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Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
The Six-Day War commenced on 5 June 1967, between Israel and Egypt. Fourteen ships were stranded in the canal for eight years --in the Great Bitter Lake portion of the canal. Fourteen ships from eight different nationalities that included two from Germany, two from Sweden, one from France, four from Great Britain, one from the United States, two from Poland, one from Bulgaria, and one from Czechoslovakia. The ships would eventually be called The Yellow Fleet, a result of sand beating down on the ships for years.
Despite the geopolitical gulfs separating the sailors of these ships, they very quickly banded together for self preservation. They formed an organization called The Great Bitter Lake Association (GBLA). The GBLA organized games, sports, and other activities (many involving the consumption of mass quantities of alcohol). And the creation of stamps.
The creation of stamps, and the printing of them would be a passion that would go on for the entire eight years. In most cases letters would be franked with GBLA stamps, and provided to the Egyptian postal authorities where Egyptian stamps would be affixed, and the letters mailed. There were occasions, however, when letters were allowed to pass with only the GBLA stamps affixed, thus transcending the Cinderella status.
Many covers were affixed with GBLA stamps and posted with cancellations from all 14 ships. The cover depicted has further cancellations on the back.
The provenance of GBLA stamps is hard to impossible to pin down. There is a fine book on this unique and odd slice of history: Stranded in the Six-Day War, by Cath Senker. Great history, well written, and a fine page-turner.
Cheers!
Winedrinker
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Interesting. This is the first time I've heard of the "Yellow Fleet". Susan and I are enjoying The Crown. One of the recent episodes concerned the Suez Crisis or the Second Arab–Israeli War, which also closed the canal for an extended time. I expect one could easily — or "easily" — develop an "Egypt/West Conflicts" collection.
Bob
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Fascinating!
Rrr
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I absolutely LOVE postings like this!
Yes, fascinating postal history.
Thanks buveur de vin!
-Paul
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The Great Bitter Lake is a salt water lake which is part of the Suez Canal. During the Six-Day War in 1967, the canal was closed, leaving 15 ships trapped in the lake.
Both ends of the canal were closed, and after three days it became apparent that the canal would remain blocked for some time as a result of the scuttling of ships to block its passage. The fourteen ships were forced to anchor in the widest part of the Suez Canal, the Great Bitter Lake. Some of the scuttled ships cut off the MS Observer from the other ships and it had to anchor in Lake Timsah.
These ships became known as the "Yellow Fleet", because of the desert sands which soon covered their decks. A number of local postage stamps were created by the crews.
In October 1967 the officers and crews of all fourteen ships met on the Melampus to found the "Great Bitter Lake Association" which would provide mutual support. In the time to come, the crew members regularly met on board their ships, organized social events, founded a yachting club and held the "Bitter Lake Olympic Games."
In time it was possible to reduce the number of crew members on board the ships, and in 1969 the ships were gathered into several groups to further reduce the number of crew necessary for their upkeep.
Those crew that were left to maintain the vessels were rotated every three months. In 1972 the last crew members of the German ships were finally sent home, with the maintenance of the ships left to a Norwegian company.
In time, a postal system evolved, the hand-crafted stamp of which became collectors' items around the world. The Egyptian postal authority recognized the stamps so that they could be used world wide.
The ships complied with mailing requests from all over the world. For collectors, the reverse of covers featured all available stamps of all vessels.
On Sundays, everybody used to meet aboard ‘Nordwind’, brought the rubber stamps along, and worked together in a small ‘ships cancellation office’.
For more information see: (note, I have given up trying to activate these links, as the system is constantly mangling the parameters.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Fleet
There is a very useful website that has images and descriptions of all the handmade local stamps:
http://www.shipsonstamps.org/Topics/html/gbla.htm
The trapped ships were:
- 'MS Nordwind', 8.656 GRT, Nordstern Reederei, Germany.
- 'MS Münsterland', 9.365 GRT, Hapag-Lloyd, Germany.
- 'MS Killara', 10.714 GRT, Rederiaktiebolaget Transatlantic, Sweden.
- 'MS Nippon', 10.309 GRT, Svenska Ostasiatiska Kompaniet, Sweden.
- 'MS Essayons' ex 'Sindh', 7.051 GRT, Ruul-Pedersen Reederi, Norway; (at war’s outbreak MS
'Sindh' was owned by Messageries Maritimes, France.)
- 'MS Agapenor', 7.654 GRT, Blue Funnel Line, England.
- 'MS Melampus', 8.509 GRT, Blue Funnel Line, England.
- 'MS Scottish Star', 10.174 GRT, Blue Star Line, England.
- 'MS Port Invercargill', 10.463 GRT, Port Line, England.
- 'SS African Glen', 6.116 GRT, Farrell Lines, USA.
- 'MS Djakarta', 6.915 GRT, Polish Ocean Lines, Poland,
- 'MS Boleslaw Bierut', 6.674 GRT, Polish Ocean Lines, Poland.
- 'MS Vassil Levsky', 4.975 GRT, Navigation Maritime, Bulgaria.
- 'MS Lednice', 1.462 GRT, Czech Danube Navigation, Czechoslovakia.
Only two ships could leave by their own power when the canal was finally reopened in 1975.
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Crew reductions became the norm; on HAPAG-Lloyd’s Münsterland’, initially from 42 to 24, later on, to ten. To save even more personnel, in 1969 the vessels were moored together in several groups. This resulted in new group rubber stamps.
Group stamp ‘MS Müwinikies’ got its ‘Mü’ from ‘Münsterland’, ‘wi’ from ‘Nordwind’, ‘ni’ from ‘Nippon’, ‘ki’ from ‘Killara’, and ‘es’ from ‘Essayons’.
‘MS Ledmelaga’ derived from ‘Lednice’, ‘Melampus’, and ‘Agapenor’.
‘MS Portstar’ came from ‘Port Invercargill’ and ‘Scottish Star’.
‘MS Djakbier’ represented ‘Djakarta’ and ‘Boleslaw Bierut’.
Later re-groupings and changes, from 1970 onwards, saw the use of group stamps ‘Podjabist’, ‘Djabiporst’, ‘Müwiniki’, and ‘Mühwinikindh’. The labels show the individual groups with their funnel marks.
In the top row, ‘Müwinikies’, ‘Djabiporst’, and ‘Ledmelaga’. In the bottom row, the individually moored ships ‘African Glen’ and ‘Vassil Levsky’, as well as the symbolic buoy.
Below are examples of the labels used by these groupings. It's a very poor internet image I'm afraid:
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Very good additions Ningpo. One correction: Only 14 ships were stranded in the Great Bitter Lake. There was a 15th ship, the US ship Observer which was located in Lake Timsah, and was not involved in the Great Bitter Lake Association. In November 1967 there were two men aboard that ship and they had no contact with the Bitter Lake group. The Americans called their ship FBI - the Forgotten Boat of Ismallia.
Cheers!
Winedrinker
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Good topic, good posts!
Well done, Winedrinker & Ningpo!
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Cath Senker, author of Stranded in the Six-Day War, recently added a small section just on GBLA stamps to her website. The stamps and covers are quite striking.
https://cathsenker.co.uk/the-gbla-stamps/
Wine
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Great stuff! Unknown to me before I now must try and find some.
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The principal book on the Great Bitter Lake Association (Yellow Fleet) stamps is the GBLA Encyclopaedia and Stamp Catalogue. If you need the book, drop me a line.
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I hadn't seen this post before, and I have a bit of mystery to solve.
When I was a boy, my father was a US Army Officer assigned to NATO in Izmir, Turkey from 1966-68. We went on a cruise vacation of the Holyland, on an Israeli flagged cruise ship called SS Dan. We flew from Turkey to Athens, Greece and toured Greece. This was the cruise start point.
This was the summer of 1967. I believe the 7 Day War happened during, or right before this period. I remember being on the ship, going to unscheduled ports to load up with refugees. They sat in the corridors and on deck, and were dropped off at another port. I don't remember any of these details.
Still, we docked in Haifa and toured Israel. We were taken to the tourist spots of Bethlehem and Jerusalem, Jesus's tomb, and a kibbutz. I remember seeing bombed out buildings and one bank with bullet marks across the front. We didn't encounter any issues that I know of, and as a kid I was oblivious anyway. I now wonder about the danger we may have been in, both in being on an Israeli flagged ship in the Mediterranean and aground in Israel.
Google has not been my friend in this case, I cannot find any reference to the SS Dan.
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Tom, this site may help:-
https://israelstampsblog.wordpress.com/c ...
Possibly memory is playing tricks and it was the MV Dagan. No it was not!
Edit to add here's your answer, from the above link.
"In 1967, MV Bilu was sold and renamed MV Dan, and sailed for ZIM between Haifa and Italy and France."
Further edit.
https://bulim.co.il/en/en-covers/en-regu ...
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Thank you! That solves the mystery of the ship’s name!
The article didn’t mention sailing to Athens, where we boarded the ship. If memory serves me, I believe the got off the ship in Izmir, Turkey.
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Tom, if you look at the second link it has a cover with a picture of the ship, MV Bilu, pretty cheap pricewise.
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The Six-Day War commenced on 5 June 1967, between Israel and Egypt. Fourteen ships were stranded in the canal for eight years --in the Great Bitter Lake portion of the canal. Fourteen ships from eight different nationalities that included two from Germany, two from Sweden, one from France, four from Great Britain, one from the United States, two from Poland, one from Bulgaria, and one from Czechoslovakia. The ships would eventually be called The Yellow Fleet, a result of sand beating down on the ships for years.
Despite the geopolitical gulfs separating the sailors of these ships, they very quickly banded together for self preservation. They formed an organization called The Great Bitter Lake Association (GBLA). The GBLA organized games, sports, and other activities (many involving the consumption of mass quantities of alcohol). And the creation of stamps.
The creation of stamps, and the printing of them would be a passion that would go on for the entire eight years. In most cases letters would be franked with GBLA stamps, and provided to the Egyptian postal authorities where Egyptian stamps would be affixed, and the letters mailed. There were occasions, however, when letters were allowed to pass with only the GBLA stamps affixed, thus transcending the Cinderella status.
Many covers were affixed with GBLA stamps and posted with cancellations from all 14 ships. The cover depicted has further cancellations on the back.
The provenance of GBLA stamps is hard to impossible to pin down. There is a fine book on this unique and odd slice of history: Stranded in the Six-Day War, by Cath Senker. Great history, well written, and a fine page-turner.
Cheers!
Winedrinker
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re: The Yellow Fleet -- Stranded in the Suez Canal
Interesting. This is the first time I've heard of the "Yellow Fleet". Susan and I are enjoying The Crown. One of the recent episodes concerned the Suez Crisis or the Second Arab–Israeli War, which also closed the canal for an extended time. I expect one could easily — or "easily" — develop an "Egypt/West Conflicts" collection.
Bob
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re: The Yellow Fleet -- Stranded in the Suez Canal
Fascinating!
Rrr
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02:06:37pm
re: The Yellow Fleet -- Stranded in the Suez Canal
I absolutely LOVE postings like this!
Yes, fascinating postal history.
Thanks buveur de vin!
-Paul
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re: The Yellow Fleet -- Stranded in the Suez Canal
The Great Bitter Lake is a salt water lake which is part of the Suez Canal. During the Six-Day War in 1967, the canal was closed, leaving 15 ships trapped in the lake.
Both ends of the canal were closed, and after three days it became apparent that the canal would remain blocked for some time as a result of the scuttling of ships to block its passage. The fourteen ships were forced to anchor in the widest part of the Suez Canal, the Great Bitter Lake. Some of the scuttled ships cut off the MS Observer from the other ships and it had to anchor in Lake Timsah.
These ships became known as the "Yellow Fleet", because of the desert sands which soon covered their decks. A number of local postage stamps were created by the crews.
In October 1967 the officers and crews of all fourteen ships met on the Melampus to found the "Great Bitter Lake Association" which would provide mutual support. In the time to come, the crew members regularly met on board their ships, organized social events, founded a yachting club and held the "Bitter Lake Olympic Games."
In time it was possible to reduce the number of crew members on board the ships, and in 1969 the ships were gathered into several groups to further reduce the number of crew necessary for their upkeep.
Those crew that were left to maintain the vessels were rotated every three months. In 1972 the last crew members of the German ships were finally sent home, with the maintenance of the ships left to a Norwegian company.
In time, a postal system evolved, the hand-crafted stamp of which became collectors' items around the world. The Egyptian postal authority recognized the stamps so that they could be used world wide.
The ships complied with mailing requests from all over the world. For collectors, the reverse of covers featured all available stamps of all vessels.
On Sundays, everybody used to meet aboard ‘Nordwind’, brought the rubber stamps along, and worked together in a small ‘ships cancellation office’.
For more information see: (note, I have given up trying to activate these links, as the system is constantly mangling the parameters.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Fleet
There is a very useful website that has images and descriptions of all the handmade local stamps:
http://www.shipsonstamps.org/Topics/html/gbla.htm
The trapped ships were:
- 'MS Nordwind', 8.656 GRT, Nordstern Reederei, Germany.
- 'MS Münsterland', 9.365 GRT, Hapag-Lloyd, Germany.
- 'MS Killara', 10.714 GRT, Rederiaktiebolaget Transatlantic, Sweden.
- 'MS Nippon', 10.309 GRT, Svenska Ostasiatiska Kompaniet, Sweden.
- 'MS Essayons' ex 'Sindh', 7.051 GRT, Ruul-Pedersen Reederi, Norway; (at war’s outbreak MS
'Sindh' was owned by Messageries Maritimes, France.)
- 'MS Agapenor', 7.654 GRT, Blue Funnel Line, England.
- 'MS Melampus', 8.509 GRT, Blue Funnel Line, England.
- 'MS Scottish Star', 10.174 GRT, Blue Star Line, England.
- 'MS Port Invercargill', 10.463 GRT, Port Line, England.
- 'SS African Glen', 6.116 GRT, Farrell Lines, USA.
- 'MS Djakarta', 6.915 GRT, Polish Ocean Lines, Poland,
- 'MS Boleslaw Bierut', 6.674 GRT, Polish Ocean Lines, Poland.
- 'MS Vassil Levsky', 4.975 GRT, Navigation Maritime, Bulgaria.
- 'MS Lednice', 1.462 GRT, Czech Danube Navigation, Czechoslovakia.
Only two ships could leave by their own power when the canal was finally reopened in 1975.
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re: The Yellow Fleet -- Stranded in the Suez Canal
Crew reductions became the norm; on HAPAG-Lloyd’s Münsterland’, initially from 42 to 24, later on, to ten. To save even more personnel, in 1969 the vessels were moored together in several groups. This resulted in new group rubber stamps.
Group stamp ‘MS Müwinikies’ got its ‘Mü’ from ‘Münsterland’, ‘wi’ from ‘Nordwind’, ‘ni’ from ‘Nippon’, ‘ki’ from ‘Killara’, and ‘es’ from ‘Essayons’.
‘MS Ledmelaga’ derived from ‘Lednice’, ‘Melampus’, and ‘Agapenor’.
‘MS Portstar’ came from ‘Port Invercargill’ and ‘Scottish Star’.
‘MS Djakbier’ represented ‘Djakarta’ and ‘Boleslaw Bierut’.
Later re-groupings and changes, from 1970 onwards, saw the use of group stamps ‘Podjabist’, ‘Djabiporst’, ‘Müwiniki’, and ‘Mühwinikindh’. The labels show the individual groups with their funnel marks.
In the top row, ‘Müwinikies’, ‘Djabiporst’, and ‘Ledmelaga’. In the bottom row, the individually moored ships ‘African Glen’ and ‘Vassil Levsky’, as well as the symbolic buoy.
Below are examples of the labels used by these groupings. It's a very poor internet image I'm afraid:
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re: The Yellow Fleet -- Stranded in the Suez Canal
Very good additions Ningpo. One correction: Only 14 ships were stranded in the Great Bitter Lake. There was a 15th ship, the US ship Observer which was located in Lake Timsah, and was not involved in the Great Bitter Lake Association. In November 1967 there were two men aboard that ship and they had no contact with the Bitter Lake group. The Americans called their ship FBI - the Forgotten Boat of Ismallia.
Cheers!
Winedrinker
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re: The Yellow Fleet -- Stranded in the Suez Canal
Good topic, good posts!
Well done, Winedrinker & Ningpo!
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re: The Yellow Fleet -- Stranded in the Suez Canal
Cath Senker, author of Stranded in the Six-Day War, recently added a small section just on GBLA stamps to her website. The stamps and covers are quite striking.
https://cathsenker.co.uk/the-gbla-stamps/
Wine
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re: The Yellow Fleet -- Stranded in the Suez Canal
Great stuff! Unknown to me before I now must try and find some.
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08:45:22am
re: The Yellow Fleet -- Stranded in the Suez Canal
The principal book on the Great Bitter Lake Association (Yellow Fleet) stamps is the GBLA Encyclopaedia and Stamp Catalogue. If you need the book, drop me a line.
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re: The Yellow Fleet -- Stranded in the Suez Canal
I hadn't seen this post before, and I have a bit of mystery to solve.
When I was a boy, my father was a US Army Officer assigned to NATO in Izmir, Turkey from 1966-68. We went on a cruise vacation of the Holyland, on an Israeli flagged cruise ship called SS Dan. We flew from Turkey to Athens, Greece and toured Greece. This was the cruise start point.
This was the summer of 1967. I believe the 7 Day War happened during, or right before this period. I remember being on the ship, going to unscheduled ports to load up with refugees. They sat in the corridors and on deck, and were dropped off at another port. I don't remember any of these details.
Still, we docked in Haifa and toured Israel. We were taken to the tourist spots of Bethlehem and Jerusalem, Jesus's tomb, and a kibbutz. I remember seeing bombed out buildings and one bank with bullet marks across the front. We didn't encounter any issues that I know of, and as a kid I was oblivious anyway. I now wonder about the danger we may have been in, both in being on an Israeli flagged ship in the Mediterranean and aground in Israel.
Google has not been my friend in this case, I cannot find any reference to the SS Dan.
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re: The Yellow Fleet -- Stranded in the Suez Canal
Tom, this site may help:-
https://israelstampsblog.wordpress.com/c ...
Possibly memory is playing tricks and it was the MV Dagan. No it was not!
Edit to add here's your answer, from the above link.
"In 1967, MV Bilu was sold and renamed MV Dan, and sailed for ZIM between Haifa and Italy and France."
Further edit.
https://bulim.co.il/en/en-covers/en-regu ...
Login to Like
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re: The Yellow Fleet -- Stranded in the Suez Canal
Thank you! That solves the mystery of the ship’s name!
The article didn’t mention sailing to Athens, where we boarded the ship. If memory serves me, I believe the got off the ship in Izmir, Turkey.
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re: The Yellow Fleet -- Stranded in the Suez Canal
Tom, if you look at the second link it has a cover with a picture of the ship, MV Bilu, pretty cheap pricewise.
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