A SHIP WHICH SERVES AS A POST OFFICE

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34107, 20 March 1976, Page 10

A SHIP WHICH SERVES AS A POST OFFICE

K. W. ANTHONY

In such a scattered community as the British Indian Ocean Territory, which consists of a few widely separated islands, it is obviously not practicable or economic to set up post offices in places where the population is very small. For example, one of the islands in the group is Aldabra, a noted wildlife reserve where the only inhabitants are a few naturalists and scientists. So instead the Post Office comes to the people — a Post Office on board a ship, travelling from island to island. The vessel which supplies this service is the Nordvaer, and she plays such an important part in communications in this remote part of the world that the fifth anniversary

of the Nordvaer’s travelling Post Office has been marked by the appearance of two special stamps. In philately the term “travelling Post Office” usually refers to a mobile railway sorting office, special postmarks being applied to mail which can be posted on the train at stations on its route. A marine travelling Post Office is much more unusual. Facilities for posting mail on board passenger ships, however, have been provided for many years. Such mail receives the “Paquebot” cancellation, a term used internationally for this type of mail ever since 1894. But mail in this category is handed over to the shore Post Office at the next port of call. Amenities of that kind are quite different from those of the Nordvaer which offers a postal service, not primarily for

passengers but for the ordinary population at the islands where she calls. So the Nordvaer represents a novel episode of postal history, which is fittingly commemorated by the new stamps. The example illustrated here is the 2 rupees, 50c stamp, which shows the Nordvaer lying offshore. In the lower left-hand corner of the design can be seen a facsimile of the postmark used by the Nordvaer Post Office when she first went intc service in 1969. The other stamp is an 85c value which di'pn la the Nordvaer at sea.