Antarctica and other Polar regions

Thanks for reviving this thread! I can contribute the cover below, with a nice cancel reading "U.S. Navy Operation Deep Freeze", which I find quite funny:

A US Navy Operation Deep Freeze cover for the United States Antarctic Research Program (USARP), National Science Foundation, Eights Station, Antarctica with a USARP hand stamped cachet, a US Navy postmark for 20th December 1963. A Clyde Sarzin cover, so philatelic.

Scan_20200819 (4) by Daniel, on Flickr

Funny how people from the north (or south in my case) think they know how to travel in the polar snow. Search And Rescue (SAR) techs came up to Alert from 8 Wing Trenton (Ontario) for some northern training. They brought everything they'd need to hike 20 or so kilometres to a CC-130 Hercules crash site and back. We didn't hear from them right away, then a storm moved into the area. As it turned out, it took them a week to get to the Winchester Hills, 6 kilometres away. They planned on a 2 week hike there & back. Lugging their sled on concrete-like snow was an exercise in futility! After the storm abated, they asked for help to get back to camp! I think that was the end of far north training for them!

The Trans-Polar Flight Expedition of Roald Amundsen 1924-1925

These small cards regularly turn up on the philatelic market but with little or no explanation as to their origin and purpose. They usually bear stamps with names and addresses on both sides. The Post card side will have a US 2 cent stamp and is addressed to The Trans-Polar Flight Expedition, Chistiana, Norway. The reverse states North Pole Mail and shows the return address of the sender. Two Norwegian stamps, postmarked Kings Bay, are usually placed over a green imprinted Cinderella stamp and so is rarely seen. I deliberately purchased a second card so as to remove the two Norwegian stamps to reveal the image.

These are my two cards showing the Post Card sides, then the North Pole Mail sides and then an enlarged version of the imprinted stamp. From others that I have seen, they were posted to Norway from January to May 1924 but wouldn't be posted for return until June 1925.


Scan_20201102 by Daniel, on Flickr


Scan_20201102 (2) by Daniel, on Flickr


Scan_20201102 (2) by Daniel, on Flickr

After an unsuccessful 'Northeast Passage' expedition on the ship Maud, which became stuck in the ice for some years, Amundsen turned to the idea of flying to the North Pole. in 1923 he purchased two aircraft, a large Junkers and a small Curtis but the Junkers proved unsuitable for landing on ice and the idea was abandoned. Amundsen then appointed a man called Haakon Hammer to manage his business affairs and it was Hammer who came up with the idea, in 1924, of selling 10,000 of these post cards for $1 each, the cards to be carried on aircraft flown by Amundsen. Hammer promised other deals such as newspaper, magazine and film rights. Amundsen then purchased three Dornier-Wal flying boats. None of Hammer's other ideas were realised and Amundsen had to declare bankruptcy.

Amundsen went on a lecture tour and met Lincoln Ellsworth whose father was a millionaire and it was agreed to sponsor Amundsen and use two of the Dornier-Wal aircraft for an expedition in May 1925 starting at Kings Bay in Spitsbergen. The idea was to fly as close as possible to the North Pole. After further mishaps, one plane was damaged, they achieved the northernmost latitude ever reached by a plane. When they arrived back in Spitsbergen in June 1925 it was to great acclaim having been assumed lost. This coincides with the return date of the cards.

Amundsen would achieve a flight over the North Pole the following year in Umberto Nobile's airship the Norge.

Thanks stanley64. I meant to mention that these cards were litho printed by the American Bank Note Company, as indicated in the top left of the North Pole Mail side. Gimbel Brothers or just Gimbels was an American department store in New York and elsewhere. Note that in my example the wording for Gimbel Brothers overlaps the American Banknote Company wording, this clearly indicates that GIMBEL BROTHERS, U.S. AGENTS was overprinted rather than the card being a new or different printing. From the many versions on the net, I can see that the overprinting can be placed slightly further to the right but this might indicate various printings of the overprinting, as it were, rather than reprinted cards, in my view.

Spedizione Artica Soccorso Aereo (Arctic Air Rescue Expedition) Cinderella Mystery Solved

I came across this miniature sheet on ebay a while ago. It's rather odd-looking, for sure, with 2 stamps diagonally 
tête-bêche (if that's even a thing) and 2 blank stamps with offset printing. In fact, those 2 'blank stamps' are printed on the reverse! Further wording states Sesto Calende (a town in Italy)-Kingsbay. Then there is a date printed in thick ink making it unreadable other than Giugne (June). A very strange looking aircraft is depicted.

Scan_20201116 by Daniel, on Flickr

However, one of the great rescue missions in the Arctic was the search for General Umberto Nobile's downed airship, the Italia, in 1928. Having reached the North Pole on 24th May, the Italia encountered a storm and the gondola smashed onto the ice throwing 10 men out while the airship flew upwards and away with 6 men who were never seen again. Of the 10, one died from his injuries and several others, including Nobile, were injured.

There were multiple rescue missions (including one by Amundsen which would cost him and his crew their lives) but they were not co-ordinated or well organised and it wasn't until the survivors were spotted by Lieutenant Colonel Umberto Maddalena in his Savola-Marchetti S.55 aircraft, depicted on the stamp, on 20th June 1928, therefore, the date on the stamp, that the evacuation could begin in earnest. Nobile was rescued by Einar Lundborg and the remaining survivors by the Soviet icebreaker, the Krasin. More details in a later post.

This is a picture of the plane depicted on the stamps:

Savoia-Marchetti_S.55 by Daniel, on Flickr

Incoming mail to the Italian rescue mission was cacheted Sesto Calende which had a seaplane base on Lake Maggiore.

For Byrd's Second Antarctic Expedition 1939-1941 (B.A.E II), two ships were involved: the Bear of Oakland and the SS Jacob Ruppert. The later of which maintain the expedition's authorized sea post office,

The Centenary of the First British Antarctic Expedition, The National Antarctic Expedition 1901/1904

A postcard marking the Centenary of the Departure of Captain Robert Falcon Scott and the Discovery from Lyttelton, New Zealand on 21st December 1901.