1948 NEW ZEALAND " LANDING OF FIRST SETTLERS IN OTAGO "

1948 NEW ZEALAND " LANDING OF FIRST SETTLERS IN OTAGO " SHOWING IMAGE OF SHIP ON COVER

In 1948, the settlement of the Otago Province and the founding of the city of Dunedin on 23 March 1848 were commemorated by four stamps depicting the arrival of the immigrant ships, the town of Cromwell, the First Dunedin Church and the University of Otago. The stamps are classic James Berry designs, being full of fine detail. The 1d is famous for its colour shifts of the blue centre, examples of which can been seen below.

Otago celebrates the arrival of the immigrant ship John Wickliffe as the founding day of the province.

The ship and its 97 passengers sailed from Gravesend, England, on 24 November 1847. Three days later, the Philip Laing left Greenock, Scotland, with a further 247 people. Both ships were carrying Scottish settlers bound for New Zealand.

Plans for a New Zealand settlement for Scotland had begun in 1842. Scottish architect and politician George Rennie, concerned at English dominance over the first New Zealand Company settlements, hoped to establish ‘a new Edinburgh’ in the southern hemisphere. Dunedin – the Gaelic form of Edinburgh – became feasible once the New Zealand Company purchased the large Otago block from Ngāi Tahu in 1844.

Divisions within the Church of Scotland transformed Rennie’s original plan. Unhappy with patronage and state control, 400 clergy and about one-third of lay people quit the established church. Some of these dissenters, including Thomas Burns, William Cargill, and John McGlashan, saw Otago as a home for a new ‘Free Church’. Two-thirds of the original Otago settlers were Free Church Presbyterians. 

National Postal strike - Exeter Emergency Delivery Service -20 Jan 1971

Above is a beautiful First Day cover of the National Postal strike - Exeter Emergency Delivery Service -20 Jan 1971

The first national postal strike created the unique situation in British postal history where private postal services were allowed to operate under licence.

The first full national strike in the history of the British Post Office took place from Wednesday 20th January to Sunday 7th March 1971. It took place against a background of increasing inflation and worsening industrial relations over the preceding decade, both in the Post Office and in the country in general. On 15th January a pay offer from the Post Office Board was rejected by the executive of the Union of Post Office Workers. An "all-out" strike was called to start at midnight on 19th/20th January.

Although local mail deliveries were possible in some areas, either where the postmen did not go on strike or as some gradually returned to work, the bulk of the country's postal services came to a complete halt. 

The Government announced that the Post Office's monopoly on carrying letters would be suspended for the duration of the strike. Several hundred private posts were set up throughout the country; some of these were of course "philatelic", but many operated with efficiency and transported significant quantities of mail, although normally at a much higher price than the normal first class rate. A number of these posts linked up in an "Association of Mail Services" which provided for transmission of letters from post to post across the country, and also to overseas destinations. Considerable use was also made of the existing alternatives, and of course the Armed Forces had their own postal arrangements.

The strike dragged on for seven weeks as the Union and the Post Office were unable to agree. Eventually, faced with rapidly worsening finances, the Union Executive proposed a public enquiry as a peace plan to Employment Secretary Robert Carr. A ballot resulted in a majority for ending the strike, and postmen were told to return to work at 9am, Monday 8th March.

These stamps are printed Exeter Emergency Delivery Service

Reference taken from : http://www.gbps.org.uk/

Cover commemorates Rosyth Navy Days 21-22nd June 1986 / HMS Leeds Castle

This cover commemorates Rosyth Navy Days 21-22nd June 1986 / HMS Leeds Castle

This cover is R N Marriot RNCC Group Series One No 61

HMS Leeds Castle (P258) was a Castle-class patrol ship built by Hall, Russell & Company of Aberdeen, Scotland for the Royal Navy. She was launched in October 1980 and commissioned the following August. She was involved in the 1982 Falklands War, operating between the British territories of Ascension Island, South Georgia, and the Falkland Islands as a dispatch vessel commanded by Lieutenant-Commander Colin Hamilton.

The Leeds Castle spent much time performing fishery protection duties around the United Kingdom, as well as being used as a guard ship in the Falkland Islands. In 2000, Leeds Castle underwent an eight-month refit, returning to the fleet in early 2001.

On 8 August 2005 she returned for the final time to her home base of Portsmouth to be decommissioned after a 24-year career having finished her final deployment as a patrol vessel based in the Falkland Islands. She was relieved in that role by her sister ship HMS Dumbarton Castle (commissioned in 1982) which served in that role until being replaced in 2007 by the new HMS Clyde.

In April 2010 Leeds Castle was sold to Bangladesh along with Dumbarton Castle. She left Portsmouth under tow for the A&P Group facility in Newcastle upon Tyne on 14 May 2010, where both ships underwent a major regeneration refit that was completed in December 2010.

In March 2011, Leeds Castle and Dumbarton Castle were recommissioned as the Dhaleshwari and Bijoy of the Bangladesh Navy respectively.

Special Cover on 50 Years of INS Jeevanti

Recently acquired the Special cover on INS Jeevanti.

India Post, Maharshtra Postal Circle released a Special cover on 15th April 2016  on the momentous occasion of INHS Jeevanti's 50 Glorious Years of service to the nation which is an Indian Naval Hospital Ship in Patient Care at AP Dabolim.

INHS JEEVANTI

ISLE OF MAN FIRST DAY COVER COMMEMORATING THE STEAM PACKET COMPANY MAIL CONTRACT 1832-1982.

My recent acquisition is " ISLE OF MAN FIRST DAY COVER COMMEMORATING THE STEAM PACKET COMPANY MAIL CONTRACT 1832-1982." 

The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company Limited is the oldest continuously operating passenger shipping company in the world, celebrating its 180th anniversary in 2010.

The company provides freight, passenger and vehicle services between the Isle of Man Sea Terminal, in Douglas, Isle of Man, and five ports in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

ISSUED   05/10/1982

The ship on the FDC is Mona I and Manx Maid II

Mona I:

SS (RMS) Mona (I) - the first vessel in the Company's history to be so named - was a wooden paddle steamer which was operated by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company. No Official number is recorded for the vessel, as formal registration was not introduced until the Merchant Shipping Act 1854..

Mona was the second vessel which entered service with the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company. She was hurriedly ordered for the winter service in place of the larger Mona's Isle, which was soon considered too valuable to risk in storm conditions. Mona initially started on the Company's service to Whitehaven, and then commenced winter service to Liverpool in October 1832.

courtesy :Mona I

Manx Maid II: 

TSS (RMS) Manx Maid (II) was built by Cammell Laird at Birkenhead in 1962, and was the second ship in the Company's history to bear the name.

Tonnage 2724; length 325'; beam 50'; depth 18'; speed 21 knots; bhp 9,500. Construction costs were £1,087,000,the first vessel of the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company to cost over one million pounds. Manx Maid was launched by Mrs. A. Alexander at Birkenhead, on Tuesday 23 January 1962.

Manx Maid was a great success and was of major importance in the history of the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, as she was the first vessel to be designed as a car ferry; she had the capacity for up to 90 cars and light commercial vans.

courtesy :Manx Maid II

GIBRALTAR 2008 Lord Nelson 250th Birth Anniversary "Ships" Complete Set

Gibraltar celebrated the 250th anniversary of the birth of Horatio Nelson in 2008 ,with an issue of 6 stamps, a miniature sheet, 6 sheetlets and the flagship limited edition (1,000 copies) special folder containing the complete set.

Horatio Nelson was born on 29 September 1758 in a rectory in Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, England, the sixth of eleven children of the Reverend
 
Edmund Nelson and Catherine Nelson. His mother, who died when he was nine, was a grandniece of Sir Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Oxford, the de facto first prime minister of the British Parliament. It was at Beccles church, Suffolk in 1749 that Catherine Suckling from the nearby village of Barsham, Suffolk married the Reverend Edmund Nelson.

Technical Specs

Design:	Stephen Perera
Illustration / Photography:	John Batchelor
Printer:	BDT International, Ireland
Process:	Offset Lithography
Colours:	4 cols.
Stamp size:	30 x 40mm
Issue date:	2008-03-15
Stamp Values:	40p, 40p, 42p, 42p, 49p, 49p