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Auction: 17025 - Bermuda, Crossroads of the Atlantic: A Postal History from 1617 to 1877 - The David Pitts Collection
Lot: 28

(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 (Dec.) envelope from Bermuda "pr Ranger" to Wetumpka, Alabama, marked "Care C.H. Haille Esq." and showing manuscript "12" (2c. ship fee + 10c. Confederate postage), "ship" handstamp alongside Wilmington datestamp (18.1); flap missing though clean and attractive. A rare Alabama addressee and again rare in being one of just eleven blockade runner covers originating in Bermuda. Photo

Note: The "Ranger" was a British steam Sidewheeler which made two ad hoc trips. Her sailings could not have been known outside of Bermuda

provenance:
Gordon McHenry, 1990
Richard Frajola


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Sold for
£600