Jay Smith & Associates: Iceland: Covers: Ship Covers

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Iceland: Covers: Ship Covers

Ship Covers

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Item #

Quality & Description

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US$

235907

146 [1925 20 aur National Library/Museum] (VF) on 10 August 1926 PAQUEBOT cover to Denmark, machine canceled at BERGEN, Norway, and with light violetish red Bergen "Paquebot" handstamp. Typical of "fishing boat mail" posted en-route on the North Atlantic or handed to fishing boat captains at small coastal villages. Very attractive and fresh.

ACTUAL item.

145.00

229365

GB 1-1/2p on 6 July 1927 ship letter to U.S. canceled at REYKJAVIK and with boxed "Skipsbrjef" handstamp (paqebot marking). Scarce!

ACTUAL item.

90.00

400199

Iceland Scott #147 [1925 35 aur Reykjavik, Esja Mountain] (F-VF+) correctly franked solo use on 26 October 1928 PAQUEBOT cover to the U.S., machine canceled at BERGEN, Norway, and with Bergen violet "PAQUEBOT" handstamp. This may be "movie star fan mail" addressed to "Mrs. Constance Talmadge", a big star of the silent films era, in many films 1914-1929. Alternatively, it may have contained a personal letter to Mrs. Talmadge; the type of envelope and appearance of the handwriting suggests it was written on board a cruise ship and addressed by somebody familiar with U.S. addressing style. There is no return address and nothing on the reverse. Typical of posted-at-sea mail en-route on the North Atlantic or handed to fishing boat captains at Icelandic small coastal villages. Wonderfully neat and attractive.

ACTUAL item.

110.00

229296

Denmark 192 (F-VF) on 1929 ship letter TO ICELAND, with Icelandic "Skipsbrjef" boxed handstamp (equivalent of paquebot marking) and REYKJAVIK 18.IV.29 cancellation. A very nice example; quite scarce.

ACTUAL item.

60.00

235908

147 [1925 35 aur Reykjavik, Esja Mountain] (VF) on 23 January 1929 PAQUEBOT cover to the U.S., machine canceled at "KØBENHAVN / OMK" (with "KØB DANSE VARER" slogan), Denmark, and with Danish "FRA ISLAND" handstamp. Typical of "fishing boat mail" posted en-route on the North Atlantic or handed to fishing boat captains at small coastal villages. Very attractive.

ACTUAL item.

110.00

235909

147 [1925 35 aur Reykjavik, Esja Mountain] (VF) on 1929 PAQUEBOT cover to the U.S. (addressed to the Hudson Motor Car Company, Detroit), hand canceled at "KØBENHAVN / OMK 7", Denmark, and with Danish "FRA ISLAND" handstamp. Typical of "fishing boat mail" posted en-route on the North Atlantic or handed to fishing boat captains at small coastal villages. Very attractive.

ACTUAL item.

130.00

235911

Iceland #112 [1922 5 aur Olive Green Christian X] and Denmark #94 [1921 10 øre Green Wavy-Line] (F-VF) on ICELANDIC - DANISH - NORWEGIAN TRIPLE COUNTRY cover hand canceled on 17 June 1929 at BERGEN and with black Bergen "Paquebot" handstamp, to København, Denmark. The sender may have been confused about what stamps were required or perhaps simply used whatever stamps were at hand. I have never before in 38 years had such a use. Spectacular!

ACTUAL item.

225.00

235910

112 pair, 120 [1922/1920 5 aur Olive Green and 25 aur Brown/Green Christian X] (VF) on 13 July 1931 PAQUEBOT cover to the U.S. machine canceled at "EDINBURGH / 1931 B", Scotland, and with Edinburgh italicized black "PAQUEBOT" handstamp. While generally typical of Icelandic "fishing boat mail" posted at Edinburgh, I have not previously encountered this machine postmark on Icelandic mail.

ACTUAL item.

150.00

235912

Denmark #192 [1927 15 øre Typographed Caravel] (VF, cover creased through stamp) on beautiful 10 June 1929 shipmail cover TO ICELAND, posted at sea. Upon arrival at Reykjavik, it received a black boxed "Skipsbrief" (ship letter) handstamp and was machine canceled. Very attractive Danish hotel illustrated advertising cover. Non-philatelic uses of this handstamp are quite unusual as are Icelandic-canceled foreign stamps.

ACTUAL item.

180.00

235913

Iceland #117 [1920 15 aur Christian X, still in active use at the time] (F-VF) on 7 July 1934 Icelandic picture post card (real photo of Leif Ericsson statue) mailed aboard and WITHIN the SWEDISH cruise ship M/S Kungsholm, as it crossed the Arctic Circle, presumably after most recently having visited Iceland. Small spot near top. Canceled and handstamped with the seemingly full range (five different) of the official postal cancellations and handstamps available in the ship post office. Though I have handled hundreds of Kungsholm covers mailed at sea around the world, this is the first in 38 years that I can recall being mailed WITHIN the ship and probably one of less than five that have borne Icelandic stamps or markings.

ACTUAL item.

150.00

Ship Covers continued ...

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Item #

Quality & Description

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US$

400979

Scott #208 (plus 1 or 2 missing stamps) [1938 50 aur "Geysir"] ca. 2 December 1939 REGISTERED cover from Iceland to Denmark, heavily DAMAGED BY SEAWATER -- VERY LIKELY THE RESULT OF A GERMAN SUBMARINE OR AIRCRAFT ATTACK. Registered business mail sent from the Siglufjörður Saving Bank to a bank in København, Denmark. With a Siglufjörður registry label and Scott #208 with a partial (SI)GLUF(JÖÐUR) cancellation. On the reverse is a neat REYKJAVIK "4.1.40.12" (4 January 1940, 12 noon) transit postmark. The cover originally bore at least one, and probably two, other stamps, but they have been lost to the seawater. When this envelope was rescued, it was obviously badly damaged. Close examination of the typed address shows that it had been wet. The envelope was dried out and cellophane tape was used to put it back together -- that tape degraded and stained over time. The taped areas are NOT sticky now; the old adhesive dried out and most of the tape fell away long ago. The surviving stamp was taped down by the rescuers (the line of tape goes over, not under, the stamp -- I HAVE CAREFULLY HINGED THE STAMP INTO THE PROPER LOCATION. A tiny trace of the tying cancellation can be seen on the envelope at the upper right of the stamp. The rest of the postmark(s) was (were) on the adjacent stamp(s) -- there is a trace of another postmark at the extreme right edge of the cover, in line with the stamp. PRIOR to taping, the envelope was handstamped in violet "Beskadiget af Søvand" [Damaged by Seawater]. SUCH MARKINGS ARE "RARE". The reverse of the cover bears very neat docketing, handwritten in Danish, [translated]: "Sent 2 December 1939 / Received 5 March 1940". We do not know who wrote that, but it is reasonable to presume that it was written at the receiving Danish bank. I do not know if the Reykjavik postmark on the reverse was applied before or after the likely sinking of the ship carrying this envelope. However, since the violet handstamp is in Danish, I suspect that the Reykjavik marking is from before the sinking. The 2 December to 4 January transit time to Reykjavik can be explained by the fact that there was no (or no practical) overland route, thus DURING WARTIME and DURING THE WINTER IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC (!!), with u-boats attacking at will, a month transit time, by fishing boats, etc., is not unreasonable from Siglufjörður (in the extreme north of Iceland) to Reykjavik (in the extreme south-west of Iceland). There is extensive information on the Internet about the submarine and air war in the North Atlantic with hundreds of ships lost to German u-boats and aircraft. With logic and some patience, it may even be possible to determine the most likely specific ship on which this envelope was carried. To put the scale of losses into perspective, one source states that, for JANUARY 1940 ALONE, the "monthly loss summary" was "64 British, Allied and neutral ships of 179,000 tons [just in!!] in UK waters." [If the purchaser of this cover determines the name of the ship and the details of the sinking, I would be happy to add information to this description for reference purposes, displayed here.] It is highly likely that this cover was on a ship sunk by a German submarine (or perhaps a German aircraft if the event occurred closer to continental Europe). It is RARE for such mail to survive in any form. The fact that this letter was registered probably meant that it was placed in a special, secured, FLOATING mailbag, in anticipation of exactly such a problem -- I have heard of floating mailbags being used in general. If this had not been a registered letter, it is extremely unlikely that it would have survived. Regardless of the exact details of what occurred, this is a great example of a rare category of postal history.

ACTUAL item.

325.00

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