| Two versions
of the official Amundsen Arctic Drift Expedition (1918-24) postcards
with identical shipboard cancellations from the MAUD (Norwegian-authorized)
post office. Called "Polhavet" (Polar Seas), one canceller
is dated 13 September 1918, as the drifting ship over the Arctic
Ocean (trying to prove that northern currents would carry it over
the North Pole) was preparing for its first high Arctic wintering.
Second canceller (4 August 1924) marks the ending of the expedition
as it headed back to Norway. The card on the left represents a version
of the card printed well before the expedition departed and the
original ship (Fram) still was its intended vessel. The card on
the right identifies the last (smallest) printing, recognizing FRAM
had been replaced by MAUD. |
CITY OF MILAN of ITALIA North
Pole Flight Expedition
1928
|
|
Posted
to Rome, apparently by a crew member, from post office of Italian
support vessel CITY OF MILAN, 25 May 1928, bearing
airship ITALIA-related expedition straight line
cachet. This card ironically was mailed just as the ill-fated
North Pole attaining airship was about to crash and begin its
disaster odyssey.
For
further documentation of the search for the ITALIA,
please click here.
|
Unsuccessful attempt to achieve the
North Pole . . .
|
|
Only
known mail with straight line cachet SPITSBERGEN TO NORTH
POLE documenting last leg from cruise of superannuated USN
submarine (renamed NAUTILUS ) lent to Sir
Hubert Wilkins for attempt to achieve submerged North Pole
attainment. Canceled Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen, 16 August 1931
and back at Bergen, Norway, 30 September 1931, after unsuccessful
attempt and prior to its intentional scuttling under terms of
its lease from the United States Navy.
|
Charcot Greenland
Cruise 1932
|
|
One of two
known, nearly identical pieces of mail to France from a crew member
(whose recipient purposely cut out the address from this mail) aboard
the 1932 Charcot Greenland cruise aboard
POURQUOI PAS?, canceled during a return trip stop at Reykjavik,
Iceland, 5 September 1932, bearing a ship's cruise vignette. |
NAUTILUS North
Pole Attainment 1958
|
|
One
of the pieces of mail made available to each on-board participant
of the first submarine scientific exploration and attainment of
the North Pole, by USS NAUTILUS, on 3 August 1958.
The piece is struck with a one-time special pictorial postmark
authorized only for this one day exlusively on mail from the crew,
temporarily assigned scientists and official observers, which
explains why very few are otherwise available. The two-part cruise
cachet was a product from a crew contest.
|
USS SKATE North Pole
Attainment 1958
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|
Mail
from the "other" submarine, USS SKATE, that
conducted scientific investigations enroute to attaining the North
Pole on 12 August 1958 during the NAUTILUS mission.
The second to have achieved this feat might never have been postally
documented had not a thoughtful originator of the American
Society of Polar Philatelists proposed to the United States
Navy that he be permitted to provide a few cacheted covers to be
carried aboard her mentioned "polar" cruise. The United
States Navy provided a stencil cancellation with dates that a servicer
would not have known in advance. |
and a "first"
. . .
|
|
Later
is was learned that the USS SKATE achieved another
"first" after having attained the North Pole in 1958,
by becoming the first to surface in support of a US Arctic drift
station (Drift Station ALPHA). Some of the North
Pole documentation covers were used also to document this event,
being transferred to the drift station, from where this cover
apparently was one of the few immediately retrieved, to be carried
back aboard USS SKATE and left in Europe, where
the vessel made a port call. The cover is canceled at the Paris
APO on 28 September 1958.
|
USS SKATE spreads
the ashes . . .
|
|
Being
"second" in 1958, the USS SKATE was the
first in 1959 (March 17), as marked by its own special on-board,
one-day only fancy cancellation, documenting its being the first
nuclear submarine to surface at the North Pole, where it conducted
some scientific experiments and scattered the ashes of recently
deceased Sir Hubert Wilkins. The special
cancellation was only available to those who were on board.
|
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