The Postal System of the Great White Fleet
The USS Georgia receiving mail at Rio de Janiro
(the Brown & Schaffer Collection)
| With a separation of 14 months between sailors and their loved ones, mail became important very quickly. Recognizing this, Congress approved General Order No. 74 on May 27, 1908 to create operating post offices on Navy ships. This allowed the Navy to then establish post offices to send and receive mail using Naval personnel.
At right: A Christmas card canceled on the presidential yacht on December 22, 1908. |
|
| |
The number of mail clerks was determined by the size of the crew. Ships of 650 men or more were allowed one mail clerk and an assistant, while ships between 125 and 650 men were allowed to establish a post office with a single mail clerk.
Prior to this point mail have been forwarded through private receiving agents or the local counsulate abroad.
This change, though planned for the World Cruise, did not go into effect unil the ships reached Cairo, Egypt. Arriving on January 3rd, 1909, the fleet received incoming mail and was able to send mail out before departing Cairo on the 10th. The earliest postmark I have found has been January 5th, 1909 used by the USS Virginia and the USS Kansas.
Mail that was received onboard the ships was marked with a receiving cancel throughout the cruise. Typically these were red stamps with the ships name or date. Manytimes it can be the way to confirm if the correspondence was sent to a ship of the fleet. The fleet did start using cancellations that contained the words "Rec'd" within the postmark until they had returned to Hampton Roads. The card in the center is a receiving cancel for the USS Wisconsin, February 25, 1909, the earliest receiving cancel from a Great White fleet unit that I have found.
|
Copyright(c) 2002 My Company. All rights reserved.
Bill@GreatWhiteFleet.info