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Auction: 17025 - Bermuda, Crossroads of the Atlantic: A Postal History from 1617 to 1877 - The David Pitts Collection
Lot: 26

(x) Military Mail
The strategic importance of Bermuda had been apparent from the 18th. Century. In 1795, after the Revolutionary War, the British restored bases 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 American Civil War Blockade
During the American Civil War, the North sought to cut off the South from its cotton markets with Europe with a blockade of the Atlantic Coast. Initially unsuccessful, as the War progressed contravention became more effective. To circumvent the blockade the South used small, fast boats known as "blockade runners". From Bermuda these letters would be carried either by private ship direct or packet via Halifax. Most mail through Bermuda used Wilmington, North Carolina
1863 (18 Aug.) bootleg envelope from London to Dr. Mallet, a Captain in the Confederate Artillery at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Southern States, marked "Ship Letter" and hand carried on the Cunard Africa from Liverpool (11.7) to Halifax and thence (23.7) by Cunard Alpha to Bermuda, arriving 28 July, upon arrival sent by blockade runner Venus (12.8) to Wilmington (12.8), placed in the post at Richmond and bearing 1863-64 10c. blue with large margins and cancelled with datestamp (18.8) alongside manuscript "10" paid in pencil. A rare use of a Confederate stamp on an incoming blockade runner cover from England and a rare Alabama addressee for blockade runner mail. Philatelic Foundation Certificate (1983). See also lot 67. Photo

Note: Captain John William Mallet was Superintendent of the CSA laboratories at the Ordinance Department at Richmond

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