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.