1908 US Fleet Cards

[Ross Ewington]

On August 31st, the "Great White Fleet" was at Melbourne (the third day of their visit) and departed on September 5th.

For and excellent article by Richard Breckon about the visit of the fleet and the production of postal and post cards, etc
use this link.

http://www.philatelicdatabase.com/unite ... s-of-1908/

[John Shepherd]

Used at West Devonport, Tasmania 10 December 1908

[Mike]

An earlier date! Posted at Sorell August 27 1908.

[John Shepherd]

Used at Moonah, Tasmania 2 September 1908

[Ross Ewington]

It looks like an "09" date on the Moonah cds from where I'm seated .... can you enlarge, rotate and post just the postmark please?

[John Shepherd]

Used at Stowport 7 Oct 1908

This example is curiously endorsed "To Pay" in pencil.

[John Shepherd]

Used at Hobart P.R. (Pillar Receiver) to Durban, Natal 28 Aug 1908.

[John Shepherd]

1908 (August 31) AMERICAN FLEET CARD (H&G.13) posted from Hobart to Milwaukee, USA with additional ½d Pictorial added to meet the foreign postcard rate, General Delivery datestamp of Milwaukee applied on arrival. adds The message reads in part 'Greetings from Hobart, Tasmania, sorry your fleet are not calling.'

Said to be only two uprated Tasmanian Fleet cards.

[John Shepherd]

Used 2 Sept 1908 Hobart to New Town

[John Shepherd]

Used 24 October 1908 West Devonport to Brunswick, Victoria

[John Shepherd]

Used 27 August 1909 Launceston to Miss Campbell/Woodstock/Huon.

This card is illustrated in: Postal Stationery. July/Aug 1986. Vol.28. No.4. Whole No.239. p.70.

[John Shepherd]

Used 5 September 1908 Hobart (PR) to Victoria

This card appeared in Gary Watson #42 11 April 1988 Lot 90 [part illustration only]

Ex. Lew Viney: Macray Watson #52 24 September 1990 Lot 744 [part illustration only]
The addressee is Smith.

Number of Used Tasmanian Fleet Cards recorded to date: 12

[Les Cowman]

Previous Auction Listings - As per Auction Descriptions

27 Sep 1984 HG13 commercially used - 27 Apr 1909 Dealer: Perry Lot 900

11 Mar 1989 HG13 early useage with Hobart cds of 27 Aug 08, minor corner bend otherwise fine used Dealer: Watson Lot 227
Note: a reference was given to the price realised at the 11 Apr 1988 auction for the Hobart cds of 5 Sep 08 card to victoria - featured on this website Note also the early date ie 27 Aug which matches the Sorell date for useage.

30 Aug 1989 (Lot 439) & 26 Mar 1991 (Lot 1260) Dealer: Perry HG13 presentable example with 3cm repaired tear at base used to Lebrina bearing additional 1/2d indistinctly cancelled by TML RWY No5 cds.

5 Jun 1990 used Hobart to St Kilda Dealer: Perry Lot 433

Additional Provenance for the Moonah to Bream Creek postcard.
1 Feb 1989 (Lot 574) - 30 Aug 1989 (Lot 438) - 13 Mar 1990 (Lot 492) - All with Perry

[Malcolm Groom]

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Used to South Africa 28 August 1908

[Les Cowman]

Another used Tasmanian Postcard has been listed by a German Auction House (Christoph Gartner) with a starting price of 850 Euro.
This card was used to France from Hobart with a sender date of 2/9/08. The written message states, in part: "This card is in commemoration of the visit of the American Fleet to Australia issued by the Government...."
A B.P.A. Certificate was issued for this item on the 25th June 2010.

Les Cowman

[Les Cowman]

Another Tasmanian Fleet Postcard was listed by Prestige Philately Auctions in Aug 2010
This card was posted from Devonport West to England & postmarked 01/09/08. Message states" "Great excitement here over the A Fleet..." Interesting considering the fleet did not visit Tasmania.

Les Cowman

[Les Cowman]

Another Tasmanian Fleet postcard has been seen recently.
This card was pictured in the "American Philatelist Volume 81, No.2, November, 1967 " and was postmarked September 12, 1908 from Gordon to Hobart. Image quality reflects the original.

[bill]

The earliest report I have found for the Tasmanian postal card to commemorate the visit of
the American Fleet's visit in 1908 turned up in some pages out of an old catalogue published
in 1933, courtesy of Robert Binner at the Munich Philatelic Library. This is entitled:

Welt-Katalog der Bild-Ganzsachen (literally World Catalogue of Pictorial Postal Stationery)

It was edited and published jointly by Berlin and Vienna Postal Stationery Collectors Clubs.
Siegfried Ascher himself (best known for the Ascher catalogue of postal stationery published
in 1928) was one of the people who edited this catalogue. W.P. Costerus was also involved
in this effort; he wrote an article on PTPO envelopes of Tasmania, which forms the basis of
the Higgins and Gage listing.

The Fleet card is listed as No. 3 in the Tasmanian listing of postal cards, with Nos. 1 and 2
being for the special Exhibition postal cards of 1894 (corresponding to Ascher Nos. 5 and 6).
There is no Ascher number for the Fleet card since it was not listed by Ascher in 1928.

This is an interesting discovery in the early literature on Tasmanian postal stationery.

[bill]

This note is added to record some measurements on the Fleet cards.

The indicium (stamp-like impression) appeared over a rectangular box printed
in red for Tas and also WA, SA and Qld. Some measurements were carried out
for the WA card since it is much easier to see the red of the box under the blue
of the indicium. Also, the WA indicium is in horizontal format (landscape mode)
while the box is in vertical format (portrait mode).

Results are:

Width of rectangular box: outer 20 mm (inner 19 mm)
Height of rectangular box: outer 24 mm (inner 23 mm)
Length of word STAMP in box: 9 mm
Height of word STAMP in box: 1.5 mm

These results apply to Tasmania (and to SA and Qld).

Note that inscription on the NSW Fleet cards are different from Tas, even though
the reverse side showing flags, etc. are the same. Inscriptions also differ on the
front side (showing the indicium). There is no box underneath the NSW indicia.

One wonders if if businesses in Tasmania ever printed a few private postcards to
mark the visit of the American Fleet in 1908, even though the Americans did not
visit Tasmania at all. (There were a number of private cards for Vic and NSW as
we might expect since the Americans visited Sydney and Melbourne.)

[Hobbit123]

My late colleague Neil Russell had an extensive collection of Fleet Cards, both Official and Private. Before it was sent to Abacus for disposal I took a scan. Would it be of interest if I posted tha scans to the board or enabled a lik?

[Mike]

Card 1. Sorell to Fingal posted August 27th 1908, one day earlier then recorded in "Tasmanian Postal Stationary" by Groom & Shatten.

Card 2. Uprated from Burnie to the USA, posted August 29th 1908. An early date for an overseas destination.

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