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Auction: 17025 - Bermuda, Crossroads of the Atlantic: A Postal History from 1617 to 1877 - The David Pitts Collection
Lot: 32

(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
1864 (4 Aug., docket on reverse) envelope "pr S.S. Old Dominion" to Wilmington and subsequently Richmond, Virginia", routed from Hamilton due to yellow fever at St. George's, rated "12" (2c. ship letter fee + 10c. Confederate postage). The last blockade trip from Bermuda to Wilmington. Photo

Note: The vast majority of blockade mail left Bermuda from St. George's. An outbreak of yellow fever in St. George's shifted the mails to Hamilton. After mid-September all blockade mail normally sent via Bermuda went via Halifax.
The relationship between yellow fever and port of entry and port of despatch on Bermuda has had little attention. Of Ludington's possible 239 blockade covers, only 21 used Hamilton. Of these, Walske reports 11 actual covers during the summer of 1864

provenance:
Morris H. Ludington, June 1999

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Sold for
£700