Prompted by Tony Lyon’s interesting article on this subject I decided to comment on several points raised and add information about other Sydney mail known to me.
The navy has always been security conscious in times of war and generally it is impossible to identify the ship from which the mail was sent. Nevertheless sufficient items exist for an interesting study and I am currently working on a postal history of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
Handling of mail from R.A.N. vessels
Regulations required the mail to be censored on board the ship. Once censored the letters were sealed and put in a bag which was sealed and labeled ‘Navy’. This bag was delivered by hand to the superintendent of mails at a convenient post office near their berth together with a letter reading:
“In pursuance of the arrangement agreed upon between the Navy and the Postal Department of the Commonwealth of Australia the bag of ship’s mail now presented should please be forwarded to its destination enclosed in a covering mail bag fastened and addressed in the same manner as ordinary bag of Letter Mail.”
Surface mail and airmail were separately bagged GPO Sydney.
Much of this mail, especially airmail, entered the Australian civil postal system at Sydney where the bags were opened and sorted. Correctly franked mail was cancelled using either the PAQUEBOT machine cancel or the PAQUEBOT hand cancel but some mail was cancelled by civil machine cancel. Letters which were not franked with stamps were cancelled PAID AT SYDNEY and the cost debited to the navy.
No postal concessions in the navy
Unlike the army and airforce, naval personnel did not enjoy postal concessions but full civilians rates applicable to the country where they were berthed. This arrangement was necessary because naval vessels constantly moved from place to place and stays in port could be short. This made it impossible to arrange special concession postage rates.
Postal History Of HMAS Sydney
Pre WW2
Sydney was built at Newcastle on Tyne in Britain. Laid down as Phaeton for the Royal Navy in 1933 she was taken over by the RAN in 1934 during construction and launched on 22nd September 1934.
In October 1935 she was loaned to the Royal Navy to strengthen the Mediterranean fleet following Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia. She sailed in the Mediterranean until she left for Australia in July 1936.
My earliest example of mail connected with the Sydney is an airmail item (Fig 1.) posted at Yarraville Victoria and cancelled at 3.15pm on 4 February 1936 – just too late to be carried on Imperial Airways flight departing Brisbane on 5 February 1936. It therefore would have been carried on flight IW417 which left Brisbane 12 February and arrived in London (Croydon airport) on 26th February. It was two days late due to exceptional storms in the Mediterranean (Wingent p.p. 161 & 162). The letter arrived in London the day the Sydney left Gibraltar for Malta and Alexandria where it remained for several weeks. As the air service was completed in London the airmail etiquette was cancelled at the GPO there and the letter sent to Alexandria by sea.
Figure 1
WW2
When war was declared on 3rd. September 1939 HMAS Sydney was based in Fremantle and continued to sail in Australian waters and on escort duty across the Indian Ocean until on 3rd May 1940 when she was ordered to Colombo via Singapore, then to Aden and finally on 26th May 1940 arrived in Alexandria where she joined the RN Seventh Cruiser Squadron.
Many of the covers emanating from RAN naval vessels in the Middle East cannot be allocated to particular ships because the senders name was seldom on the envelope. One can only be sure of the ship by checking crew lists or when the source of the material provides information as in the case of Tony Lyon’s material.
There were often several RAN vessels at Alexandria together.
The cover (Fig 1 in Tony Lyon’s article) is the earliest RAN mail I have seen from Alexandria. The item was bagged on board and sent in unopened and sealed bag by flying boat from Alexandria to Sydney where it received a PAQUEBOT cancellation.
From June 1940, although flying the Horseshoe Route, a regular flying boat service was maintained between Alexandria and Sydney taking 9 days.
Ships dispatched mail when in port. This cover was posted on board about 20 August 1940. Records show the Sydney was in port in Alexandria from 2 August to 20 August. Mail would have been sent through the British Army PO and the GPO Cairo for dispatch to the flying boats in Alexandria.
This item is correctly franked 4.5 mils the civilian air mail rate (not 30 mil concession rate applicable only to mail from Army and RAAF personnel). Mail was censored on board as indicated by the ‘tombstone’ censor mark. Incidentally PO referred to Petty Officer.
Tony Lyon’s second cover (Fig 2) arrived by air in Sydney on 3rd December 1940. Estimated time of posting in Alexandria 21st November 1940. The Sydney was in port at Alexandria from 20th November to 22nd November leaving on 23rd November for Suda Bay in Crete.
In about October 1940 the civilian airmail rate increased to 47mils. This letter is also, therefore, correctly franked at 47mils.
The final cover in the trio from Alexandria (Tony Lyon’s Figures 3 and 3a) arrived in Sydney on 17th December 1940 and I estimate was posted on board about 2nd December 1940.
The Sydney was in port in Alexandria between 20th November and 9th December 1940. The deputy field censer mark establishes that this item was dispatched through the British Army PO.
Although the covers from Alexandria are extremely interesting and add considerably to our knowledge of mail from HMAS Sydney the item from Seychelles is the real gem. (Tony Lyon’s figure 4 & 4a) I was excited to see the item as it is the first Seychelles to Australia airmail I have seen although I have been studying commercial airmail to Australia for about 30 years. I talked to Rod Perry, who I believe, has more covers than anyone else in Australia and who also has been interested in Australian airmail for a very long time and from his vast holding of covers he could only locate two surface mail items from the Seychelles to Australia. It is obviously a very scarce item in its own right but coupled with its Sydney connection it is, indeed, rare.
Seychelles Islands are a long way from regular airmail routes of the period. Part of the trip to Australia was surface i.e. it is an example of sea/air mail.
Seychelles was a British colony and participated in The Empire Airmail Scheme. Its distance from the Empire air route required the Seychelles PO to charge an additional fee for surface transport as it was responsible for the cost of getting the mail to an airport on The Empire route.
When war was declared on 3rd September 1939 The British Secretary of State for the Colonies informed all colonies by telegraph that the ‘all up’ scheme was to be abandoned and replaced by a surcharged rate – in the case of the Seychelles this was determined as one rupee per 10 grammes plus the cost of surface postage. Thus the letter from the Seychelles is correctly franked at 1R7cents.
Mail from the colony was transported by sea to either Mombasa (Kenya) and then to Kisumu on The Empire Route or by the British/India mail steamer to Bombay and then to Karachi also on the Empire Route. It seems more logical that mail for Australia would travel via Karachi further along The Empire Route in Australia’s direction.
Although an air service operated between Bombay and Karachi the Seychelles PO, not wishing to carry the cost of air transport to The Empire Route, sent the item from Seychelles by surface transport (Fitton 1986). Sydney was in the Seychelles berthed at its capital Victoria on 24th January 1940. The letter is cancelled on that day. The Sydney arrived in Sydney on 10th February 1940. One wonders whether the letter was waiting for shipwright Weller when he arrived?
There are many gaps in this brief postal history of HMAS Sydney. Can any reader help with other examples of mail from the Sydney or any other RAN vessels.
Please advise the editor if you can help.
References
Wingent, Aircraft Moments on Imperial Airway’s Eastern Routes
Fitton, Seychelles No3 Airmail History 1938-1971 (March 1986)
Startup Air mails of New Zealand Vol.3
Naval Historical Society of Australia, HMAS Sydney (1971)
There will be a first day cover released on 3rd Nov,about the finding of HMAS SYDNEY 2.
This was brought about through the HMAS SYDNEY Association lobbying the Manager at Melbourne philatelic and the Minister for posts.
If you want the association to follow up any old postage please contact the Secretary(a stamp collector) at hmassydneyassociation@bigpond.com and I am sure he would put it on our newsletter.