TPO & Seapost Society - British Transatlantic Sea Post Offices

Seapost -> British Transatlantic Sea Post Offices

British Transatlantic Sea Post Offices

By Mike Dovey and Julian Jones

Just as new rules for handling mail posted on the high seas came into being [see Paquebot] certain countries began using post offices on board their vessels to sort mail during the voyage to expedite its handling at the next port of call. In the case of Great Britain, a joint sea post was installed on board seven ships of the White Star Line operated in conjunction with the U. S. Post Office. Special Sea Post cancellers were issued to cancel letters or post cards posted on the voyage.

British Sea Post Office Liverpool 1905-07	British Sea Post Office Southampton 1907-08	Transatlantic Post Office 1908-14	Transatlantic Post Office Plymouth 1905-07

White Star initially operated from Liverpool but moved its base to Southampton in 1907. In 1908 the cancellation was changed to omit the name of the UK terminating port. British sorters also operated on ships of the United States Line which called at Plymouth on eastbound journeys, giving rise to a 'Plymouth' cancellation.

White Star Line "RMS BALTIC"	British Sea Post Office - Liverpool 6

The British Sea Post Office - Liverpool

This cancellation was first used in 1905 for a period of two years only. The numbered hand stamps were issued to various vessels belonging to White Star Line which had to make space available to accommodate the post office team. The Liverpool cancel is a double ring circular mark and will always have an allocation number (or index) at the base of the ring.

White Star Line "RMS MAJESTIC"	British Sea Post Office - Southampton 5

The British Sea Post Office - Southampton

This cancellation is known to have been used for two years from 1907 until 1908 on White Star Line ships. While large amounts of mail were handled as each vessel sailed across the Atlantic, most of the items that survive today are from picture postcards of the vessels of the shipping line, posted on board and cancelled by the sorters. The Southampton mark is a single ring circular cancel and will always have an allocated number at the top of the inside just above the date. Following a complaint and misunderstanding regarding the USA town of Southampton (N.Y.) this cancellation had to be abandoned in favour of a new mark shown below.

White Star Line "RMS OCEANIC"	Transatlantic Post Office 4

The Transatlantic Post Office

This cancellation was used from around 1908 to 1914 as a replacement for the two above cancels. The British Seapost operated until August 1914 at the onset of the First World War. The single ring circular cancel, has an allocated number at the base of the mark.

White Star Line "RMS OLYMPIC"	Transatlantic Post Office 5 dated November 22nd 1913

The Transatlantic Post Office - Plymouth

On their eastbound run, United States Line ships bound for Southampton called at Plymouth to disembark mail for the UK. Double circle cancellers were used by British sorters on these ships during the period 1905 - 1907. The index is at the bottom of the ring.

PPC of Jamaica: "Transatlantic Post Office Plymouth / 1" (original 1d stamp removed)

There is an strong opinion that the index numbers allocated to each British date stamp are in fact assigned to the teams of Postal sorters and not the vessel they worked on, which would explain the movement of a number from one ship to another, however it is seen that most teams seemed to stick to one particular vessel for most of the time.

U. S. Cancellers used on White Star Line ships.

These postal arrangements were undertaken in conjunction between White Star Line and America Line with each vessel having a GB PO team and a US PO working together in hand with each other. While each team had their own sea post cancellers, the GB team were not issued with Postage Due hand stamps so the US team would lend them their own Postage Due stamp for under franked mail. The U. S. Post Office issued cancellers to their own staff to use on east-bound White Star Line vessels.

US cancellers used with British Sea Posts

There are a number of instances where PPC's of Cunard vessels carry one of these cancellations. It must be pointed out that Cunard Line did not participate in sea post operations, and further, did not move their operation from Liverpool to Southampton until after 1918. Therefore any cards seen with these cancels and Cunard ship names were not ever mailed on board the vessels they portray. Alas this is one of the down sides to collecting postcards in the hope that they were posted from that ship only to find that they were probably purchased at the terminal before embarking on a different ship!

References

Currently, there is not a definitive publication on this subject which allocates all of the known indices to all of the allocated vessels together with their respective dates, (it is known that postcards of ships from one line were posted on board other ships of that and other lines which makes the plotting of these cancels a little difficult). However the Society hopes to rectify this problem in due course by researching a new publication to bring all the known facts together and then producing a definitive listing.

For the moment, the following will be found very useful:
The Transatlantic Post Office, by Roger Hosking, Oxted, June 1979.
United States Sea Post Cancellations Part I Transatlantic Routes, P Cockrill, Cockrill Series Booklet No 54. ISBN No 947628 59 2
Postmarks and Postal Markings of Southampton 1700-1914, by Bryan Hunt, published by the author, Southampton, March 1986.