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Auction: 17025 - Bermuda, Crossroads of the Atlantic: A Postal History from 1617 to 1877 - The David Pitts Collection
Lot: 160

(x) Packet Letters
The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, 1842-1850
The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company was formed to take advantage of faster communications offered by steam power, initially for the West Indies though including a few Mexican ports. In 1847, as trade with Mexico increased, additional routes to the western Caribbean and east coast of Mexico were added. There were two contracts with the RMSP involving stops at Bermuda between 1854 and 1850. After 1 August 1850, RMSP ceased stopping at Bermuda, and Cunard's Halifax route became the principal one from Bermuda. There were four routes during the first contract and three during the second
First Contract
Route 4, 8 August 1844-1 November 1847
Mail continued to be carried once a month to Bermuda only by the West Indies packet via St. Thomas. At St. Thomas the route split to go to Mexico as well. During the previous period, Bermuda had two homeward bound services, by the West Indies and Mexican packets. Now her homeward bound mail was carried only by the Mexican packet
The routes were
Outbound: Southampton-Barbados-Grenada-St. Thomas-Bermuda-Caribbean. Return was direct to Southampton
Homeward: from the Mexican ports-Havana-Nassau-Bermuda-Southampton
1845 (13 May) entire letter from Nassau, Bahamas to Bawtry, Yorks., rated "1/-" and showing, on reverse, a fine strike of the very rare "ireland island/bermuda" PM4 datestamp (19.5) a little overstruck by London datestamp (3.6); recipient's name and large part of address, and other areas, bleached out for disinfection, none thankfully affecting this very rare datestamp with only five examples recorded. Photo



Note: The datestamp portion of this cover is illustrated on page 44 of the 1978 edition of the Ludington handbook

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Estimate
£2,000 to £2,500