Infos/Forum

Hello Ivo!

Many thanks for your very informative and important information on SEA MAIL and SHIP MAIL postmarks in South Korea. There are always discussions about what is a paquebot cancel and what is not. In this respect, your information is very helpful.
There is a similar problem with the POS LAUT cancels in Indonesia, the FRA cancels in Denmark and the FRA SKIB cancels in Norway.
The authors of the latest catalogs on paquebot stamps (Roger Hosking and Mike Dovey) also have partly different views on the use of these marks as paquebot canellations.

kind regards

Peter

Hello Frank!

The port authorities have nothing to do with the handling of mail from foreign ships. This is the responsibility of the local post office. The letters delivered by a crew member shortly after ships arrival there are stamped with a Paquebot postmark. This is necessary because mail from ships is generally franked with foreign stamps and cannot be transported in the host country’s territory without the paquebot cancel. This goes back to UPU regulations from 1891.

kind regards

Peter

Dear Sir,
The cover listed at https://paquebot.info/?p=32218 (Pusan 6882 (A)) is not a paquebot cover. The “sea mail” cachet means surface mail, it has no relationship to paquebot mail. This is also true for the “ship mail” cachet which can also often be found on Korean covers.

Since South Korea is effectively an island (water on three sides plus the world’s most heavily armed border to the north) all surface mail was/is transported by ship, there are no land options available for international surface mail.

Oddly enough, the “sea mail” and “ship mail” cachets can show up on real paquebot covers. This was done by KoreaPost as an instruction to its employees that paquebot mail had to be send by surface mail, not airmail. Otherwise the mail could be routed accidentally through the airmail system by Korean postal workers, which would be costly for KoreaPost as the postage paid was much lower than what was needed for airmail.

There are several articles available on Korean paquebot covers both on our website (at https://koreastampsociety.org/) and in our magazine, Korean Philately (available for download as PDFs).

Best regards,
Ivo Spanjersberg
(Korea Stamp Society)

I am not an expert on Paquebot cancels and I have the following queries –

When, where, and who applies the Paquebot marking? Is the marking applied by the local post office of the port of arrival or do the port authorities apply it?

Why is the marking necessary?

I have had a good look at the new “SHIP LETTER” mark for Hartlepool and I have to say that it is a fake mark and any article must show this fact. We have spoken at length about various envelopes and postcards that were upgraded in and around the 1930s and this item fall into this category. The mark in question has a very strange “H” in SHIP where the middle line is at an angle and I have seen this style before although I cannot find an example.
To suddenly find a ship letter mark in 1909 when the term paquebot was in full swing is very strange and any ship letter mark would be known from times long since passed and dragged out maybe in error, this mark is new and certainly is not in a Victorian style and so any article MUST have a rider that explains that the mark is questionable. In all honesty I would confine the article to the bin and the less said about it the better but purely to note it as a fake.
Also Hartlepool has never had a paquebot postmark let alone a ship letter postmark and so this mark which comes out of nowhere rings alarm bells.

M. Dovey

Ernst Schilling, auf dem Foto unten rechts beim Besuch des FS”DEUTSCHLAND” im Jahr 2007, ist nach langer schwerer Krankheit verstorben. Ernst war mir seit über 30 Jahren als sehr engagierter Philatelist bekannt, der nicht nur zeitweise den Verein für Briefmarkenkunde e.V. in seiner Heimatstadt Aschaffenburg leitete, sondern auch in seinem Spezialgebiet Schiffspost nationales und internationales Renommee erlangte. Er war als Fachmann gefragt und hat selbst etliche philatelistische Publikationen veröffentlicht. Als Nestor der deutschen Paquebot-Community hat er viele neue Erkenntnisse zu diesem Sammelgebiet in seinem etliche Jahrzehnte währenden Schaffen beigetragen. In der Galerie befinden sich ungezählte Abbildungen von Stücken aus seiner ehemaligen Sammlung an Paquebotbelegen. So hat er intensiv geholfen diese Webseite mit zu gestalten und auszubauen.
Dafür vielen Dank, Ernst, und alles Gute auf Deiner letzten großen Reise!

Ernst Schilling, pictured below right during a visit to the FS “DEUTSCHLAND” in 2007, passed away after a long and serious illness. Ernst was known to me for more than 30 years as a very dedicated philatelist who not only headed the Verein für Briefmarkenkunde e.V. in his home town of Aschaffenburg for a time, but also achieved national and international renown in his specialised field of ship’s mail. He was in demand as an expert and published a number of philatelic publications himself. As the doyen of the German paquebot community, he contributed many new insights into this field of collecting in his decades of work. The gallery contains countless images of items from his former collection of paquebot covers. He has helped intensively to design and expand this website.
Many thanks for this, Ernst, and all the best on your last great journey!

P. Schulz

Zum Eintrag Nr. 26 im Forum kann ich folgende Auskunft geben, wenn nicht bereits geschehen: Dieser Stempel ist privater Natur und wird an der Rezeption an Bord des unter färöischer Flagge fahrenden Fährschiffs M/F” Norrøna”, das der Smyril Line angehört und in den letzten Jahren zwischen Hirtshals (DK), Tórshavn (FO) und Seyðisfjörður (IS) verkehrt, für die Post der Passagiere und Sammler verwendet. Bis ca. 2008 wurden auch noch die Häfen Bergen (N) und Lerwick, Shetland (GB) regelmäßig angelaufen, außerdem war seinerzeit der angelaufene dänische Hafen Hanstholm im Nordwesten Jütlands.
Belege mit diesem Stempel von den genannten Häfen wird es also geben. Ich weiß, dass dieser Paquebot-Stempel noch im Jahre 2014 an Bord verwendet wurde. Ab ca. Mai 1987 war er an Bord in Verwendung.
Zu Belegen, die an Bord der “Norrøna” mit dem Paquebot Stempel (und später auch mit einem Navire Stempel) versehen wurden, habe ich seinerzeit in den Philatelistischen Nachrichten der FG Nordische Staaten 2 Artikel mit Abbildungen verfasst. Öffnen Sie den Link zur FG Nordische Staaten unter http://www.nordische-staaten.de, klicken Sie links auf „Journal“ und danach auf die färöische Flagge. Meine Artikel sind in:
– Ausgabe 61 von 1988, S. 100 ff.
– Ausgabe 63 von 1988, S. 120 f.

Beste Grüße und alles Gute Richard Kühle

I can provide the following information regarding entry no. 26 in the forum, if not already happend: This postmark is of a private nature and is used at the reception desk on board the Faroese-flagged ferry M/F” Norrøna”, belonging to Smyril Line and travelling in recent years between Hirtshals (DK), Tórshavn (FO) and Seyðisfjörður (IS), for passengers’ and collectors’ mail. The ports of Bergen (N) and Lerwick, Shetland (GB) were also called at regularly until around 2008, and the Danish port of call at the time was Hanstholm in north-west Jutland.
There will therefore be covers with this cancellation from the ports mentioned. I know that this Paquebot cancellation was still being used on board in 2014. It was in use on board from around May 1987.
At the time, I wrote 2 articles with illustrations in the Philatelic News of the FG Nordic States on covers that were cancelled on board the “Norrøna” with the Paquebot postmark (and later also with a Navire postmark). Open the link to the FG Nordic Countries at http://www.nordische-staaten.de, click on “Journal” on the left and then on the Faroese flag. My articles are in:
– Issue 61 of 1988, p. 100 ff.
– Issue 63 of 1988, p. 120 f.

Best regards and all the best Richard Kühle

A new and unlisted mark of West Hartlepool was reported by the German collector R. Kühle. The SHIP LETTER mark shown below is 33 mm long and 3,5 mm high. The post card is exhibited in the gallery – look for “West Hartlepool unlisted (A)” please. A short article named “The only known SHIP LETTER cancellation from West Hartlepool” is placed in the chapter Publications additionally.

R. Kühle berichtet von einem noch unbekannten SHIP LETTER-Stempel, der in West Hartlepool Verwendung fand. Der unten dargestellte Stempel hat die Maße 33 x 3,5 mm und ist in der Galerie unter dem Suchbegriff “West Hartlepool unlisted (A)” zu finden. Herr Kühle von der “FG Nordische Staaten” hat zu diesem Beleg einen kurzen Artikel zur Verfügung gestellt, der unter dem Titel “Der einzig bekannte Stempel SHIP LETTER aus West Hartlepool auf Post von Island” im Kapitel Publikationen nachzulesen ist.
Dieser Artikel wurde erstmals 2021 in der Publikation: „50 Jahre Forschungsgemeinschaft Nordische Staaten e. V. im Bund Deutscher Philatelisten e. V. – Chronik und Lieblingsstücke“, Hrsg. Forschungsgemeinschaft Nordische Staaten e. V. veröffentlicht.

P. Schulz

A new and unlisted mark from Hamadera is shown below. Dimensions 30 x 4 mm. The complete cover is exhibited in the gallery. Look for “Hamadera unlisted (A)” please.

Ein bisher noch nicht katalogisierter Stempel aus Hamadera ist unten abgebildet. Abmessungen 30 x 4 mm. Der komplette Umschlag ist in der Galerie unter dem Suchbegriff “Hamadera unlisted (A)” ausgestellt.

P. Schulz

The unknown mark from Male dated 1999, shown below and not yet included in the catalogue, measures 45 x 6 mm, frame 58 x 12.5 mm. A clearly visible difference compared to the stamp “Male 2819” is that the Q-tail also protrudes into the “Q” whereas in the stamp “Male 2819” it only points outwards. The complete letter can be found in the gallery under the search term “Male unlisted (A)”.

P. Schulz