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Auction: 17025 - Bermuda, Crossroads of the Atlantic: A Postal History from 1617 to 1877 - The David Pitts Collection
Lot: 111

(x) Packet Letters
The Cunard Line, 1833-1886
The last Admiralty packet left Falmouth on 6 June 1840, Thereafter Cunard steamers assumed the transatlantic route under contract to the Admiralty, using Liverpool as their home base. From January 1848, Cunard's transatlantic service altered weekly between Boston and New York, however after July 1848 the New York steamers did not stop at Halifax. There are five different routes
Route 3, November 1850-June 1854
When the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company abandoned its service from Southampton to Bermuda and St. Thomas in August 1850, Cunard took over the transatlantic route to New York offering service from Great Britain to Bermuda via this New York connection. Transit time was much longer than the route via Halifax. Despite being available for four years, only three covers are known by this route into Bermuda. None are known outbound from Bermuda
1852 (28 July) entire letter from London via T.H. Brooking to New York, per Canada to New York where forwarded by Gillespie, Dean & Co., who endorsed it "P Mail Steamer Merlin" to Flatts, Bermuda (a very small town with only one cover each incoming and outgoing) showing London despatch datestamp on face with "19/cents" rate handstamp overstruck "24" (1/-) when forwarded, the reverse with T.H. Brooking forwarding agents cachet and St. George's datestamp (PM5) in red. One of only three covers recorded to Bermuda by the England to New York route and very rare thus. Photo

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Estimate
£1,500 to £1,800