Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Catapult mail was a rather extended experiment from 1930 to 1935. The idea was that, as a ship reached its port of destination, it would launch a seaplane to carry the mail ahead and, depending on the plane's range, put that mail into inland delivery a day or so in advance of the ship's arrival in port.
Most of the covers I've seen seem to be philatelic in nature, i.e., not really used for legitimate business, but more for the appeal of collectors. I like this one because it was posted from Bremen, Germany exactly 27 years prior to my birth.
The SS Europa was a sister ship of the SS Bremen, both steam-turbine liners launched in August, 1928. The Europa's deployment was delayed by a fire, but she captured the Blue Riband (westbound) on her maiden voyage in March, 1930 with a speed of 27.9 knots, crossing in 4 days, 19 hours, 6 minutes. That record held until 1933, when it was broken by the Bremen. Europa was claimed as a war prize by the US, used as a troop ship, and then given to the French in 1946.
The catapult was located on the upper deck, and Heinkel 58 seaplanes were utilized for the service.
This envelope bears the imprint of Hillmanns Bremen Hotel on the back flap, which is still in existence today.
The 25f Hindenburg stamp (1928-1932) is unremarkable, but the 50f brown-orange airmail stamp (1926-27) is worth a few bucks... I have to wonder if the large red "1." in the cachet indicates that this cover is from the first flight of Katapultflug. It is somewhat interesting that the cachet was applied AFTER the blue Mit Luftpost label. So, perhaps the cachet was applied on-board the ship?
Whaddaya got?
-Paul
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07:01:08pm
Paul, are you thinking that this cover was a philatelic cover ?
If you do, Why do you think so ?
I had one sealed all around and when I managed to get the flap loose
the content was a peice of cardboard.
Just Curious.
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Nice one, Paul ... yet another philatelic sub-specialty I'd never heard of!
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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"are you thinking that this cover was a philatelic cover?"
I don't have a good reason for thinking that it is a philatelic cover I guess...except that is kind of my default when I'm being hypercritical of my collection or of purchases considered.
One thing I thought about is that, if the sender was anticipating the cover receiving a special cachet, they probably would NOT have put the adress where it is, left-justified.
I did spend some time Googling the addressee, to no avail.
Curious that it's addressed to "Mr. - Mrs." My default presumption would be that it contained an announcement of the sender's impending arrival on the ship, and they were expecting the recipient to rendezvous with them, based on that arrival time...Using Katapultflug would have given the recipient a day's headstart on getting to NYC.
Also wondering if the sender would have paid extra for the Katapultflug service, and done so in Bremen, before the ship sailed. Or, maybe, when the sender elected to pay for Mit Luftpost, what they got was a mixed mode of delivery - ship and Katapultflug. So, I probably cannot presume that the sender was on the ship.
Would make an interesting area of postal history study! My other two covers are both posted in 1935. I'll throw them up in another Response...
-Paul
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Here are my other two Katapultflug covers:
Both these were obviously posted on board the ships that carried them, both the day before the date in the Schleuderflug cachet. Top one, carried by the Europa, bottom one, the Bremen. I like the special cancels on them both. Interesting that the top one seems to be on ship's stationery, yet the vessel name is crossed out and corrected, looks like by the sender.
Also interesting is that the 1930 cover is franked with 75pf, these two both only 50pf.
Schleuderflug translates to "slingshot flight", an ingenious descriptor for the mechanics of the catapult.
Mit Vorausflug nach Southampton is "with advance flight to Southampton". Not sure what this means, Southampton (UK) was, I think the last port-of-call before NYC. Too bad there are not some receiver cancels on these three covers...kinda makes me suspicious that the flights never actually occurred!
Enjoy!
-Paul
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PS, with respect to trans-Atlantic airmail, it's my understanding that the first commercial airmail deliveries occured on the Pan Am Clippers, inaugural flight (eastbound) was June 24, 1939.
So, "Mit Luftpost" for trans-Atlantic mail in 1935 was essentially a fantasy. The closest thing would have been these Katapultflug deliveries.
Again, this would make an interesting study in postal history. What happened when the weather was bad, or seas were too rough to launch the plane? As I said, this service must have been experimental, at best. It *was* only attempted in summer months.
The speed and range of the Heinkel 58 seaplane was 200km/hr, 1600km. In 1932, the Heinkel 58 was replaced by the Junkers 46 - same speed, slightly more range. Typically, flights would be launched 1200km out, getting mail to the port one day ahead of the ship.
I think the "nach Southampton" inscription means that those voyages were eastbound. The US addresses make that confusing, and further support the presumption that these are philatelic covers. Again, shame there are not any receiver cancels to clarify...
So, this delivery mode was more symbolic than practical, to be sure.
-Paul
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With your first cover the recipient may be Rufus Compton Maddux, the following is from a family tree on Ancestry.
Birth
1905 • Chase, Mecklenburg, Virginia, United States
(AGE)
Birth of Brother Robert H Maddux(1906–2000)
14 Jul 1906 • Chase City, Mecklenburg, Virginia, USA
1906
1
Residence
1910 • Chase, Mecklenburg, Virginia
Age in 1910: 5; Marital Status: Single; Relation to Head of House: Son
1910
Residence
1920 • Chase, Mecklenburg, Virginia
Age: 15; Marital Status: Single; Relation to Head of House: Son
1920
15
Residence
1927 • Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Age: 20
1927
22
Marriage
12 October 1929 • Maine, USA
Annah Woodworth FAIRBANKS
(1907–1992)
1929
24
Residence
1932 • Belmont, Massachusetts, USA
1932
27
Residence
1935 • Hingham, Massachusetts
1935
30
Residence
1939 • Princeton, New Jersey, USA
1939
34
Death of Mother Frances M Compton(1880–1940)
Before 1940 • Chase, Mecklenburg, Virginia, United States
1940
35
Residence
1 Apr 1940 • Princeton, Mercer, New Jersey, United States
Age: 35; Marital Status: Married; Relation to Head of House: Head
1940
35
Arrival
10 Apr 1952 • New York, New York
Age: 45
1952
47
Death of Wife Annah Woodworth FAIRBANKS(1907–1992)
26 May 1992 • Princeton, Mercer, New Jersey, USA
1992
87
Death of Brother Robert H Maddux(1906–2000)
13 Aug 2000 • Fort Worth, Tarrant, Texas, United States of America
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420 Memorial Drive is an apartment building and still stands today, Google Earth may get you an image or maybe one of our members who live nearby could send you a photo.
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Here's a Danish "Foot Post" entire:
From Wikipedia:
"Jacob Holm (29 September 1770 – 3 August 1845) was a Danish industrialist, ship owner and merchant. He founded the company Jacob Holm & Sønner which still exists today....He owned more than a hundred ships during the period from 1807 until his death in 1845 and for a while his shipping business was the largest in the country."
The Holm House, a former sugar manufactory built in Copenhagen in 1809, is on the Danish registry of protected buildings. It was purchased later by Christian Holm, son of Jacob Holm.
The Fod (Foot) Post system was a sort of special delivery established by the Post Office in 1806 in Copenhagen, and then transferred into private hands in 1809. It was taken over again by the Post Office in 1849, and operated until 1876. The markings on this entire are characteristic - the F: P: cancellation, (always?) in blue, usually does not tie the postage stamp. I believe the "3" is the rate (3 skilling?) and the date is December 19, 1857. The "1" ring cancellation on the stamp shows that it was cancelled in Copenhagen.
Here is the contents,
a sugar market quotation from Cuba. I'm fuzzy on the monetary units, but "Hhds" is probably hogsheads, roughly 50-60 gallons volume, depending on the commodity. On the one hand, it is remarkable that this reached its ultimate recipient in 25 days, "VIA UNITED STATES" and after being typeset and printed in London. On the other hand, in this day and age of market quotations in real time, 25 days seems like a long time to have to wait for information needed to make business decisions!
This is the third Foot Post article to enter my collection. I am highly attracted to it as an entire and for the comprehensiveness of its contents as a marker on trade in the mid-19th century, and I bargained the price down to below 3 figures. It's a very nice supplement to my Denmark collection!
-Paul
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Another recent acquisition, an item carried on an early attempt to deposit a mailbag on the deck of an outbound ship by dropping it from an airplane:
This attempt failed, because the ship could not be located due to fog. The aircraft used for this flight was an open-cockpit amphibian of British design, the Felixstowe F.5. Here is an image, dated August 21, 1927 of the plane preparing to depart on its mission:
The plane first flew in 1917 and was retired from British service in 1930.
A discussion of this mode of mail delivery is here:
Air Mail Via Sea
-Paul
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I, too enjoy finding covers with unusual delivery methods.
Here's one of mine - obviously intended as a collectible, but fun nonetheless;
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12:30:42pm
Just playing around here, but I have three covers in my collection of Katapultflug mail. Here's one:
Catapult mail was a rather extended experiment from 1930 to 1935. The idea was that, as a ship reached its port of destination, it would launch a seaplane to carry the mail ahead and, depending on the plane's range, put that mail into inland delivery a day or so in advance of the ship's arrival in port.
Most of the covers I've seen seem to be philatelic in nature, i.e., not really used for legitimate business, but more for the appeal of collectors. I like this one because it was posted from Bremen, Germany exactly 27 years prior to my birth.
The SS Europa was a sister ship of the SS Bremen, both steam-turbine liners launched in August, 1928. The Europa's deployment was delayed by a fire, but she captured the Blue Riband (westbound) on her maiden voyage in March, 1930 with a speed of 27.9 knots, crossing in 4 days, 19 hours, 6 minutes. That record held until 1933, when it was broken by the Bremen. Europa was claimed as a war prize by the US, used as a troop ship, and then given to the French in 1946.
The catapult was located on the upper deck, and Heinkel 58 seaplanes were utilized for the service.
This envelope bears the imprint of Hillmanns Bremen Hotel on the back flap, which is still in existence today.
The 25f Hindenburg stamp (1928-1932) is unremarkable, but the 50f brown-orange airmail stamp (1926-27) is worth a few bucks... I have to wonder if the large red "1." in the cachet indicates that this cover is from the first flight of Katapultflug. It is somewhat interesting that the cachet was applied AFTER the blue Mit Luftpost label. So, perhaps the cachet was applied on-board the ship?
Whaddaya got?
-Paul
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Login to Like.
Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
20 Apr 2018
07:01:08pm
re: Unusual Delivery Modes
Paul, are you thinking that this cover was a philatelic cover ?
If you do, Why do you think so ?
I had one sealed all around and when I managed to get the flap loose
the content was a peice of cardboard.
Just Curious.
Login to Like
this post
re: Unusual Delivery Modes
Nice one, Paul ... yet another philatelic sub-specialty I'd never heard of!
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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this post
09:47:45am
re: Unusual Delivery Modes
"are you thinking that this cover was a philatelic cover?"
I don't have a good reason for thinking that it is a philatelic cover I guess...except that is kind of my default when I'm being hypercritical of my collection or of purchases considered.
One thing I thought about is that, if the sender was anticipating the cover receiving a special cachet, they probably would NOT have put the adress where it is, left-justified.
I did spend some time Googling the addressee, to no avail.
Curious that it's addressed to "Mr. - Mrs." My default presumption would be that it contained an announcement of the sender's impending arrival on the ship, and they were expecting the recipient to rendezvous with them, based on that arrival time...Using Katapultflug would have given the recipient a day's headstart on getting to NYC.
Also wondering if the sender would have paid extra for the Katapultflug service, and done so in Bremen, before the ship sailed. Or, maybe, when the sender elected to pay for Mit Luftpost, what they got was a mixed mode of delivery - ship and Katapultflug. So, I probably cannot presume that the sender was on the ship.
Would make an interesting area of postal history study! My other two covers are both posted in 1935. I'll throw them up in another Response...
-Paul
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10:10:04am
re: Unusual Delivery Modes
Here are my other two Katapultflug covers:
Both these were obviously posted on board the ships that carried them, both the day before the date in the Schleuderflug cachet. Top one, carried by the Europa, bottom one, the Bremen. I like the special cancels on them both. Interesting that the top one seems to be on ship's stationery, yet the vessel name is crossed out and corrected, looks like by the sender.
Also interesting is that the 1930 cover is franked with 75pf, these two both only 50pf.
Schleuderflug translates to "slingshot flight", an ingenious descriptor for the mechanics of the catapult.
Mit Vorausflug nach Southampton is "with advance flight to Southampton". Not sure what this means, Southampton (UK) was, I think the last port-of-call before NYC. Too bad there are not some receiver cancels on these three covers...kinda makes me suspicious that the flights never actually occurred!
Enjoy!
-Paul
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11:26:46am
re: Unusual Delivery Modes
PS, with respect to trans-Atlantic airmail, it's my understanding that the first commercial airmail deliveries occured on the Pan Am Clippers, inaugural flight (eastbound) was June 24, 1939.
So, "Mit Luftpost" for trans-Atlantic mail in 1935 was essentially a fantasy. The closest thing would have been these Katapultflug deliveries.
Again, this would make an interesting study in postal history. What happened when the weather was bad, or seas were too rough to launch the plane? As I said, this service must have been experimental, at best. It *was* only attempted in summer months.
The speed and range of the Heinkel 58 seaplane was 200km/hr, 1600km. In 1932, the Heinkel 58 was replaced by the Junkers 46 - same speed, slightly more range. Typically, flights would be launched 1200km out, getting mail to the port one day ahead of the ship.
I think the "nach Southampton" inscription means that those voyages were eastbound. The US addresses make that confusing, and further support the presumption that these are philatelic covers. Again, shame there are not any receiver cancels to clarify...
So, this delivery mode was more symbolic than practical, to be sure.
-Paul
Login to Like
this post
Approvals
re: Unusual Delivery Modes
With your first cover the recipient may be Rufus Compton Maddux, the following is from a family tree on Ancestry.
Birth
1905 • Chase, Mecklenburg, Virginia, United States
(AGE)
Birth of Brother Robert H Maddux(1906–2000)
14 Jul 1906 • Chase City, Mecklenburg, Virginia, USA
1906
1
Residence
1910 • Chase, Mecklenburg, Virginia
Age in 1910: 5; Marital Status: Single; Relation to Head of House: Son
1910
Residence
1920 • Chase, Mecklenburg, Virginia
Age: 15; Marital Status: Single; Relation to Head of House: Son
1920
15
Residence
1927 • Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Age: 20
1927
22
Marriage
12 October 1929 • Maine, USA
Annah Woodworth FAIRBANKS
(1907–1992)
1929
24
Residence
1932 • Belmont, Massachusetts, USA
1932
27
Residence
1935 • Hingham, Massachusetts
1935
30
Residence
1939 • Princeton, New Jersey, USA
1939
34
Death of Mother Frances M Compton(1880–1940)
Before 1940 • Chase, Mecklenburg, Virginia, United States
1940
35
Residence
1 Apr 1940 • Princeton, Mercer, New Jersey, United States
Age: 35; Marital Status: Married; Relation to Head of House: Head
1940
35
Arrival
10 Apr 1952 • New York, New York
Age: 45
1952
47
Death of Wife Annah Woodworth FAIRBANKS(1907–1992)
26 May 1992 • Princeton, Mercer, New Jersey, USA
1992
87
Death of Brother Robert H Maddux(1906–2000)
13 Aug 2000 • Fort Worth, Tarrant, Texas, United States of America
Login to Like
this post
Approvals
re: Unusual Delivery Modes
420 Memorial Drive is an apartment building and still stands today, Google Earth may get you an image or maybe one of our members who live nearby could send you a photo.
Login to Like
this post
07:51:04am
re: Unusual Delivery Modes
Here's a Danish "Foot Post" entire:
From Wikipedia:
"Jacob Holm (29 September 1770 – 3 August 1845) was a Danish industrialist, ship owner and merchant. He founded the company Jacob Holm & Sønner which still exists today....He owned more than a hundred ships during the period from 1807 until his death in 1845 and for a while his shipping business was the largest in the country."
The Holm House, a former sugar manufactory built in Copenhagen in 1809, is on the Danish registry of protected buildings. It was purchased later by Christian Holm, son of Jacob Holm.
The Fod (Foot) Post system was a sort of special delivery established by the Post Office in 1806 in Copenhagen, and then transferred into private hands in 1809. It was taken over again by the Post Office in 1849, and operated until 1876. The markings on this entire are characteristic - the F: P: cancellation, (always?) in blue, usually does not tie the postage stamp. I believe the "3" is the rate (3 skilling?) and the date is December 19, 1857. The "1" ring cancellation on the stamp shows that it was cancelled in Copenhagen.
Here is the contents,
a sugar market quotation from Cuba. I'm fuzzy on the monetary units, but "Hhds" is probably hogsheads, roughly 50-60 gallons volume, depending on the commodity. On the one hand, it is remarkable that this reached its ultimate recipient in 25 days, "VIA UNITED STATES" and after being typeset and printed in London. On the other hand, in this day and age of market quotations in real time, 25 days seems like a long time to have to wait for information needed to make business decisions!
This is the third Foot Post article to enter my collection. I am highly attracted to it as an entire and for the comprehensiveness of its contents as a marker on trade in the mid-19th century, and I bargained the price down to below 3 figures. It's a very nice supplement to my Denmark collection!
-Paul
Login to Like
this post
04:41:07pm
re: Unusual Delivery Modes
Another recent acquisition, an item carried on an early attempt to deposit a mailbag on the deck of an outbound ship by dropping it from an airplane:
This attempt failed, because the ship could not be located due to fog. The aircraft used for this flight was an open-cockpit amphibian of British design, the Felixstowe F.5. Here is an image, dated August 21, 1927 of the plane preparing to depart on its mission:
The plane first flew in 1917 and was retired from British service in 1930.
A discussion of this mode of mail delivery is here:
Air Mail Via Sea
-Paul
Login to Like
this post
re: Unusual Delivery Modes
I, too enjoy finding covers with unusual delivery methods.
Here's one of mine - obviously intended as a collectible, but fun nonetheless;
Login to Like
this post