We forget there was a time when bringing the mail was big business. The ship on the stamp was or course a cruise ship, but a big part of its service was bringing mail from Britain to Egypt through the Suez Canal then on to India, Sri lanka, Singapore and Australia. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
Todays stamp showed off the British Royal Mail Sevice as practiced in British India. In this case we have a cruise ship, named after a city in the Punjab in the service of delivering the mail to far off colonies. It is interesting how many colonial issues have to do with reminding colonists that their home has not forgotten them. This issue really ran the gamut of how hard Britain worked to stay in touch. Giant ships, whose size was limited by the need to pass through the Suez Canal, planes, trucks, even to the man pushing the cart locally. What a massive operation.
The stamp today is issue A81, a 6 Anna stamp issued by British India in 1931. It was a 19 stamp issue in various denomiations showing the operations of the Royal Mail and King George VI. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 95 cents used.
A Royal Mail Steamer (RMS) is a designation that goes back to 1840. It indicates that the private ship is under contract to carry mail. In theory, if the ship is not carrying mail the name of the ship reverts to SS. The ship will fly the pennant of the Royal Mail and the Crown Emblem, The ship on todays stamp was built in Belfast Northern Ireland by the ship maker Harland and Wolff. Harland and Wolff also built the Titanic, 6 aircraft carriers, and the first supertanker built in the UK. The ship was built for the Peninsular and Oriental Shipping Line was founded originally to take mail to Spain by a Scottish sailor and a London based ship broker. The company later added mail contracts further East. The RMS Mooltan was built around 1920, named after a city in modern day Pakistan, replacing a similar named ship that had been sunk while requisitioned to World War I troopship service. This RMS Mooltan was also requisitioned for war service in World War II but survived. There was post war less demand for worldwide ship mail service and the ship spent it’s last days taking British emigres to Australia and New Zealand. The ship was scrapped in Faslane in Scotland in 1954.
Already by the time of this stamp there was less profits in moving the mail. The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, a competitor to P&O was the largest shipping company in the world in the 1920s.. It was operating at a loss but denied that and kept paying a dividend. A prospectus was sent out trying to attract additional investors. When the line asked for an extension on money owed the government, the government sent an auditor that found the disguised losses and the omissions from the previously publicized stock prospectus. The managing director, Owen Phillips, the First Baron Kyslant, was jailed and the company was reorganized with heavy government subsidies. The case lead to higher company auditing standards.
The infrastructure that built the machine of the Royal Mail is mostly gone now. Harland and Wolff’s last ship was built in 2003. They tried to make it on ship repairs and a desperate scheme to build off shore wind energy platforms. The company closed just this last August. The parent company of Peninsular and Oriental Lines was sold to Dubai Ports World in 2006. The associated cruise line had previously been sold to Carnival and the commercial shipping arm to Danish firm Maersk. One nod to the old days is that British Airways jets regularly carrying Royal Mail, have the old pennant painted on.
Well my drink is empty and when I look at old stamps like this of the infrastructure to move the mail, I come away amazed how cheap it was to send a letter. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.