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Auction: 17025 - Bermuda, Crossroads of the Atlantic: A Postal History from 1617 to 1877 - The David Pitts Collection
Lot: 24

(x) Military Mail
The strategic importance of Bermuda had been apparent from the 17th. Century, recognised by Sir George Somers when he was shipwrecked there in 1610. In 1795, after the Revolutionary War, the British restored its bases on the American continent though it wasn't until the War of 1812 that there was a significant increase in the British naval presence on Bermuda. She became the winter home of the Atlantic fleet and the principal naval port between Halifax and the B.W.I. Halifax was the fleet's summer home
The War of 1812
During the War of 1812 the packets were transferred to military duty. Mail from Bermuda was then carried either by regular ships or by a convenient non-scheduled packet. This continued to March 1815 when notice of the end of the war reached the Admiralty in Halifax
1813 (3 May) entire letter from Charleston, South Carolina to Edinburgh, carried on the Brigantine Langdon Cleve bound for Lisbon, captured by H.M. Frigate Atalanta and taken to Bermuda on 24 May, censored by the Vice-Admiralty Court with the ship, crew, cargo and mail (after censorship) released on 24 June and allowed to continue to Lisbon, the letter then placed on a packet for England, rated "7/6" (deleted) and "7/3" and showing rare framed "packet letter/plym:dock" (P1), additional "½" handstamp and arrival datestamp; trivial imperfections in places. The only War of 1812 censored cover from Bermuda and accompanied by various photocopies of the proceedings before the Vice-Admiralty Court. See also lots 41, 47, 69 and 70. Photo

Note: Illustrated on page 4 of "Bermuda Mails to 1865" by Forand and Freeland

provenance:
Morris H. Ludington, June 1999

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Sold for
£2,500