Letters of the classic era (generally pre-1875), especially those to and from foreign destinations, generally contain multiple points of interest. Some facets are apparent at first glance while others need hours of research. Trying to decipher them all is a joy for a postal historian!
Recently, I came across a letter pictured in Figure 1. It is written by the Calcutta merchant, Foster, Chapman & Co. to the London merchant and financier, Morrison Cryder & Co.
On a superficial level, most collectors of postal history would consider it as an attractive-looking ‘Waghorn letter’ with a ‘Type 3’ handstamp. But it is more than just that. Dig deep, examine every nook and corner, inquire with smarter people, and its secrets start tumbling out. While it does not have 58 facets like a cut diamond, it is a gem nonetheless.
#1: Four Different Weight Units
First, a handstamp on the rear reads ‘STEAM POSTAGE {2-,,} / INLAND Do {2 10 -} / TOTAL {4-10-}’ (Figure 2). This was applied at the place where the letter was posted i.e. Calcutta.
- ‘2’ is for 2 Rupees. Steamer postage rates on letters carried from Bombay to the Middle East were set by the Bombay authorities. Since this letter was assessed as weighing between 2 and 3 tolas (1 tola is approximately 0.4 oz), or a quadruple letter, 2r was levied.1
- ‘2 10’ is for 2 Rupees 10 annas. Bengal Presidency’s inland postage2 on single letters from Calcutta to Bombay (about 1200 miles) weighing 1 tola was 14a. As this letter weighed between 2 and 3 tolas, i.e. it was a triple weight letter, it was charged 42a or 2r10a (16a = 1r)
Next, let us turn our glance to the front of this letter. In London GPO, a clerk wrote in black ink ‘5.6 / 7.6 } 13/’ (Figure 3).
- ‘5.6’ is for 5 shilling 6 pence. For the carriage between Alexandria and GB, the British postage on single letters consisting of one sheet of paper and not exceeding ¼ oz was 1s10d (10d British postage to/from Calais and 1s steamer postage). This letter must have originally contained three sheets of paper and weighed less than or equal to 1 oz. Hence it was charged the triple rate of 5s6d.
- ‘7.6’ denotes 7 shillings 6 pence. The French charged the British 1s10½d on single letters weighing ¼ oz. As this letter was assessed as equal to or more than ¾ oz and less than 1 oz, 4 rates were applicable; hence the 7s6d.
In short, the same letter was assessed in four different ways by four different authorities. It was considered a triple letter (by weight) by Bengal Presidency, a quadruple letter (by weight) by Bombay, a triple letter (by number of enclosures and weight) in GB, and a quadruple letter (by weight) as far as the French were concerned.
#2: Steam Postage Paid in India and GB
This letter was posted on or about 5 August 1837 (there are no Calcutta datestamps). Meanwhile, a British Post Office Act of 1837 (1 Victoria c.76 dated 17 July 1837) had come into effect from 2 August. As per this Act, steamer postage on letters between India and GB could be collected in GB only.
Theoretically, steam postage of 2r should not have been charged by the Calcutta GPO. But to be fair to them, the Indian postal authorities were not aware of the passage of this Act; there was no telegraph then. They continued to charge steam postage until January 1838. So, this letter, as well as others in this five month period, were charged steam postage twice – once in India and once in GB.
#3: ‘Care of Mr. Waghorn’
To ensure speedy transmission between Suez and Alexandria by that pioneer of the overland route,3 Thomas Waghorn, the letter was registered with his Calcutta agent, Samuel Smith & Co.4
On registration, the sender paid Waghorn’s fees of 3 Rupees5 which was his charge in India on triple letters weighing 2-3 siccas6 (Figure 4) (‘sicca’ was a Rupee coin and weighed one tola; 1 sicca = 1 tola).
The agent’s clerk then applied the oval ‘Care of / Mr. Waghorn / Suez’ handstamp and noted inside ‘No 1289 Fr SS&’ (Figure 5); ‘No 1289’ is the agent’s running number and ‘Fr SS’ stands for ‘For Samuel Smith’. This is followed followed by two or three indecipherable letters, which may be a clerk’s initials.
The agent’s handstamp let Waghorn know that the appropriate fee had been collected at origin and that he was required to forward the letter. Without the letter having been so registered and stamped, he would not handle it.
There are a few other positives of this:
- It is an early example of a westbound letter forwarded by Waghorn; while sporadic examples are known from late-1836, it was only from mid-1837 that Waghorn’s Indian agencies started handing a good quantity of mail
- It bears one of the earliest application of the Waghorn Type 3 stamp which was used by his Calcutta agent; while the first two that I am aware of are dated January and July 1837, this may be the third earliest
- This is a relatively heavy letter (see #1 above); given the costs involved, most of the existing letters sent by correspondents by the overland route are lighter in weight and thus subject to lower charges
#4: First Voyage of EIC Berenice – A Failed One
The front has an endorsement on the top – ‘pr “Berenice Steamer” / via Suez’ (Figure 6). It is written in the same hand as the address.
Calcutta newspapers would carry post office notices and as well as reports on schedules of steamers leaving Bombay (Figure 7); thus, the sender knew about the Berenice’s departure and wanted her to take his letter abroad.
Berenice was a steamship built in Glasgow in 1836 for the Honourable East India Company. Of 765 tons, she was fitted with a 220 hp engine and 4 guns. She had arrived from Britain to take up station as a mail steamer between Bombay and the Middle East.
Scheduled to depart on 18 August, she was delayed for a few days due to the late arrival of letters from Calcutta and Madras. Finally, on 22 August 1837, she steamed out of Bombay with 4,340 letters, including this one. She returned on 24 August since it was discovered that she did not have water on board! She left again on 26 August but was put back on 12 September since she encountered bad weather and damage to her engine.
In short, the first voyage of the Berenice turned out to be a failed one / aborted voyage.
#5: Second Voyage of EIC Atalanta
Earlier in 1837, the Company’s Atalanta had too arrived from Britain to take up mail duties. She had been scheduled to leave Bombay on 25 September. When the Berenice returned, a decision was taken to send the returned packets by the Atalanta (Figure 8).
Atalanta was a day late, again awaiting the Calcutta packets. She left on 26 September at 6 PM with 4,929 letters on board – some 4,300 returned letters plus another 600 more, which must have been posted in the meanwhile. Thankfully for correspondents and saving the Company much embarrassment, she did not face any hiccups, and after stops at Mocha and Cossier, reached Suez on 16 October.
#6: French Post Office at Alexandria
The boxes containing letters sent to the ‘care of Waghorn’ were transported by him from Suez to Alexandria overland. For reasons of speed, he decided to forward the letters by French steamers; the French government has started plying regular steam packets in the Mediterranean from May 1837 by deploying 10 steamships in the region.
Waghorn’s letters were put into the French Post Office at Alexandria where the double circular datestamp of this Post Office was applied. It reads ‘ALEXANDRIE / 27 / OCT. / 1837 / (EGYPTE)’ (Figure 9). Note that 27 October is not the date on which letters reached Alexandria;7 rather it is the scheduled date of sailing of the French steamer.
A black framed ‘INDES ORIEN. / PAR / ALEXANDRIA’ (Figure 10) measuring 30×16 mm was also impressed there. It identified letters from the East going to France via the French Post Office at Alexandria. Incidentally, the application of this handstamp on 27 October (assumed to be the same date as the cds) is its earliest recorded use (Salles 1962, p.16).
#7: British plus French Packets
While the letter arrived in Egypt on a British packet, it left the country on a French packet – so it took the steamers of two different countries. This was a common occurrence at that time, especially for letters forwarded by Waghorn. Almost all his clients were merchants who did not begrudge costs as long as letters (and the news they contained) arrived swiftly.
To illustrate this point of costs vs time: if the letter was sent by British packets to Falmouth, it would have cost substantially less – 7s6d (2s6d single) compared to 13s – but would have reached London 10 days later – on or around 2 December instead of 22 November 1837.
To take the story forward, at Alexandria the letter was put on board the Minos, plying on the ‘Egypt Line’ (Figure 11). She took the letter to Syra (Syros), an island in Greece where the French maintained a coaling station. From Syra, the letter went further on another French steamer, Sesostris8 operating on the ‘Levant Line’.
#8: Breakdown / Failed Voyage of Sesostris
Sesostris was on her way from Constantinople to Marseilles via a host of European ports including Smyrne (Symrna in Turkey), Syra, Malta, and Naples (Figure 10).
Unfortunately, she developed engine trouble and was was compelled to offload her mails at the French city of Toulon (Figure 12),9 which is about 30 miles east of Marseilles.
This sailing can be considered a ‘failed voyage’ too. Unlike the Berenice, Sesostris did not return to port; but she did fail to take the mails to her scheduled stop of Marseilles.
#9: Disinfection at Toulon
Until about May 1838, disinfection of Indian mails took place at Marseilles.
In this case, since the mails were unusually discharged at Toulon, the letter was fumigated at the lazaretto there. The two slits on the front of the letter (Figure 13), likely made by a chisel, supposedly allowed chemical fumes to enter the letter and displace any ‘bad air’.10
Thereafter, the ‘Purifié à Toulon’ (Purified in Toulon) (Figure 14) was impressed in red ink. This stamp is not scarce in itself; but it is rare when applied on letters from India carried by the Mediterranean steamers (Salles 1962, p.23).
#10: Short-lived London Datestamp
Next, the letter was probably sent to Marseilles and then across France to Calais and through the English Channel to London.
A double circular datestamp of 22 November 1837 (Figure 15) was applied at London; a later than recorded use.
References
- Alcock, R. C., and F. C. Holland. 1940. The Postmarks of Great Britain & Ireland. Being a Survey of British Postmarks from 1660 to 1940. Cheltenham: R. C. Alcock, Limited.
- Giles, D[erek]. Hammond. 1989. Catalogue of the Handstruck Postage Stamps of India. London: Christie’s Robson Lowe.
- ———. 1995. The Hon. E.I.C’s Steamers of 1830 – 1854. Handbook of Indian Philately. London: The India Study Circle for Philately.
- Jay, Barrie. 2005. The British County Catalogue of Postal History Volume 3 – London. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. 5 vols. London: London Postal History Group.
- Meyer, Dr. K.F. 1962. Disinfected Mail. Holton, Kansas: The Gossip Printery, Inc.
- Salles, Raymond. 1962. La Poste Maritime Française. Tome II. Les Paquebots de la Méditerranée de 1837 à 1939. (=The French Maritime Post. Volume II. The Ships of the Mediterranean from 1837 to 1939.). Vol. II. IX vols. Encyclopédie de la Poste Maritime Française Historique et Catalogue. Paris: The Author.
- Tabeart, Colin. 2002. Admiralty Mediterranean Steam Packets 1830 to 1857. Limassol, Cyprus: James Bendon Ltd.
- The prevailing steamer postage rate was: 8 annas for the first ½ tola, 1 Rupee between ½ and 1 tola, 1 Rupee 8 Annas between 1 and 2 tolas, 2 Rupees between 2 and 3 tolas, and an additional 1 Rupee for every additional tola. ↩︎
- Unified Indian postage rates across the Presidencies of Bengal, Madras, and Bombay did not come into effect until 1 October 1837. ↩︎
- As far as this article is concerned, the ‘overland route’ was the one between Alexandria (on the Mediterranean) and Suez (on the Red Sea), across the Egyptian desert. ↩︎
- Samuel Smith & Co. were publishers of The Bengal Hurkaru (daily), The India Gazette (thrice-weekly), The Calcutta Literary Gazette (weekly), The Calcutta Monthly Journal (monthly), The Bengal Army List (quarterly), and at least four yearly publications including The Bengal Almanac (Ref. The Bengal Directory and Annual Register for the Year 1838, which was also published by the same firm). ↩︎
- In this case, the fee does not seem to be mentioned inside the oval handstamp. In some other letters, a ‘1/’ for 1r was written by the agent’s clerk somewhere inside the oval. ↩︎
- Figure 4 proves that Waghorn’s fees in India, based on weight, was effective 25 December 1836; before this date it was basis number of sheets of paper. ↩︎
- Letters forwarded by the British consular office are reported to have reached Alexandria on 20 October (Tabeart 2002, p.45). One can safely assume that the mails entrusted to Waghorn would have reached on or about the same date. ↩︎
- This French steamer is not to be confused with a similar-named vessel of the East India Company built in 1839. ↩︎
- This particular voyage of the Sesostris is one of two or three occasions when Indian mails were disembarked at Toulon rather than Marseilles. ↩︎
- In the 1800s, one school of thought was that cholera was caused by miasma or ‘bad air’. Miasma was poisonous vapor or mist filled with particles from decomposed matter that caused illnesses. It was believed that strong odours could displace any bad air that might have impregnated the paper. From the 1880s, the miasma theory was gradually replaced by the ‘germ theory of disease’. ↩︎
