WERT
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Posts: 1,062
What I collect: Canada and Provinces
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Post by WERT on Nov 19, 2019 17:09:34 GMT
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vikingeck
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Posts: 3,546
What I collect: Samoa, Tobacco theme, Mail in Wartime, anything odd and unusual!
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Post by vikingeck on Nov 19, 2019 18:31:38 GMT
Robert WERT , the date of 30th May is not unreasonable as the letter is mailed in Stoke on Trent and would need to be at least a day early to catch the flight which I am guessing might be Southampton. however in 1939 both the French via Marseilles and Azores , and Pan American via Southampton and Ireland using Boeing Clipper seaplanes were both inaugurating trans Atlantic airmail services . the French route seems to have got off first as there are covers from Marseilles for a First Flight on 24th May and as far as I can see the Pan American from England did not really get going until June! I suspect the Canadian had heard of the coming PanAm service but as the French route from Marseilles Bouches de Rhône had gone the week before , our English contact with the postal authorities might have been the first opportunity for the English mail to link direct with the Marseilles Azores route ? confusing as the 30th/31st does not tie to the inaugural flight of either service.Strictly speaking the letter refers to the first dispatch ie to Marseilles, rather than “first flight” on my iPad and can’t do images of covers at the moment so I may edit later or do a new post. |
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WERT
Departed
Rest in Peace
Posts: 1,062
What I collect: Canada and Provinces
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Post by WERT on Nov 19, 2019 18:40:15 GMT
Thanks for the info vikingeck
Robert
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vikingeck
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Posts: 3,546
What I collect: Samoa, Tobacco theme, Mail in Wartime, anything odd and unusual!
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Post by vikingeck on Nov 20, 2019 10:12:32 GMT
Here is a French first trans Atlantic airmail for the Marseilles , Lisbon , Azores route . The date is not clear but it is 24th MAY 1939 . several such covers with the same cachet have AZORES Arrival of 26th May on the reverse   This must be the service referred to in WERT letter above |
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vikingeck
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Posts: 3,546
What I collect: Samoa, Tobacco theme, Mail in Wartime, anything odd and unusual!
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Post by vikingeck on Nov 20, 2019 10:29:24 GMT
I have also found on the internet a cover dated 30 May like WERT 's from Liverpool, for the first DISPATCH from Britain rather than a First FLIGHTwhich presumably had to get to Marseilles to link with the Pan Am Service via Lisbon and the Azores. Direct service from Britain Southampton, called "the Northern Route", via Ireland and Canada did not begin until the third week in JUNE.  |
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kasvik
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Posts: 606
What I collect: Cancels mostly, especially Sweden Gävle and Lidingö, Switzerland Geneva, Germany Pforzheim
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Post by kasvik on Nov 20, 2019 14:33:40 GMT
Here is a French first trans Atlantic airmail for the Marseilles , Lisbon , Azores route . The date is not clear but it is 24th MAY 1939 . several such covers with the same cachet have AZORES Arrival of 26th May on the reverse This must be the service referred to in WERT letter above Nice ones. Right, twelve years after Lindberg's proof of concept moment, trans-oceanic air mail is getting real. No longer just an intermittent show-off stunt. Although of course this day was all about Juan Trippe showing off. The letter is readily dated as the first Pam Am scheduled trans-Atlantic Clipper service. Lots of newspaper coverage. Mail only; no passangers at this point, I believe. A few weeks later the northern route to Southampton was opened. That would be much more important for the Allied war effort, soon to come. I focus on the southern route because it would carry most of the Red Cross PoW air mail mail.
How this captured people's attention. Wert finds someone using business connections to get philatelic mail. It's naughty, but who could resist? But three copies of the letter, and do you think they refunded Royal Doulton? I have an example of the same; a collector in New York using the Geneva office of their investment company to turn around a Clipper air mail cover. If a government employee did the same today they'd get investigated.
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