South Georgia 1937

I hope there are some specialist collectors of the South Atlantic area in this
news group.

In a cheap auction lot I found a cover bearing the three Falkland Island
coronation stamps of 12 May 1937. These on their own are of little value but it
is nice to have them on cover with a clean circular cancel. What makes the
envelope of interest is that it is cancelled with a South Georgia cancellation.
The envelope is addressed to Stanley in the Falklands and the arrival date seen
on the reverse is 23 November 1937.

My queries are - "Where did the letter go in the 6 month interval? Would it be
brought back to Britain by a whaling vessel, some kind of mail boat or by a
naval patrol ship, before being returned to the Falklands? Has the letter been
produced for philatelic purposes and is therefore not uncommon? What might be
its value compared with a first day cover posted in the Falklands?"

Winter in South Georgia is very severe. I do not know what the weather was
like in 1937 but if average, it is very possible that the place was just out
of reach!
Then again.....
Bob

"Jim I Milne" wrote in message
...
I hope there are some specialist collectors of the South Atlantic area in
this
news group.

In a cheap auction lot I found a cover bearing the three Falkland Island
coronation stamps of 12 May 1937. These on their own are of little value
but it
is nice to have them on cover with a clean circular cancel. What makes the
envelope of interest is that it is cancelled with a South Georgia
cancellation.
The envelope is addressed to Stanley in the Falklands and the arrival date
seen
on the reverse is 23 November 1937.

My queries are - "Where did the letter go in the 6 month interval? Would
it be
brought back to Britain by a whaling vessel, some kind of mail boat or by
a
naval patrol ship, before being returned to the Falklands? Has the letter
been
produced for philatelic purposes and is therefore not uncommon? What might
be
its value compared with a first day cover posted in the Falklands?"

12/10/2003 1:45 PM
In a cheap auction lot I found a cover bearing the three Falkland Island
coronation stamps of 12 May 1937.... The envelope is addressed to Stanley in
the Falklands and the arrival date seen on the reverse is 23 November 1937.
My queries are - "Where did the letter go in the 6 month interval?

Winter in South Georgia is very severe. I do not know what the weather was
like in 1937 but if average, it is very possible that the place was just out
of reach!
Then again.....
Bob

The weather was quite likely vile! It was on May 10, 1917 -- autumn in the
Southern Hemisphere -- that Shackleton and five of his men reached South
Georgia after a harrowing, 800 mile trip in a 22-foot boat from Elephant
Island. That stretch of ocean is said to be the worst anywhere; one of the
largest ocean waves ever recorded was in that same area.

It is easily therefore easily conceivable that your cover was cancelled on
South Georgia and stayed right there for months. I just found a great web
site about the Antarctic, including a well done history of the Shackleton
Expedition. Go to http://www.coolantarctica.com, click on the "History"
link at the top of the page, then on the next page click on the link for
"Ernest Shackleton, Endurance expedition". Or just try this rather long URL:
http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarc...y/Ernest%20Sha
ckleton_Trans-Antarctic_expedition.htm.

I wonder whether your cover was intended as an 20th anniversary cover of
Shackleton's arrival on South Georgia. He and his men arrived on May 10 at
King Haakon Bay. After resting for five days, Shackleton and two men started
to make their way to the whaling station on the opposite side of the island,
climbing a mountain range that had never been climbed before and wouldn't be
climbed again for decades. Five days later, on May 20, 1917, they stumbled
into the whaling station.

If you haven't read the story of this expedition, you should! It is one of
the classic stories of survival. An early and excellent book about it was
Endurance. Other books have been published in recent years, and are listed
on the web site.

Even if your cover isn't "worth much," it's a great collectible. If you
don't want to keep it, let me know how much you'd like for it. Seriously.
Shackleton is one of my heros, and this cover is "close enough" to the
expedition to be very interesting to me.

Bob

On Wed, 10 Dec 2003 22:42:07 GMT, Bob Ingraham
wrote:

12/10/2003 1:45 PM
In a cheap auction lot I found a cover bearing the three Falkland Island
coronation stamps of 12 May 1937.... The envelope is addressed to Stanley in
the Falklands and the arrival date seen on the reverse is 23 November 1937.
My queries are - "Where did the letter go in the 6 month interval?

Winter in South Georgia is very severe. I do not know what the weather was
like in 1937 but if average, it is very possible that the place was just out
of reach!
Then again.....
Bob

The weather was quite likely vile! It was on May 10, 1917 -- autumn in the
Southern Hemisphere -- that Shackleton and five of his men reached South
Georgia after a harrowing, 800 mile trip in a 22-foot boat from Elephant
Island. That stretch of ocean is said to be the worst anywhere; one of the
largest ocean waves ever recorded was in that same area.

It is easily therefore easily conceivable that your cover was cancelled on
South Georgia and stayed right there for months. I just found a great web
site about the Antarctic, including a well done history of the Shackleton
Expedition. Go to http://www.coolantarctica.com, click on the "History"
link at the top of the page, then on the next page click on the link for
"Ernest Shackleton, Endurance expedition". Or just try this rather long URL:
http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarc...y/Ernest%20Sha
ckleton_Trans-Antarctic_expedition.htm.

I wonder whether your cover was intended as an 20th anniversary cover of
Shackleton's arrival on South Georgia. He and his men arrived on May 10 at
King Haakon Bay. After resting for five days, Shackleton and two men started
to make their way to the whaling station on the opposite side of the island,
climbing a mountain range that had never been climbed before and wouldn't be
climbed again for decades. Five days later, on May 20, 1917, they stumbled
into the whaling station.

If you haven't read the story of this expedition, you should! It is one of
the classic stories of survival. An early and excellent book about it was
Endurance. Other books have been published in recent years, and are listed
on the web site.

Even if your cover isn't "worth much," it's a great collectible. If you
don't want to keep it, let me know how much you'd like for it. Seriously.
Shackleton is one of my heros, and this cover is "close enough" to the
expedition to be very interesting to me.

A&E had a decent movie about this recently. I gotta say that they
were very resourceful and very lucky to have survived that ordeal.
Excellent tale of survival.

Tracy Barber

On 09 Dec 2003 17:44:53 GMT, (Jim I Milne) wrote:

I hope there are some specialist collectors of the South Atlantic area in this
news group.

In a cheap auction lot I found a cover bearing the three Falkland Island
coronation stamps of 12 May 1937. These on their own are of little value but it
is nice to have them on cover with a clean circular cancel. What makes the
envelope of interest is that it is cancelled with a South Georgia cancellation.
The envelope is addressed to Stanley in the Falklands and the arrival date seen
on the reverse is 23 November 1937.

My queries are - "Where did the letter go in the 6 month interval? Would it be
brought back to Britain by a whaling vessel, some kind of mail boat or by a
naval patrol ship, before being returned to the Falklands? Has the letter been
produced for philatelic purposes and is therefore not uncommon? What might be
its value compared with a first day cover posted in the Falklands?"


------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jim:

(1) You forgot to mention if the South Georgia cancel was 12 May 1937.
If so, you probably have a scarce FDC.

(2) Why 6 months for delivery? Well May to Sept is the "Southern
Winter" and it could have been 'frozen in' in S Georgia.
There wouldn't be much sea traffic in those days.

To fully answer would require research into Falklands specialist
books. Could you post a scan on the net somewhere?

Blair




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