An uncommon Round The World cover passing through Sandakan

 

My apologies for not posting much recently. For readers with an interest in North Borneo philately, I can recommend following Silamstar's North Borneo Stamp group on Facebook. In the recent Sarawak Specialists' Society auction, I picked up some interesting items and the following is one of them.

It is certainly an attractive and interestingly looking cover. Here we can see stamps from North Borneo, Bermuda, GB, Curacao, Chile and USA. The 12c in NB stamps would be the prevailing surface rate to GB in 1932. Curacao is an island country at the northern end of S America which was part of the Netherlands. This cover started its journey in Edinburgh Scotland on 15 NO 31. The postmark on the NB stamps was from Sandakan dated 20 JUN 1932. The other postmarks seen are from Bermuda, Chile and USA. It was eventually addressed back to Edinburgh.  

The sender was Myrtle Rona Morrison and at the back, she has left written instructions on how the cover should proceed including the sequence of each passing address. And on the margin on the right hand side, in black ink were the arrival dates: Bermuda 27-11-31, Chile 23-12-31, Florence 26-7-32 and Edinburgh 29-7-32. But she left out North Borneo arrival on 17 JUN 1932 and then it was redirected 3 days later. On the  left side, again in black ink, "Rec'd HMS Telena New York 22.4.32" There is also evidence from stickers that the envelope was opened and resealed at Seattle Washington.

At the bottom of the back, in faint violet, there is the Retour mark from Seattle. But it was more a redirected post rather than directly returned mail. The postmark from Florence is clearly seen here. Contrary to the other countries involved, there are no Italian stamps. This was because the NB stamps were sufficient for onward passage to GB.

The previous owner constructed this map. But his optimism was widely off the mark. Firstly, both the GB and NB stamps are definitely only enough for surface mail only. These should also apply to the other stamps as well. An airmail cover would definitely not took 257 days to go round the world, even in 1932. 

So I scanned the original and redrawn it to suit my research and conclusions. It is self explanatory. The sea journeys passed through the Panama canal on its way to and from Chile. It also passed through the Suez canal on its way to Europe. The land journeys in N America and Europe involved rail. I like these sort of items very much because I can conclude the unfinished business.

Labuan errors and varieties update

The original post was in September 2020. Readers can read it again by clicking the link here. Since then I have managed to find some other items which maybe of interest.

This is the 6c orange brown from the 1880 issue as seen by the clear Crown CC watermark. It is the "no dot in Jawi upper left" variety.

Somehow I have managed to collect 4 used and 1 mint copy. Stamp no. 4 has a unusual rare cancellation which was probably the fore runner of the subsequent very common 9 bar cancellation.

I have acquired another interesting re-entry stamp of the 1896 Jubilee overprint issue. This is the stamp on the left with a different re-entry to the right of the palm tree. Not only this, the stamp was perforated and cut to a smaller size. Look carefully at the last letter in "Jubilee" and the "E" looks a bit different. I thought it was possibly omitted during the overprinting and then reinserted subsequently but that would be too much of a occurrence. These re-entries are so obvious and should justify being listed as an additional variety in the catalogues. Again readers can refresh on what was written before in this blog by clicking this link. 

Update 16 Aug 2022

Went to the local stamp fair today and bought these two stamp varieties.

The 10c brown has the "missing stroke to Chinese character" and the 16c blue, the "no right foot to second Chinese character" varieties.

A timely reminder to my faithful readers 2 sayings there can describe the richness and mysteries of philately:

Philately is the art of uncovering errors, mistakes and imperfections.

The last word in philately is never written.

So long these 2 statements endure, I shall carry on collecting stamps!

Trains, trains and trains

It is generally men who are interested in trains. The majority of philatelists and deltiologists are also men. So trains depicted on stamps and postcards are popularly collected. Well, there is no lack of material where North Borneo is concerned. 

The first North  Borneo stamp depicting a train was from 1897 issue. 16c was a very unusual value and then it was overprinted in 1901 with British Protectorate.

It was also overprinted for use as a postage due even though I doubt there was much actual usage of this value.

This was part of  issue in 1951 to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of North Borneo Company. It is very nice to have it with a train mail cancellation. I have seen a cover with this combination but unfortunately the cover was rather plain and I decided to wait for a better example.

A series of North Borneo Government printed colour postcards showing the train in the early days of the railway. These cards are quite uncommon especially used ones.

These are photographs expertly taken by CF Leong at the Happy Studio in Jesselton probably in the early 1970s. 

These postcards are relatively new but they may not be that common. This is the Vulcan Steam Locomotive 6016. They were delivered in 1956, built by Vulcan Foundry Ltd in Lancashire England. They were withdrawn from use in 1972 but luckily well preserved and currently back in usage for the tourist train to Papar.

 

I think that the Hitachi diesel locomotives are very functional and unattractive looking in comparison to the Vulcans. Diesel locomotives were delivered in 1968 to replace the steam locomotives. This Hitachi locomotive numbered 5101 was originally 6101, delivered in 1980. Around that time on a school sponsored trip, a group of us went with one of these locomotives up the Padas Gorge from Beaufort to Tenom. And then a few years ago, I took the journey in reverse from Tenom to Halogilat (half way to Beaufort) again with this type of locomotive with bare facilities but the views were good.  

This stamp of Malaysia issued in 2015 depicts the Hitachi diesel engine used by North Borneo Railway.

This miniature sheet from 2015 shows the Vulcan locomotive passing the Papar Bridge.

An Elton cover

The following cover was actually addressed to W H Elton's son. It was overpaid by 4c, 2c being the local rate. These philatelic covers were sold to collectors to raise money for building St Michael's Church at Sandakan.

 This was personally written by W H Elton in one of the colonial reports sent back to Britain:

I left home in 1888 my commission was to go as pioneer chaplain to the Officers of the British North Borneo Ser rice, and other Europeans in the State and to do what Mission work was possible besides among the Natives of the country.

On my arrival 1 made Sandakan, the capital, the head quarters of the Mission and made up my mind to occupy in the first instance, the three chief seaport towns viz. Sandakan, Kudat, and Labuan. The first year was spent in building a Vicarage, a temporary School- Church in Sandakan, in visiting the other stations on the Coast and in travelling up all the rivers to see the Planters and christen their children. At the close of the first year Mr. Richards arrived from home. He was the first Missionary to follow me to North Borneo.

By this time there was a considerable number of Chinese Christians in the Territory most of whom were located at Kudat, and it was arranged for Mr. Richards to take up work among these Chinese, and with this view he went to China for eight months to study the language. During his absence I went to Kudat and built a School-Church and two rooms of a Vicarage having promised him to have them ready for him on his return. It is interesting to note that it was the officers and men of the Navy who started these buildings in Kudat with a donation of $100.

While the buildings at Kudat were in course of erection the pretty little Church at Labuan, which had been built during Bishop McDougall's episcopate was burnt down in a jungle fire. As soon as I heard, of it I went to Labuan and built a School- Church in which the services have since been held.

During the year 1892 another worker arrived, Mr. Patrick, who was appointed, English Master of the Sandakan Boys' School, which by that time numbered fifty scholars of various nationalities, twenty-five of whom were boarders and formed the surpliced choir in Sandakan Church.

On the 29th September, 1893, an important step was taken in the laying of the foundation stone of the permanent Church in Sandakan by Governor Creagh, Five years had been spent in cutting down an immense hill at the back of the Vicarage, in order to obtain sufficient area for the Church. During those five years the late, Rev. Brynne Belcher had been collecting funds in England for a permanent Church in Sandakan and had remitted £50 a year for the purpose. I was about to begin a brick church when we discovered excellent stone within two miles of Sandakan, so we at once opened a quarry and determined to build in stone. Having obtained plans of a Gothic Church from a first-rate architect I began to instruct the Chinese in the art of building and by Easter Day 1898, just ten years after my arrival in the country, the Chancel, Vestries and Organ Chamber were completed at a cost of $16,822. It is interesting to note that this is the first stone building in Borneo, After ten years of incessant work without a change my health began to suffer, so after the consecration of the Chancel, I suspended building operations and went to England for a cooling. While I was at home I collected some money for the Nave and Transepts of the Church and these have now been in course of erection for four years and are about half finished.

Since my return from home ice have also been collecting money for a permanent Girls School and, thanks to the exert ions of Mrs. Birch, the handsome new building will be opened free of debt in about a month. So we now have three Boys' Schools and one Girls' School. All the education of the country is being carried on by the Church of England and the Church of Rome, the Chartered Company having not, as yet, opened any Schools.

The money for all these buildings viz. four in Sandakan, four in Kudat and one in Labuan has been raised by voluntary subscriptions amounting in all to $40,000.

The journey of a 1904 North Borneo postal card from Kudat to Java

 

This beautiful postal card has a multitude of post marks which yields very interesting information about its journey from Kudat to Java. It is uncommon in the the sense that it was properly and commercially used. It was correspondence between two Dutch planters in their respective localities.

I would be very grateful if someone out there can translate this long message in Dutch at the back which was written on 17 Dec 1904 at the Ranau Estate near Kudat. It was sent to Bezoeki on the east side of Java. The 26,000 acre Ranau Estate of the New London Borneo Tobacco Company Ltd grew mostly tobacco even though rubber was gradually being introduced. On the other hand, the area around Bezoeki was more suited to sugar cane even though the tobacco grown in Bezoeki was the best in Java². The series of cancellations present tells a very good story of its journey and the processes involved.

 

This 6c card had the 1 January 1891 rate for postcards from UPU countries in transit through Singapore even the prevailing rate for a postcard was changed to 3c from 1 September 1895³. It was posted in Kudat and has the cancellation date of 19 DEC 1904. It reached Labuan the next day. On the card  there are arrival and dispatch cds of 20 DEC 04 and 22 DEC 04 from Labuan respectively. The ship that was bound for Singapore around those dates was the S.S. Kedah of the Norddeutscher LLoyd Bremen Company⁴. It arrived on the 13th Dec and then started its journey back from Lahat Dato probably on the 17th December. It would have called at the ports of  Sandakan and Kudat before Labuan. It was quite possible that the Kedah received this card at Kudat  and then bypassed Jesselton taking only one day to reach Labuan depending on the shipping schedule.

It took 5 days to reach Singapore on DE 27 04 and was efficiently received by the Netherlands Indies Postal Agency in Singapore on the same day as seen by the square circle cancellation on the lower right side . The card was then carried by the KPM shipping line in stages to its final destination eventually. The Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij or Royal Packet Navigation Company, 1888-1967, was set up to maintain the connection between the islands of Indonesia with the outside world. Postal agencies were set up in Singapore and Penang in 1851 to aid this process and they continued in service until around 1920⁵. By maintaining an inter island service, KPM supported the unification of the Dutch Indies economy and brought commerce through Batavia (Jakarta) instead of Singapore

Probably the mail for remote areas in Java were initially processed at Weltevreden as seen by the corresponding square circle cancel dated 30 12 1904 three days later. This  was a suburb of Batavia favoured by the Europeans. From here it was carried by KPM to Sitoebondo or Situbondo as it is now known, over 1,000km away on the eastern side of Java.  It took another three days to arrive on 2 1 1905 as seen on the square circle postmark. The well known area of Surabaya is 226km to the west.  The final destination of Bezoeki or Besuki nowadays is 70km to the west of Situbondo. The carriage at this stage would have been either by land or native boat. The overpaid rate of 6c was really a bargain considering the complicated journey that was undertaken to deliver the card.

¹ Military report on the Netherlands' possessions in the East Indies.  ² The Postal History of British Borneo by Edward Proud. ³The British North Borneo Herald  Jan 3 1905. ⁴Maritime marks of Indonesia by Geoff Ellerton, TPO and Seapost Society.

I can not find an image of the SS Kedah and the one on the internet is actually a later ship built in Britain and was one of the Straits steamships based at Singapore and is depicted on of the country's stamps. This one here belonging to NDL of Bremen is a similar ship and tonnage. It started its run between Singapore and Sandakan in 1900 and also stopping by Kudat, Jesselton and Labuan in between. Its sister ship was the SS Tringannu on this particular route. Later on, it also went on to Lahad Dato and Tawau after the main port of call of Sandakan. Occasionally, it would venture as far afield as Jolo in the southern Philippines. NDL sold the Kedah in the second half of 1905. And the Tringannu was also put aside. The NDL ships that replaced them were the SS Darvel and SS Marudu. The involvement of Norddeutscher Lloyd line in the Far East was abruptly cut with the advent of WWl. This ended an era of Germanic merchant navy efficiency and supremacy much to the loss of local Europeans as their on-ship hospitality was apparently legendary.