Down to the Sea-On Stamps By William A. Coffey After a brief taste of the sea in the US Navy and a round trip to the West Coast in the S.S. Minnesotan , it was only natural , when I had signed-off and returned to my home among the West Virginia hill s, that my hobby of stamp collecting would be concentrated on collecting "seagoing" stamps. I wanted to collect stamps depicting everything pertaining to the sea-watercraft, flora , fauna, ports, aids to navi gation , flotsam and jetsam. After survey ing the fie ld I reali zed that watercraft alone would be enough to keep me busy. The title would be "The Call of the Sea." A collection of stamps like thi s, confined to stamps depicting the same subject, is known in the hobby as a " topi ca l" co llection , an inc reas in g ly popular way to collect. The wealth of material available from which to build a collection is mindboggling to the pointofutterconfusion for the neophyte. Fortunately, with a topical collection one plots hi s own course, takes aboard only what he wants, and sets hi s own speed. I decided on the fairly obvious, a chronological hi story of the development of ships. All maritime countries have iss ued stamps depicting watercraft common to the country, or to commemorate mari time historic events. So we have the dugout canoes of Africa and the South Pac ific, and other native watercraft to begin our story. It continues with the ship of Queen Hatshepsut of 1500 B.C. , the Greek and Roman gall eys, the Vi king longships, the cogs and hulks of the Hanseatic League, and the carracks of the Spanish and Portuguese explorers. There follows the Golden Age of sail , the transitional sail and steam packets, and the modern age of power. Th is makes an interesting di splay of the great diversity of watercraft, and of the gradual change in ship des ign over the years. Naval vessels are also well represented on stamps - HMS Victory , Bon Homme Richard, USFConstitution, USS Nautilus, among others, as well as naval battles from Salamis to the Falkland Islands. The di scovery of America is the most widely commemorated maritime event, with Santa Maria appearing on more than 200 stamps. Already many co untries have issued stamps depicting numerous aspects of the voyages in anticipation of the 500th Anniversary of the Discovery of America in 1992. Other signifi cant maritime events have been commemorated with multi 30
nation stamp issues. So many stamps were issued for the American Bicentenni al that I was able to com pi le a comprehensive hi story of the Ships of the American Revolution on stamps. It beg ins with the schooner Hannah , one of the first of George Washington 's little fl eet, includes ships of the Continental, British, and French navies, and concludes with the postlude battle of Les Saintes. One of our researchers is still working on the identity of three ships of the French navy on an Ivory Coast stamp. Other maritime events so honored include the Bicente nnial of Captain Cook 's Voyages, the voyage of the First Fleet to Australia, the mutiny on the Bounty, Operation Sail ' 76 , and the America 's Cup Race of 1987. With these few, we have bare ly wet our feet. The great quantity and diversity of the material avai Iable suggests that there are many ways in which one may build a collection of ships on stamps. Some of the outstanding collections I have seen are "Native Watercraft", " Ships of the Royal Navy", " Romance of the Seas", " New York: World City" (the port), "Square Sails on Yards", and " 150Years of Passenger Ships". When an 81-year old lady in Christchurch, New Zealand sat me down to view her collection, she broke out 12 ring binders, each containing a different co ll ection-"Captain Cook", "Sea Rescues", "Cable Laying", and others equally interesting. How one collects ship stamps is limited only by his interests and imagination. With the recent proliferation of national maritime subjects on stamps it is possible to study maritime hi story in all parts of the world and all phases of the BAHAMAS subject, such as ex ploration , colonization, shipping, and the ebb and flow of sea power among nations. But what of these tin y pictures of ships on stamps? The majority are excellent representations of the subjects done by artists skilled in the art of miniaturization . Many designs have been taken from paintings and in themselves are works of art. Modern ship des igns are usually taken from photograph s. A few are crude From the top: bark Eber (1870); TS drawings, and some are inaccurate , Libertad (1963 ); Galleon Elizabeth graphicall y and hi storica lly. In a few Jonas (1559 ); SS France (1962) ; RMS instances the wrong ship has been deQueen Elizabeth (1940) ; SS Great picted, to the embarrassment of the issuBritain ( 1886) ing postal authority. In their small way, ship stamps help preserve our maritime of ship stamps have banded together to history while bringing it to the attention promote our hobby and to increase our of the populace. know ledge through the exchange of inAs might be expected, we collectors form ation. The Ships on Stamps Un it of S:EA HISTORY 59, AUTUMN 199 1