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Auction: 17025 - Bermuda, Crossroads of the Atlantic: A Postal History from 1617 to 1877 - The David Pitts Collection
Lot: 34

(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 (12 Sept.) yellow envelope (origin unknown), complete with letter written by a released German Union prisoner of war, Jakob Knoll, to Germany, marked "Via Blockade Wilmington" to Bermuda, per Cunard (30.10) Merlin to Halifax and thence by Allan Line Belgravia to Liverpool (16.11) and London (17.11), marked "33" (33Kr.) in blue crayon and with a variety of transit datestamps; in the contents, transcript provided, Knoll comments on the slaughter caused by the war, the high cost of things due to the war, in which he has fought in eleven battles and suggests his fellow Germans wait until the war is over before venturing to America. He concludes by asking that this missive be placed in the newspapers and for the cost to be taken "from my fortune/wealth". Highly unusual. Philatelic Foundation Certificate (2006). Photo

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Sold for
£800