voyage from China to Germany. It was sent by a soldier (a cannoneer) to Herr P. Schmölz, a dog breeder in Ditzingen, Leonberg, Württemberg. It bears the 5 Pf German stamp applied upon arrival in Germany, cancelled with the Berlin C2 cancel.

It reads as follows:



And here it is on the album page:

The third was sent 2 September 1902 while the Pisa was in Singapore on the return voyage from China to Germany. It was sent to Herr Hermann Hennig in Hannover. It bears the 5 Pf German stamp applied upon arrival in Germany, cancelled with the Berlin C2 cancel.

It reads as follows:



And here it is on the album page:

I recently received a couple more of these.

The first was sent 7 July 1902 when the Pisa was in Port Said, Egypt, on its outbound cruise to China. This date is the earliest date on which these uses are known. It was from a Private in the 4th Transport Company to Fusilier Johann Voss of the 10th Company, Grenadier Regiment König Friedrich I (14th Ostpreussen) No.5, located in Danzig.
The handwriting on this one was especially tough, so the translation isn't complete:



And on the album page:

The second new addition is a rare one -- one of the very few to have been addressed to China instead of Germany, and therefore bearing a German Offices in China stamp and Tientsin cancel. It was sent on 2 September 1902 while the Pisa was in Singapore on its return voyage to Germany. It was from a soldier named Rohrbach of the 34th Transport Company to Private Büscher, First East Asiatic Infantry Regiment, Third Battalion, 9 Company, in Shan-hai-kwan, China. It reads, roughly:



And on the album page: