Rare German Tri-Colony Postcard

Here's another rare one I recently added to the collection – a rare postcard traveling through 3 German colonies.

This card was written by a crewman aboard the SMS Möwe I, a survey ship that spent years surveying and mapping the coast of Deutsch-Neuguinea (German New Guinea).

He sent the card from Matupi, Deutsch-Neuguinea, where it was cancelled on 5 January 1900. The stamp is MiNr. 3. It was addressed to Architect Dr. Kell in Tsintau, Deutsch China (Tsingtau, in the German colony of Kiautschou in China). Dr. Kell was apparently also a former member of the crew.

The text reads:


The card transited through Singapore (26 January 1900), Hong Kong (2 February 1900), and Shanghai (9 February 1900) before arriving in Tsingtau. By the time it arrived, however, Dr. Kell had departed for the German colony of Deutsch-Südwestafrika (German Southwest Africa).

Someone in Tsingtau was looking out for Dr. Kell, and paid to forward the card as registered mail. Additional postage of 25 Pf. (Vorläufer usage of German offices in China MiNr. V 5 I) was attached, as was a registered label, and cancelled in Tsingtau on 14 February 1900. The card was re-addressed to "Damaraland, West Afrika", which was a term used to generally describe a portion of northwestern Deutsch-Südwestafrika (really shows how relatively few Germans were in the colony to be able to locate one person with that little information).

The forwarder also included a note on the card:


But again, by the time the card arrived in Deutsch-Südwestafrika, Dr. Kell was gone, having returned to Germany. And yet again, someone was looking out for him, forwarding the card as registered mail to Dresden. Additional postage of 25 Pf. (MiNr. 4 & 6) was attached, as was a registered label, and cancelled in Hasis, Deutsch-Südwestafrika, on 16 May 1900. This is also notable because the Hasis PO was only open for about 9 months.

The forwarder also included a note on the card:


The card finally arrived in Dresden on 27 June 1900, almost 6 months after it left Matupi.

Mail sent between the colonies was relatively rare, particularly those items sent between colonies that were very distant from each other. This card is exceptionally rare in that it is a non-philatelic usage that transited 3 colonies on 3 continents.

Very interesting story well told. Thanks for sharing!

lovely story..

I would most likely have discarded this a philatelic cover - just shows that knowing your stuff and taking your time to decipher covers pays off.

Great stuff, thank you!
Don

That would be fun to do today.Sending ,say ,a large envelope with the address rather in a small area (the 2nd would cross out the first, the 3rd would cross out the 2nd...) , then the receiver sending it out to a 2nd ,3rd ect...
It could be a world tour. With 10 or 15 different different countries.
Would the post offices tolerate something like this?