PHSC Journal€¦ · Tom Hare, Chris Green, Robert Haslewood and David Hobden. President Stéphane Cloutier started by explaining that 2012-13 was not a year of significant major

PHSC Journal

CANADA POST AGREEMENT NUMBER 40069611

Nº 153 ISSN 0714-8305 Spring 2013

$8.75 The only national journal totally dedicated to Canadian postal history

Celebrating 100 Yearsof Canadian Arctic Exploration

Spring 2013 • PHSC JOURNAL • 3

In This Issue

CONTENTS Advertisers14 back2paul Stamps and Covers40 Brigham Auctions Ltd. 4 British North America Philatelic Society (BNAPS)48 Canadian Philatelic Society of Great Britain (CPSGB) 6 Canadian Stamp News72 Classified Ads76 Hugo Deshaye (Philatelists) Inc. 2 Eastern Auctions14 Jim Forte 9,13 Greenwood Stamp Company39 Gary J. Lyon (Philatelist) Ltd.73 R. Maresch & Son33 Royal Philatelic Society of Canada71 PHSC Books75 Saskatoon Stamp Centre38 John Sheffield Philatelist Ltd.10 Société d’histoire postale du Québec (SHPQ)14 Toronto’s First Office

Features15 Harry V. Radford - Gray Scrimgeour18 The Story of An Arctic Cover - Kevin O’Reilly34 Early Arctic Expeditions - Hal Vogel41 Scarce Covers from the Canadian Arctic 1932-1953 Ian & Robin Mowat45 St. Roch - Ian Mowat49 Two 1938 Northwest Passage Covers - Roy Lingen’52 Canadian International Geophysical Year (IGY) Expedition Operation Hazen - Mike Street55 The Plaisted Polar Expedition 1968 - Larry Goldberg57 Hudson ‘70 - Gray Scrimgeour64 In Memoriam: Ross W. Irwin - J. Gus KnierimDepartments 3 In This Issue 5 The Editor’s Word … Larry Goldberg 6 Secretary’s Report … Scott Traquair 7 Minutes of Annual Meeting10 Treasurer’s Report 65 P.O.D. Rules & Regulations … Gus Knierim69 Study Groups Report … Martin Schofield74 Officers

About the CoverThe coin on the front cover was

recently issued by the Royal Canadian Mint to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1913 Canadian Arctic Expedition. 20,000 of these coins were minted and are available for sale from the Mint. For

NEXT ISSUE IS OUR SECOND ANNUAL FAVOURITE COVER ISSUE.

See page 37,

more infomation, visit the Mint’s web site at: http://www.mint.ca/store/.

Our thanks to the Royal Canadian Mint and Alex Reeves for the rapid response to our request for use of the photo and approval to use it on the cover of this issue.

4 • PHSC JOURNAL • Spring 2013

In This Issue … continued

Harry V. Radford … Page 15A murder-mystery/postal history of

the Canadian Arctic.

The Story of An Arctic Cover … Page 18An article that helps trace the whys,

wherefores and whats of the 1913 Cana-dian Arctic Expdition (C.A.E.) as told by select covers and some excellent research.

Scarce Covers from the Canadian Arctic 1932-1953 … Page 41

While these covers are not necessar-ily related to exploration, they do provide some interesting insights to the problems involved in transporting mail in Canada’s North. St. Roch … Page 45

The R.C.M.P. schooner St. Roch spent 20 years in the Far North making regular patrols to the Arctic. Each patrol was two years in duration, with the ship spending part of each winter frozen in the ice. Only

seven pieces of mail have been identified from the St.Roch’s 20 years in the Arctic; this article talks about two of them.

Two 1938 Northwest Passage Covers … Page 49

A look at some air mail covers that made adventuresome trips in their own right.

The Plaisted Polar Expedition 1968 … Page 55

An interesting cover signed by the crew of the first expedition to reach the North Pole by snowmobile.

Hudson ‘70 …Page 57Covers from one of the last year-long,

multidisciplinary oceanic explorations.

In Memoriam - Ross W. Irwin…Page 64e


The Editor’s WordLarry Goldberg

Fortunately, this page is done in black and white so that you can’t see how red with embarrassment my face is. If this were truly a just world, I would not be writing this column.

The fact is that this issue would nev-er have come to fruition without having Kevin O’Reilly and Gray Scrimgeour step in and provide me with enough material to have an issue that was publishable. I am truly grateful, as should all of you. I also want to thank Roy Lingen, Ian and Robin Mowat, Mike Street and Hal Vogel for providing articles for inclusion in the issue. A few pages about covers plus the ongoing columns by our regular contribu-tors serve as good mortar to help hold the structure together. I offer my heartfelt thanks to all concerned.

The following are excerpts from a mes-sage that Gus Knierim read on my behalf at our annual meeting.

“I had really hoped to attend ORAPEX this year, but a combination of a family austerity program and a recent fall that has left me temporarily unable to get around very well precludes my attendance.

“Nevertheless, I didn’t want the occa-sion to pass without my having an oppor-tunity to say a few words. So, just pretend that Gus has a beard, is about 6 foot 2 and weighs around 230 lbs. Oh, and he has a

bit too much hair to be me.“Having just completed my second

year as editor, I would like to say that my guess is that, from a standpoint of mem-ber participation, this was a record year. I think it should be a lesson to the member-ship that they can author articles that are of interest to the vast majority of readers.

“The favourite cover idea was so suc-cessful that we are repeating it again this year. It will be the issue after next (Issue No. 154), but it is never too early to send in your favourite cover and explanation.

“Other than that, not much more to say other than thanks for the job the membership did over the last year. You make being an editor much easier.”

Growing up, I was a bit of a problem child … a maverick, for want of a better term. It took me a long time to appreciate a lot of the direction that I received from my father. One bon mot has stuck with me all these years:

“It’s bad luck to talk about a a no-hit-ter while the game is still in progress.”

I think I must have forgotten it for a day when I wrote my message for ORA-PEX. On the other hand, the record stands and I still want to thank all the members that have contributed time and effort into making the PHSC Journal something of which we can all be proud. Well done.

My best wishes to you and yours for an enjoyable summer. e


Secretary’s ReportScott Traquair

Once again, It is that time of the year – renewal time. Please take the time as you read this either to re-new via PayPal on the PHSC Website, or mail me a cheque. With over three hundred re-newals due at this time

it is a bit of a daunting task, particularly if the weather is nice!!! Thanks in advance.

New ApplicantsThe Membership Committee has ap-

proved the following applications for membership in the Society, and unless the Secretary receives valid objections in writ-ing within sixty (60) days of the publica-tion date of this issue, membership will be granted to the persons listed below in

accordance with the constitution, a copy of which is available from the Secretary. If correspondence with the applicant is de-sired, sealed correspondence may be sent under cover to the Secretary, who will for-ward it, provided the applicable Canadian postage is included. Members are encour-aged to send changes of address or chang-es in e-mail address, to the Secretary.

1533 Ping Szeto1534 Michael Babier1535 David Giles1536 Jim Baird1537 Ronald MacNeil 1538 Ronald E. MajorsNew Members:

The 7 applicants published in Journal #152 have been admitted to full member-ship status, having met all admission re-quirements. e

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Minutes of the PHSC Annual Meeting – 2013

Twenty eight members were in atten-dance at our May 4th AGM this year. The attendees were (in no particular order): Eugene Yount, W. P. Cochrane, Al Hurst, Mike Powell, Peter Wood, Bill Wegman, Don Echobicon, Bob Smith, Peter McCar-thy, Graham McCleave, Simon Claugh-ton, Peter MacDonald, Charles Livermore, Mike Millar, Dave Hanes, Christiane Fau-cher, Ken Lemke, Stéphane Cloutier, Rob Leigh, Arthur Sparks, Gus Knierim, Rob-ert Pinet, Gordon Richardson, Jill T. Hare, Tom Hare, Chris Green, Robert Haslewood and David Hobden.

President Stéphane Cloutier started by explaining that 2012-13 was not a year of

significant major news in the PHSC, most-ly due to the everlasting lack of volunteers. He went on to say that there are more or less 4 to 5 people running the whole so-ciety. One project in which a great many people participated was the 40th Anniver-sary favourite cover series in the Journal. He thanked those who participated.

He went on to read both the Secretary and Treasurer Reports, prepared by Scott Traquair, generally stating that the mem-bership is stable and the financial situ-ation comfortable. These are published elsewhere in this issue.

PHSC’s ORAPEX Booth being manned by Bob Smith (right) seen here withJohn McIntyre of Montreal.

(Photo courtesy of Dick Malott.)


One of the reasons for our healthy financial situation is that former Editor Gus Knierim continues to have a good relationship with our printer, enabling us to get good rates to print the Journal. Gus also hand mails all of the non-Canadian Journals, using postage obtained at auc-tion for about 70% of face value. We also continue to subsidize Life Members with money from the Life Membership Fund.

Stéphane mentioned that he was ap-proached by the American Revenue As-sociation who are looking into perhaps offering e-membership. He continued ex-plaining that despite the fact that many of our new members are e-members, we do not suffer any negative financial or other impact.

Next the publications winners were announced. Both these members will re-ceive a beautiful certificate, plus a copy of Fred Jarrett’s Stampin’ Around or The Life and Times of a Stamp Collector.

The Frank Campbell Award for best article or book not published in the PHSC Journal is David Oldfield for his article in the November 2012 issue of the The American Philatelist titled “A Cross-Border Cover: Cross to Cross”.

The winner for this year’s Stan Shantz Award for best article published in the PHSC Journal is Robert Stock for his articles in issues #151 and #152: “Settling Into Woodstock, U.C. In the 1830s: The Trials and Tribulations of William Lapenotière” and “My Maplewood: Personal and Postal Histories”.

President Cloutier then announced that all Directors whose two year terms ended at this AGM were contacted, and the following members accepted to renew for a further two years: Scott Traquair, Hank Narbonne, Gus Knierim, Rob Leigh, and Larry Goldberg. There was a vote to renew those Directors by a show of hands, which was carried unanimously. Sté-phane explained that we are still a couple of Directors short of attaining the number required by our Constitution, and asked if there were any new nominations from the floor. None were received.

Gus Knierim followed by reading the editor’s report, and Rob Leigh listed some of the new items on the website. The meeting was then adjourned and we all listened to Michael Powell’s presenta-tion called “World War II Prisoner of War Camps in Canada”. e

Minutes of PHSC Annual Meeting

NEXT ISSUE IS OUR SECOND ANNUAL FAVOURITE COVER ISSUE.

HAVE YOU SENT US YOURS YET?See page 37,


FOR SALE“RENNIE SEEDS” EXHIBIT

of the late RICHARD LAMB, FRPSC

FOR SALESQUARED CIRCLE

COVER COLLECTIONof JACK GORDON, OTB

R.F. Narbonne, OTB, FRPSCTelephone: 1-613-257-5453

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PHSC Treasurer’s Report for the Period 2012-13

Scott Traquair

Financially the Society continues to be strong. Thanks to a steady stream of income from memberships we are able to cover our costs and basically meet the goal of not having to spend our capital. Dona-tions last year dipped slightly but thank you to all those generous members who did donate. Interest rates on our invest-ments are at very low levels as you well know.

Once again our members enjoyed four copies of the PHSC Journal thanks to Larry’s great skills as Editor. Last year Gus once again did a great job of controlling the printing and postage costs for the Jour-

nal. These are our largest expenditures. We renewed our website hosting contract for an additional 5 years and this was a new expense I had not captured in the past as it was last paid in 2007. The cost for hosting our fantastic website is under one hundred dollars per year and thanks to Rob there are few if any expenses asso-ciated with maintaining the website as he takes care of everything.

I was very pleased to see that Stéphane will continue as President and under his leadership I am pleased to continue as Sec-retary-Treasurer for another term.

La Société d’Histoire Postale du Québec(Quebec Postal History Society)

invites applications for membership

The SHPQ publishes an award-winning quarterly journal in French.Christiane Faucher265 du Chalutier, #306, Québec, QC G1K 8R3phone (418) 524-2042e-mail: [email protected]


Postal History Society of CanadaBalance Sheet as on March 31, 2013

Actual 12-13 Last Yr. 11-12 Assets Canadian Bank Account $15,271.31 $ 8,507.79 Investments 41,251.31 40,763.39 Estimated postage on hand 701.73 1,581.73 Prepaid Web Hosting 340.00 - Jarrett Inventory 920.00 1,000.00

Total Assets $58,484.35 $51,852.91 Liabilities Journal 152 Accrual $2,700.00 Payable for Expenses Recorded 565.00 $ 312.50 Prepaid Membership 2,075.00 1,465.00

Total Liabilities $5,340.00 $1,777.50 Equity Life Membership $13,595.26 $16,245.26 Toop Fund 1,660.73 1,669.23 Steinhart Fund 6,564.22 6,697.27 Membership 31,324.14 25,463.65

Total Equity $53,144.35 $50,075.41

Liabilities + Equity $58,484.35 $51,852.91


Postal History Society of CanadaIncome Statement

April 1, 2012 to March 31, 2013

Budget (12-13) Actual (12-13) Last Year (11-12) Previous Year (10-11) Receipts Member Dues $10,500.00 $12,097.57 $10,298.67 $10,942.99 Donations 650.00 462.00 674.20 572.25 Back Issue sales - 7.50 6.25 444.66 Advertising 2,500.00 3,547.73 2,706.82 2,973.00 Interest 550.00 394.89 532.13 564.82 TOTAL RECEIPTS $14,200.00 $16,509.69 $14,218.07 $15,497.72

Expenditures Printing $9,500.00 $7,240.00 $9,201.25 $10,388.00 Accrual for printing #152 - 2,500.00 - - Production (Philaprint) 600.00 50.00 645.00 - Accrual for Philaprint - 565.00 - - Postage 2,400.00 1,869.68 2,236.21 1,878.81 Accrual for mailing #152 - 600.00 - - Office $800.00 $890.18 $837.79 $440.52 Accrual for preparing #152 $200.00 Awards $100.00 - $100.00 - Bank Charges $100.00 $29.59 $100.90 $66.07 TOTAL EXPENDITURES $13,500.00 $13,944.45 $13,121.15 $12,773.40 NET INCOME (LOSS) $700.00 $2,565.24 $1,096.92 $2,724.32

Special Funds for Fiscal Year 2012-13

Rich Toop Memorial Fund Opening as of April 1, 2012 $1,669.23 Donation 25.00 Novapex Award (50.00) Interest 16.50 TOTAL as of March 31, 2013 $1,660.73

Allan Steinhart Memorial Fund Opening as of April 1, 2012 (less book inv.) $6,697.27 Donation 10.00 Steinhart book proceeds (219.05) Jarrett Book Inventory (92 books) 920.00 Interest 76.00 TOTAL as of March 31, 2013 $7,484.22

Winter 2013 • PHSC JOURNAL • 13

R. F. Narbonne, OTB, FRPSCTelephone: 1-613-257-5453

or toll-free 1-800-247-5619 (Canada only)

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Harry V. RadfordGray Scrimgeour

The story of Harry Radford’s 1912 mur-der is a famous exploration story.1 Radford himself misses the theme of 1913-2013 exploration by one year, but resolving his death took until 1918. The story deserves a place in the study of Canadian polar explo-ration. Harry V. Radford was an American adventurer and naturalist who travelled in northern Alberta and the Northwest Ter-ritories, starting in 1909. Radford went hunting for wood bison “for scientific purposes”. He was a member of the Ameri-can Bison Society; this group contributed $200 to Radford’s expedition in 1909 to kill a specimen of wood buffalo for the US

Biological Survey and the Smithsonian In-stitution. On December 1, 1909, Radford killed a bull west of Slave River, between Fort Smith and the Peace River.2

In 1911, Radford (termed a “wealthy sportsman from New York” in a newspa-per, and called “Handsome Harry” in the North) returned to the N.W.T. and hired surveyor George Street at Fort Fitzgerald to accompany him by canoe to Hudson Bay. Radford and Street left Fort Smith on June 27, 1911, and reached Chesterfield Inlet in the autumn of 1911. They then went to Bathurst Inlet by dog team, wintering at Schultz Lake on the Thelon River, west

Figure 1. Cover with the corner card of Harry V. Radford of North Creek, New York.


Figure 2. Cover mailed by H. V. Radford from the Grand Union Hotel, New York.

of Baker Lake. Street hired two Inuit to ac-company him and Radford to Bathurst In-let, and the party got there in May 1912. At Bathurst Inlet, Street hired two differ-ent Inuit to take him and Radford farther west through unexplored territory. Rad-ford treated the Inuit guides badly. An ar-gument occurred because Radford could not understand the language of the Inuit. He became frustrated with the guides, and whipped and threatened one guide so much that they murdered Radford and Street in June 1912. The murder was inves-tigated by Royal North West Mounted Po-lice―through very difficult patrols―between 1914 and 1918.3 These expeditions by the police involved all the difficulties of ex-ploration. The police confirmed the story and concluded that the Inuit had acted in self defense, so no action was taken against them.

Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 present covers mailed by Radford on August 20, 1908 and Janu-ary 15, 1909 to explorer Dr. Robert Bell of the Geological Survey of Canada in Otta-wa. With the 1908 cover, Bell was out of his office, and on August 22 the cover was re-directed to Blind River, Ontario. The 1909 cover shows Radford’s signature by the ho-tel corner card.

A postal card sent from Fort McPher-son, N.W.T. by Harry Radford to Robert Bell’s daughter Olga is described in the Postal History Society of Canada Journal No. 18 (cover and p. 28) and is shown in Fig. 3. on page 17. The card was written on July 13, 1909 and entered the mail stream at the first post office south of Fort McPherson, at Fort Smith on July 28. Note the FORT SMITH, ATHA broken circle postmark. How ironic that Radford’s message on the card mentions “the jolly Eskimo.”


References.

1. Harper, K., “Taissumani: A Day in Arctic History June 27, 1911 - Radford and Street Leave Fort Smith,” (June 24, 2005). Online at: http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca .

Figure 3. Canada Post Card written at Fort McPherson, N.W.T. by Harry Radford. Mailed to Ottawa, it was re-addressed to Santa Barbara, California.

2. Report of the American Bison Society (1922-1923) pp. 31-36.3. The Bathurst Inlet Patrol and the RCMP in the Arctic. http://www.ucalgary.ca/arcticexpedition/rcmp


The Story of an Arctic CoverKevin O’Reilly

I obtained a very interesting cover with enclosure, sent by Rudolph Martin Anderson in 1915, in an auction in late 2001 (see Figures 1 and 2). When I bought this item, it raised more questions than it answered. Its successful analysis using ar-chival documents was lengthy and com-plex but provides a fascinating look at exploration in Canada’s north.

My cover was sent by Dr. Rudolph Mar-tin Anderson (see Figure 3), who was the leader of the Southern Party for the Cana-dian Arctic Expedition to Lomen Brothers in Nome, Alaska. The letter thanks the Lo-men family for sending photos of Ander-son during the Expedition’s stop at Nome on its way north in July 1913.

Figure 1: Cover sent by Dr. Rudolph Martin Anderson from Bernard Harbour. NWT to Lomen Bros., Nome, Alaska

Text continues on page 20


Figure 2 (above): Letter from Dr. Anderson enclosed in cover

Figure 3 (right): Dr. Rudolph Martin Anderson of the Canadian Arctic Expedition Southern Party


Several problems arose immediately. Why is there a typewritten return address of Dolphin and Union Strait, N.W.T. but the letter is datelined De Witt Clinton Point, N.W.T.? Why is the letter dated May 15, 1915 but the envelope was put in the mail in Ottawa on December 11, 1915, free-franked?

I love a postal history challenge. The Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913-1918, one of the last of the great polar explora-tion initiatives, is one of the better docu-mented, which certainly helped provide many of the answers.

Background on the Canadian Arctic Expedition

Viljhalmur Stefansson and Rudolph Anderson were leaders of an Arctic expe-dition from 1908 to 1912 to the Macken-zie Delta. Soon after its return, Stefansson began planning for a larger expedition. He secured financial support from the Na-tional Geographic Society, the American Museum of Natural History and the Har-vard Traveller’s Club. He went to Ottawa in February 1913 to try to secure support from the Geological Survey of Canada and the Prime Minister, Robert Borden. Wor-ried about Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic and any claims the United States might make as a result of an American-backed expedition, the Canadian govern-ment hastily agreed to finance the whole expedition, which was renamed the Cana-dian Arctic Expedition (CAE).

Stefansson (1879-1962) was impulsive and visionary, but not a details kind of person. Although born in Canada, he was raised in the US and eventually became a US citizen. Anderson (1876-1961) was born in the US and served in the Span-ish American War. He moved to Canada, eventually became a Canadian citizen and worked for the Museum of Nature until he retired. Anderson was seen as a reserved man who was left with much of the re-sponsibility for organizing the Canadian Arctic Expedition. Stefansson would lead the Northern Party with the objective of searching for new lands, north of Banks Island and Prince Patrick Island. He even-tually returned to the south in 1918 after narrowly escaping death from typhoid fe-ver while at Herschel Island.

A Southern Party, in the charge of An-derson, was to map and investigate the Coronation Gulf area. This group of scien-tists from the Geological Survey of Canada conducted survey work along this stretch of Arctic coast and into the interior. Hav-ing finished their work, they returned to the south in the summer of 1917.

The different personalities of the two leaders led to inevitable divisions and a long-standing feud for the rest of their careers. The differing objectives of the CAE, Stefansson’s desire for explora-tion and fame and the Canadian govern-ment’s aspirations for the protection of sovereignty and scientific investigation virtually doomed it from the beginning. The Southern Party was made up of loyal government career scientists who saw An-derson as their leader and were actively


encouraged to report directly to the Geo-logical Survey of Canada rather than to Stefansson or the Naval Service.

The expedition would be under the overall command of Stefansson, who was “free to deliver public lectures, write mag-azine articles, and make general use of the information he had acquired, provided the first use of this information is given to the Canadian government” according to the February 22, 1913 Canadian Order-in Council authorizing the expedition. Stefansson would only report to George J. Desbarats, Deputy Minister of the Naval Service.

Arrangement for Outgoing Expedition Mail

Stefansson would receive no salary for his involvement in the CAE but had already made contracts with some pub-lishers for stories about the expedition that would provide him with a source of remuneration. In a February 13, 1916 let-ter to G.J. Desbarats, Deputy Minister, Naval Service, Stefansson stated that he had signed contracts with Macmillan Company and the United Newspapers for the sale of the official narrative of the Expedition for £1250 (LAC. RG 42 Marine Branch, Series C-1, Volume 476, Canadian Arctic Expedition--Stefansson Arctic Expedition--Progress reports in Arctic (Stefansson). Files 84-2-29, Part 3). Accord-ing to Stefansson, if he failed to secure the first publication of news of the Expedition to the United Newspaper, he would forfeit £750. By that point in 1916, Stefansson believed that some members of the CAE had passed along news to other newspa-

pers and that he would have to forfeit the penalty. He was also worried that the Southern Party might return to the south before him or the Northern Party and that this would result in further news stories.

The contracts for the Expedition mem-bers required that any diaries or records that were kept would become government property. Any outgoing mail was to be sent directly to the Geological Survey of Canada in Ottawa, where it would be for-warded onwards. The Expedition contract for Diamond Jenness (an anthropologist originally from New Zealand) is printed in a biography by his son (Jenness 1991, see Appendix 7, pg 728). Two clauses of the contract are of interest in the context of this cover:

Special attention is called to the fol-lowing clauses:

• 2nd. No news is to be given out ex-cept through the official reports made to the Geological Survey of Canada, and every reasonable care shall be ex-ercised to prevent the leakage of news.• 5th. All mail sent out is to be put in a bundle addressed to the Geological Survey of Canada, from which it will be forwarded to its destination.

At the initial meeting of all the expe-dition members in Victoria, BC on June 8, 1913 shortly before their departure, there was concern about the state of the vessels to transport them and the supplies north (see Jenness, p. xxxiii). There, Stefansson claimed that all diaries and would become government property as he might find


some ethnological observations or other information that could be useful. Most of the men expressed their strong disagree-ment with these conditions of engage-ment. The requirement to send all mail to the Geological Survey of Canada for on-ward transmission was openly questioned and some members believed that this could result in their mail being opened to prevent leakage of news. Jenness (1991, pg. xxxiv) states “There is no evidence, however, that any letters subsequently despatched from the Arctic through Ot-tawa were ever opened for inspection”. While this statement may be true of CAE authorities in Ottawa, it was not the case for outgoing mail from the Southern Party that was likely intercepted in the Arctic as we shall see. Several other heated meet-ings followed, including one in Nome, Alaska on the way north and more when the CAE was in the Arctic.

Expedition Events Prior to the Despatch of the Cover

The Karluk was the main CAE vessel, and was to be used by the Northern Party. The Alaska was to be used by the Southern Party and the Mary Sachs was to be a ten-der for both parties and for oceanographic research. The objective of all vessels was Herschel Island but the first two got sepa-rated past Cape Prince of Wales (see Figure 4). Alaska and Mary Sachs eventually made it to Camden Bay, Alaska, where they would overwinter. The Karluk became trapped in ice about 75 km west of Cam-den Bay on August 12. Several short trips

The Story of an Arctic Cover were made out on the ice and to the main-land for supplies and mail. Stefansson left the ship with five others, including two hired Inuit on September 20. The ship drifted off shortly afterwards until it was crushed in January 1914. Of the 25 crew and scientists on board when it started its drift, only 14 survived and were rescued from Wrangel Island in September 1914.

Following the drift of the Karluk, Ste-fansson and his party eventually reached the Southern Party at Camden Bay. A se-ries of trips was made by various ships of the CAE along the northern coast of Alas-ka and into the Mackenzie Delta that win-ter. The Alaska (Aarnout Castel, Master) and Mary Sachs (Captain Peter Bernard) left Camden Bay on July 25, 1914 to go to Herschel Island, which was reached on August 6. The Alaska and the North Star (purchased by Stefansson to help make up for the loss of the Karluk) left Herschel Island on August 19 with the Southern Party. The Mary Sachs was attached to the Northern Party and left for Bank Island.

The Southern Party headed towards Coronation Gulf, where it would winter and set up its headquarters. On August 24, 1914, the Alaska, with Dr. Anderson on board, reached a sheltered spot that had been used in the winter of 1912-13 by Captain Joseph Bernard, where he kept the schooner Teddy Bear. The North Star arrived four days later and the men set about establishing their headquarters at the newly named Bernard Harbour (Fig-ure 5). On September 6, Alaska left for the west to get more fuel and any available mail. Dr. Anderson and six others were on board. The vessel eventually reached Her-


schel Island and picked up some limited supplies but no mail, and reached Baillie Island again before freeze up.

Anderson and some of his fellow CAE members returned to Bernard Harbour on

Christmas Day 1914 by dog team. As a small present, Anderson gave each of the CAE members at Bernard Harbour about a dozen sheets of printed stationery reading “THE CANADIAN ARCTIC EXPEDITION”

Figure 4 (above). Map showing travels of the Southern Party, Canadian Arctic Expedition.

Figure 5 (right). Headquarters of the Southern Party, Canadian Arctic Expe-dition at Bernard Harbour, Northwest Territories.


(the same stationery as my letter) (see Jen-ness 1991, pgs.362 and 786, note 7). The stationery had apparently been sent by Mrs. Anderson, care of her husband, to the men. Later that winter Anderson left by dog team to try to reach Fort Norman for mail but had to turn around. He got back to Bernard Harbour on March 30, 1915.

The cover of the envelope is on sta-tionery of an odd size for North American mail of this period. There is an embossed

imprint on the back of the envelope that reads “WILL H. BECK CO./SIOUX CITY, IOWA”. Will H. Beck Company was a large jewellery store in Sioux City. The Ander-son’s lived in Sioux City at the time of the CAE, so Mrs. Anderson probably arranged for the purchase of stationery from this firm. Stefansson also had access to the sta-tionery as shown in Figure 6, a cover he sent from either Herschel Island or Fort McPherson, NWT in 1918.

Figure 6. Registered cover sent by Stefansson on Canadian Arctic Expedition stationery, mailed from Herschel Island, Yukon or Fort McPherson, NWT. Carried out on the Dawson Patrol of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police (RNWMP) and placed in the mail at Dawson on February 28, 1918.


to Stefansson (HBCA). Lane got the Gladi-ator (also purchased by Stefansson at Cape Kellett from Captain Fred Wolki), partly in exchange for the Polar Bear, and went down to Herschel Island. Lane was headed to the outside and was entrusted with the outgoing mail, including that from the CAE. He was unable to get past Point Bar-row and was forced to return to Herschel Island on September 16 still carrying the mail (HBCA).

In order to get the CAE mail to the outside as quickly as possible, the RNWMP detachment at Herschel Island was autho-rized to lead an overland trip to the Yu-kon interior. Constable Alexander Lamont led the party of Captain Louis Lane, Burt and Adair (two miners), Naipaktoona and Izyoona as guides, five dogs, a toboggan, 56 days rations, 200 lbs. of dog food and 50 lbs. of mail primarily from the CAE (RNWMP Annual Report 1916, Appendix Z, Constable A. Lamont—Herschel Island to Rampart House and Return). The party crossed from Herschel Island on Septem-ber 30, 1915 to the mainland in whale-boats and then dog team. They arrived at Rampart House, Yukon on the Porcu-pine River (where there was a trading post operated by Dan Cadzow) on October 18. Sergeant Dempster was in charge of the RNWMP detachment there. Arrange-ments were made for Captain Lane to car-ry the mail forward to Fort Yukon. Lane arrived in Circle, Alaska on October 27, 1915, where he likely placed the CAE mail in closed bags in the US postal system.

Routing of the Anderson CoverThe next trip Anderson made is related

to my letter. According to his field notes (Canadian Museum of Nature, Vertebrate Section, Division of Zoology, Anderson Papers, Canadian Arctic Expedition Field Notes, April 21 to June 17, 1915) he left Bernard Harbour on April 21, 1914 with Silas Palaiyak (a young Mackenzie River Inuit who worked with Anderson on his 1908-12 expedition, and again for work on the CAE). They went west along the coastline using six dogs and a sled. Sup-plies were cached along the way. The objective appears to have been to take outward-bound mail towards Bailie Island for forwarding to the outside world.

On May 8 they had reached Clinton Point (then called De Witt Clinton Point) and Anderson noted, “Wrote some letters today, I have scarcely had a spare hour all winter when it was convenient to write.” The following day they met some mem-bers of the Southern Party who were head-ing eastward to Bernard Harbour. On May 11, the CAE members finished writing let-ters and sent them on by dog team with Palaiyak and Bolt to Baillie Island, where Captain Dan Sweeney and the Alaska were wintering. Anderson, Chipman, Klengen-berg and O’Neil headed east to Bernard Harbour. Captain Sweeny left Baillie Is-land on the Alaska on July 10, 1915 and reached Herschel Island three days later, carrying the CAE mail from Bernard Har-bour.

Captain Louis Lane arrived at Her-schel Island on September 7, 1915 on the Gladiator having sold his boat Polar Bear


A direct exchange of mails between Canada and the US was established ef-fective July 1, 1902 with a Canada Post Office Department contract to carry mail between Dawson, Yukon and Eagle, Alas-ka, a distance of 104 miles including 12 miles in the US (LAC, RG 3, Volume 617, File 3037, Mail Service to Eagle, Alaska 1902-1916). Ben S. Downing of Dawson got the four-year contract for $9,000 per year. He also had the contract to carry Alaskan mail all the way down to Nome at the mouth of the Yukon River (see Figures 7 and 8 for early examples of mail carried on this route). All classes of mail were to

be carried during the summer navigation season between Dawson and Eagle, while only first class mail was to be carried dur-ing the winter (not to exceed 500 lbs. per week). This arrangement also provided for the Canadian postal system to carry closed bags of US mail from Seattle and Skagway to the lower Yukon River settle-ments in Alaska. The charges for the US mails were to be accounted for at the end of the year and charged back, including the portion of the contact to carry mails between Dawson and Eagle using propor-tional mileage.

Text continues on page 28

Figure 7. Cover sent from Fort Yukon, Alaska on March 3, 1903 to Dawson, Yukon where it was received on March 22, 1903 during the first winter of the Dawson to Eagle, Alaska international mail service.


Figure 8. Cover sent from South Hero, Vermont on July 8, 1903 to Anvik, Alas-ka showing transit through the Yukon by closed bag service. Note the Skagway, Alaska transit marking of July 18, 1903 and the Eagle, Alaska transit marking of July 23, 1903 showing a remarkable five day transit time through the Yukon by river steamer.


The famous dog musher Percy De Wolfe held this contact from March 1, 1915 un-til the opening of navigation in 1918, and then until the contact was terminated in 1949, although he continued to carry the mails between Dawson and Forty Mile, Yukon until he died in 1951. De Wolfe was born in Nova Scotia and had come to the Yukon during the Gold Rush. In 1915 when this cover was carried, De Wolfe was to get paid $125 per trip once per week for the whole year. The winter weight limit for mail was 800 lbs. of which up to half could be US mail, or more if there was not enough Canadian mail. The first mail of the 1915 winter season between Eagle and Dawson arrived on October 25 (Dawson Daily News, October 26, 1915) with the next mail on November 2.

Summary of the Cover RoutingUsing the above CAE movements and

schedules for mail services in and out of Dawson based on items in the Dawson Daily News and other material from my Yukon postal history collection, the fol-lowing detailed schedule for the cover can be put together from Bernard Harbour to Ottawa:

• April 21, 1915—Dog team from Bernard Harbour, NWT• May 8—Letter written• May 11—Letter sent by dog team on to Baillie Island, NWT, where Captain Sweeney was wintering• July 10—Schooner Alaska leaves Baillie Island

• July 13—Alaska arrives at Herschel Island, Yukon with Expedition mail• September—Expedition mail put on board the Gladiator with Captain Lane for journey south• September 16—Gladiator returns to Herschel Island due to ice• September 30—Party takes Expedition mail to Yukon mainland in a whale boat and then by dog team to Rampart House, Yukon• October 18—Party reaches Rampart House, Captain Lane takes Expedition mail forward to Fort Yukon and Circle, Alaska• October 27—Lane reaches Circle, Expedition mail put into Alaska system under closed bag, carried by dog team to Dawson, Yukon• November 13 or 20—Mail leaves Eagle, Alaska for Dawson, Yukon• November 15 or 22—Mail arrives at Dawson from Eagle• November 20 or 24—Mail leave Dawson for Whitehorse, Yukon on White Pass and Yukon Route winter stage service• November 24 or 28—Mail arrive in Whitehorse, outbound mail put on the White Pass and Yukon Railway to Skagway, Alaska • December 1—Canadian Pacific Railway ship Princess Sophia leaves Skagway for south • December 11—Cover placed in the mail at Ottawa


Intercepted Mail?Stefansson returned from the north

when he chartered the ship Polar Bear from Captain Louis Lane, who had stopped at Cape Kellett, Banks Island on August 11, 1915 (Dartmouth College, Stefansson Di-ary). Stefansson was at Herschel Island on August 17-23 before returning to Cape Kellett in early September for another sea-son of northern exploration.

While at Herschel Island, Stefansson opened all the incoming official mail, even if it was addressed to Dr. Anderson, according to his August 23, 1915 report to G.J. Desbarats, Deputy Minister, Naval Service (Library and Archives Canada (LAC). RG 42 Marine Branch, Series C-1, Volume 476, Canadian Arctic Expedition--Stefansson Arctic Expedition--Progress reports in Arctic (Stefansson). Files 84-2-29, Part 3). Ander-son also reported on Stefansson inter-cepting and opening his incoming and possibly, outgoing mail (see Table 1 on page 27). His outgoing reports are sum-marized below and display his concerns about the mail. Some of these reports were received in Ottawa at the same time as my cover.

It might be reasonable to determine whether Stefansson actually opened the letter that Anderson sent from De Witt Clinton Point on May 8, 1915, and wheth-er a replacement cover was put on the letter by Stefansson. The letter is hand-written but the cover bears a typewritten address, which at first might support the contention that Stefansson replaced an original handwritten cover.

However, if one compares the type-writer face amongst the return address on

the cover, a report sent by Anderson from Bernard Harbour around the same time as shown in Table 1 and a report by Stefans-son from the same period, it is clear that the cover was addressed on the typewriter used by Anderson at Bernard Harbour (see Figure 5). The style and punctuation of the return address on the cover and report are very similar. Anderson’s typewriter at Bernard Harbour has very pointed capital “A” while Stefansson’s has a flat capital “A”. (See Figure 9 on page 26.) As noted in his field notes, Anderson did not have much time to attend to personal corre-spondence in late 1914 and early 1915. Perhaps Anderson simply addressed some blank CAE stationery with a typewriter while at Bernard Harbour and took the envelopes with him on this trip in antici-pation of having some spare time.

ConclusionsWe know how long mail can take

sometimes from isolated areas but even seven months, as this cover took, would be a stretch. Using the many primary and secondary sources available documenting the Canadian Arctic Expedition, I was able to definitively track the travels of this cov-er. Much of the initial research was con-ducted on the internet and using e-mail to verify the location of original records. We also know why it was free-franked and routed through Ottawa, in the manner that all outgoing Expedition mail was to be handled. Other postal historians are encouraged to dig into the available origi-nal records to explain the routing, rate and background on their own favourite cover.


Figure 9. Comparison of typewritten return addresses on the cover and reports prepared by An-derson and Stefansson. Original reports courtesy of Library and Archives of Canada (LAC, RG 42, Volumes 476 and 478).

Any comments or suggestions are always welcome and the author can be reached as follows:

Kevin O’ReillyP.O. Box 444Yellowknife NTX1A 2N3e-mail: [email protected] e


Table 1. Reports Sent by Dr. R.M. Anderson to G.J. Desparats, Deputy Minister, De-partment of Naval Service, Ottawa

Date of Report & Location

Receipt Date in Ottawa

Comments Method of Mailing

Jan. 21, 1915 Bernard Harbour

Dec. 12, 1915 • Report typewritten• Last report was dated Sept. 14, 1915• Anderson arrived at Bernard Harbour by dog team on Dec. 25, 1914

• Same as described in this article

Apr. 19, 1915 Bernard Harbour

Dec. 12, 1915 • Report typewritten• “Expect to start with Eskimo Palaiyak to join western survey party, bring them some auxiliary supplies, and probably assist them in their Spring work. Palaiyak will go on to Baillie Island with the mail and help on the Alaska to Herschel Island.”

• Same as described in this article

July 29, 1915 Oct. 14, 1915 • Report typewritten (different typeface than other typewritten reports)• Chipman, O’Neil and Ikey went on west on March 17, 1915

• North Star given to North-ern Party at Bailie Island. Mail likely went out on HBC chartered vessel Ruby directly from Bailie Island (did not stop at Herschel Island).

Jan. 11, 1916 Sept, 16, 1916 • Report typewritten• Mail from outside received at Bernard Harbour on November 9, 1915, first mail since Aug. 1914 while at Herschel Island (sent via Mackenzie River)• August 21, 1915 letter from Stefansson received and he stat-ed, “I opened your official mail, also other envelopes which I thought might contain official mail as I have not completed my report to the Government. I am keeping these official letters but shall forward them with the El Sueno.”• Aug. 27, 1915 letter from Baillie Island from Stefansson states: “I went through all the mail and pried into every package that looked as if it might contain one [nautical almanac] but to no purpose.”• “Also I do not know whether our mail was sent to Baillie Island on the North Star was set out without delay or interference.

• Likely taken out by ship via Herschel Island to Seattle.

Table continued on page 32


Table 1 (continued). Reports Sent by Dr. R.M. Anderson to G.J. Desparats, Deputy Minister, Department of Naval Service, Ottawa

Date of Report & Location

Receipt Date in Ottawa

Comments Method of Mailing

Jan. 11, 1916(continued)

“We have had grievance on the mail question since December, 1913 when Mr Stefansson attempted to have the Southern Party’s mail from Collinson Point turned over to him after it had been mailed with R.N.W.M.P. at Herschel Island, in order that there would be no chance of mail getting to Ottawa and dis-trubuted from there before the London Chronicle should have Mr. Stefansson’s stories. We have always felt that we might have a right to have our mail, both in and out, under depart-ment regulations, as expeditiousy as any other members of the Expedition.”

May 13, 1916Cape Barrow

Aug. 28, 1916 • Report handwritten• Report to be sent via Chipman and RNWMP Special Constable Arden to Fort Norman• Received first mail since Aug. 1914 in Nov. 1915 that included official orders up to May 1915• “Mr. Stefansson opened all my official mail last summer and anything that looked official and retained the official mail while sending the other mail in here on the Alaska on the pretext that mail came in that he needed my letters until he finished his reports. The official mail came in here eventually on the El Sueno a small vessel which Mr. Stefansson chartered to bring some more supplies here.

• Overland to Fort Norman and then via the Mackenzie River mail route to Ottawa

(LAC, RG 42 Marine Branch, Series C-1, Volume 478. Canadian Arctic Expedition-Stefansson Arctic Expedition–Progess reports in Arctic (Anderson) Files


References

Canadian Museum of Nature, Vertebrate Section, Division of Zoology, Anderson Papers, Canadian Arctic Expedition Field Notes, April 21 to June 17, 1915.

Dartmouth College, Rauner Library, Polar Expedition Diaries of Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Canadian Arctic Expedition, March 22, 1914 – April 11, 1918.

Dawson Daily News, October-December 1915.

Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, Herschel Island Post Journals, RG3/27B/2.

Jenness, Stuart E. 1991. Arctic Odyssey: The Diary of Diamond Jenness, Ethnologist with the Canadian Arctic Expedition in Northern Alaska and Canada, 1913-1916. Hull, Quebec: Canadian Museum of Civilization.

Library and Archives Canada (LAC). RG 3, Volume 617, File 3037, Mail Service to Eagle, Alaska 1902-1916.

LAC, RG 42 Marine Branch, Series C-1, Volume 478, Canadian Arctic Expedition-Stefansson Arctic Expedition-Progress reports in Arctic (Anderson). Files 84-2-33, Part 2, 1913-1916.

LAC. RG 42 Marine Branch, Series C-1, Volume 476, Canadian Arctic Expedition-Stefansson Arctic Expedition-Progress reports in Arctic. Files 84-2-29, Part 3, 1915-1917.

Royal Northwest Mounted Police, Annual Report 1916. Appendix Z, Constable A. Lamont—Herschel Island to Rampart House and Return.


Early Arctic Expeditions Hal Vogel

1. Canadian Arctic Expedition • 1913-1918

Considered the first and only pre-WWII purely Canadian scientific expedition to have extended its work into the Queen Elizabeth Islands, Vilhjalmur Stefansson’s 1913-18 Canadian Arctic Expedition made the last major geographical discoveries in the Canadian Arctic. The expedition in several parts also conducted other significant scientific work in a variety of disciplines. This is despite losing its principal vessel (Karluk) early in the expedition.

Posted 19 July 1913 at Nome, Alaska, by expedition geographical assistant John (Jack) R. Cox (assistant geographer to the Expedition), to Montreal, he writes that he is enjoying his passage north. Cox says he is awaiting departure shortly with two oth-er expedition ships (Alaska and Mary Sacks) as the expedition continues its outfitting. Karluk, writes Cox, already has sailed north (where she shortly will become trapped in ice and eventually sink). He uses a real

“Karluk” at at Esquimalt, B.C.


photograph picture postcard showing Karluk “at Esquimalt” (see facing page). Presumably the card was made from a pic-ture taken by the expeditioners en route

north. Cox left Nome on 23 July 1913 on board the Mary Sachs with other members of the Expedition (Jenness 2011).

2. MacMillan “Crocker Land” Arctic Expedition • 1914-17

Donald B. MacMillan’s “Crock-er Land” Arctic Expedition (1913-17), largely supported by American Museum of Natural History, travelled as passen-gers on a sealer to Etah, Greenland, for scientific studies and “discovery” of un-confirmed “Crocker Land” (found not to exist).

Needing a relief ship, MacMillan and Maurice C. Tanquary (Tanquary later con-

tinuing on alone from Umanak) trekked about 1000 km (almost 600 miles) south from Etah to Upernavik (24 De-cember 1914 to 7 February 1915) with personal expedition mail (the illustration being one of these) and instructions to be conveyed by any ship from Greenland to USA, that would have gone via Denmark.


This mail is cancelled Copenhagen, 28 May 1915, on Museum stationery from expedition doctor H. J. Hunt to his wife, unfranked (no Danish stamps available with expedition) via Copen-hagen (postage due 100 centimes = 20 US cents assessed at New York for double weight [2x 20 øre = 40 øre] plus doubling

for being unfranked = 80 øre, converted to 100 centimes = 20 US cents due). Dam-aged on trail when carried south, auxiliary marked in US “Received in this Condition by ...”. Manuscript “Nov 3 1914” by wife refers to date on enclosed letter. Missing two of four postage due stamps and left side censor tape. e

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Scarce Covers from the Canadian Arctic 1932-1952

Ian Mowat and Robin Mowat

Perhaps these four covers do not repre-sent exploration, but they do involve mail transport in Canada’s North under diffi-cult conditions. They represent Northern covers that are quite hard to acquire.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police established a post at Bache Peninsula (on the east side of Ellesmere Island) in 1926.1 The post was difficult to maintain; ships did not reach Bache in 1928, 1929, 1930, and 1932. The RCMP post was closed on April 12, 1933. Fig. 1 shows one of the few known registered covers from Bache Pen-insula. It was carried to Bache Peninsula in the vessel Beothic. Although it was post-marked there on August 14, 1931, it did not reach St. John’s, Newfoundland until September 28, 1933. It was transported there in the Hudson Bay Company supply ship Nascopie.

This next cover (Fig. 2 on page 43) was posted while the Hudson’s Bay Company vessel Ungava was in port at Port Burwell, N.W.T. (the ship was docked there between July 18 and 21, 1932). It was sent by Capt. Thomas Farrar Smellie (pronounced ‘Smi-lie’; 1880-1963) to his daughter Yvonne in Edmonton. Smellie was Captain of the Ungava in 1931 and 1932 and of the Nas-copie from 1933 to 1945, when he retired.

The year 1932 was the first in which the ship carrying the Eastern Arctic Patrol

(the official annual government expedi-tion into the Eastern Arctic) had its own postal facilities.1 The Hudson’s Bay Com-pany signed a contract to carry the mails to the Eastern Arctic free of charge. In return, the Post Office Department prepared a dat-ed cachet including the words “Hudson’s Bay Co.” as well as the name of the ship, the Ungava. This handstamp, used only in 1932, was designed to be a cachet but it also was used to cancel stamps.

The next cover (Fig. 3) shows mail car-ried through the Northwest Passage. Ed-win W. Mills (1899-1979) was a business man living in Hamilton, Ontario. In 1937, he was a passenger on the Nascopie and took movies and photographs of his voy-age, and mailed covers to his address in Hamilton along the way. Mills therefore was present when cargo was transshipped from the Eastern Arctic to the Western Arctic for the first time. The cover shown in Fig. 3 commemorates this event. It was written on the Nascopie between Lake Har-bour and Craig Harbour. It was deposited at Fort Ross on Bellot Strait when the Nas-copie was anchored there. The Hudson’s Bay Company supply ship had come to establish an H.B.Co.trading post at Fort Ross. [Fort Ross had a post office from 1940 to 1948.] The H.B.Co. schooner Ak-lavik came from the west, met the Nascopie


Figure 1. Registered cover from Bache Peninsula, N.W.T. to England. Mailed in 1931, it reached its destination in 1933.


Figure 2. Hudson’s Bay Company envelope mailed by Capt. T.F. Smellie on July 20, 1932 while the Ungava was at Port Burwell, N.W.T.

Fig. 3. Northwest Passage Mail. Cover written on the Nascopie and transferred at Fort Ross, N.W.T. in August 1937 to the schooner Aklavik, which carried it west on its voyage through the Northwest Passage.


at Fort Ross, and carried this cover west. The cover spent the winter at Gjoa Haven, and in the summer of 1938 was taken by boat to Cambridge Bay and then to Cop-permine in September 1938.

A cover carried through the Northwest Passage in the opposite direction, west to east, is described elsewhere in this issue of the Journal.2

Fig. 4 presents a cover from Holman, N.W.T., a non-post office point on the west coast of Victoria Island. The first Eu-ropeans to reach Holman were those of the Franklin expedition in 1826. The Hud-son Bay Company opened a fur trade post west of Holman in 1923 (Fort Brabant, open until 1928) and moved this post to Walker Bay in 1928 (called Fort Collinson, and open until 1939). This post moved to

Holman in 1939. The settlement moved 15 km west in 1965. There was no post of-fice there until 1968. Holman (sometimes called Holman Island) is now known by its Inuit name Ulukhaktok.

This cover, using a typical HBCo. en-velope, was carried to Coppermine, likely by dogsled, and entered the post there on April 15, 1953. This is typical of the meth-od by which mail reached the regular mail stream from small, non-post office points in the Arctic.

References.

1. O’Reilly, K. Northwest Territories Postal Cancellations 1907-1986, The Unitrade Press, Toronto (1987).

2. Lingen, R., “Two 1938 Northwest Passage Covers, PHSC Journal, No. 153 (Spring 2013) pp 49-51.

Figure 4. Cover from Holman Island to England.


The RCMP Patrol Schooner “St. Roch”The 1935-1937 Patrol

Ian MowatFor the RCMP patrol schooner St. Roch

and her crew, each voyage to the North was an adventure. Between 1928 and 1948, the St. Roch made regular patrols to the Arctic. Each patrol usually took two years, with the St. Roch being frozen in over winter. Henry Larsen (1899-1964, Fig. 1) assumed command of the St. Roch in August 1928, and remained in com-mand until the St. Roch made her last voy-age to the Arctic.1 The St. Roch is probably best known for her voyages through the Northwest Passage during World War II, eastbound in 1940-1942 and westbound in 1944.

To date, there are reports of only seven pieces of mail from the St. Roch’s voyages to the Arctic.2-5. This article describes two of these, both from the 1935-1937 patrol.2

From 1935 to 1937, the St. Roch was on a typical two-year mission to the North (Fig. 2). The ship left the Evans, Cole-man, and Evans wharf in Vancouver on June 25, 1935 and returned on October 5, 1937.6 Larsen and the St. Roch headed for Herschel Island, Yukon, which was reached after passage through heavy ice. A month later, the St. Roch went to Ber-nard Harbour, N.W.T. and then to Cop-permine.1 By September 13, the ship was at Cambridge Bay. The St. Roch reached Queen Maude Gulf but returned to Cam-bridge Bay for the winter.

Figure 1. Photograph of Henry Larsen on the St. Roch.

Fig. 2. The St. Roch moored to ice in the mid-1930s.


Fig. 3 shows a post card written on Au-gust 10, 1935 by Henry Larsen. It was post-marked at Herschel Island on the day it was written. The card was carried by the St. Roch to Coppermine and flown from there to Fort McMurray, Alberta. It contin-ued from there by rail.

In the summer of 1937, the ice was very difficult in the western Arctic.1 As the St. Roch proceeded west near Cockburn Point in late July, she encountered heavy ice, as did the Hudson Bay Company ship Fort James (Fig. 4). Both ships moored to a huge ice floe between Victoria Island and the Northwest Territories mainland.

Figure 3. Card written by Henry Larsen on the St. Roch on August 10, 1935.

However, a gale arose and eventually the Fort James was crushed. Her keel was sliced off, leaving her bottom fully open. All her hands and passengers were able to walk across the ice to the nearby St. Roch. While the Fort James sank in the storm, the St. Roch, with her hull designed for Arctic seas, lifted on the ice.6

Fig. 4 (see page 47) shows the only cover reported from the sinking of the Fort James. It is also the only cover with a handstamp from the St. Roch. This cover was taken by the St. Roch to Coppermine, then flown to Edmonton and taken to the United States by rail.


Figure 4. Post card showing the M.S. Fort James at Tuktoyaktuk.

Figure 5. Cover from the M.S. Fort James, bearing a circular handstamp reading, “Lands North West Territories & Yukon / Schooner St. Roch / AUG 25, 1937”.


References.

1. Larsen, H.A. (in cooperation with F.R. Sheer and E. Omholt-Jensen) The Big Ship, McLelland and Stewart, Toronto/Montreal (1967).

2. Scrimgeour, G., “St. Roch Covers,” The Northerner, Issue No. 1 (March 1994) pp. 4-9.

3. O’Reilly, K. “Another St. Roch Cover,” The Northerner, Issue No. 34 (September 2000) p. 1117.

4. Watkins, T. “Another St. Roch cover,” The Northerner, Issue No. 37, (April-May 2001) p. 1198.

5. O’Reilly, K., “St. Roch Cover, 1940,” The Northerner, Issue No. 64 (September 2007) pp. 2058-2059.

6. Klus, D. “St. Roch Back from the Arctic,” The Northerner, Issue No. 42 (July-September 2002) pp. 1352-1353.

Only one cover has been reported from the famous 28-month 1940-1942 voyage of the St. Roch from Vancouver to Halifax through the Northwest Passage.5 This cover contains a letter written by Henry Larsen at Point Barrow. It entered the mail stream at Aklavik, N.W.T. on Sep-tember 13, 1940.

The crew of the St. Roch were told that they were not explorers but rather that they were to carry out duties connected with the administration of the North on behalf of the federal government. e

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In 1938, Major R.W. Hale (Postal Superintendent for the Northwest Ter-ritories) and Rev. Archibald L. Fleming prepared two sets of air mail covers, most of which were addressed to Hale in Ed-monton. With the covers, Hale distributed pages bearing information on the paths of

Two 1938 Northwest Passage CoversRoy Lingen

the covers. One set of covers was carried east through the Northwest Passage and the other west through the Passage.

Fig. 1 shows both the front and the re-verse of one of the eastbound covers. This cover was mailed on July 23, 1938 at Cop-permine, N.W.T.

Figure 1. Air mail cover carried east by ship and dog team through the Northwest Passage between 1938 and 1940.


Hale wrote that the eastbound covers left Edmonton by plane on July 13, 1938, left Fort McMurray by plane on July 21st, and arrived at Coppermine on July 23rd. The Motor Ship Fort Ross carried the cov-ers to Perry River, N.W.T. Stephen Angu-

liak then took the covers to Gjoa Haven Harbour in his schooner Tudlik, arriving in October 1938. In April 1939, the covers were taken by dog team to Pasley Bay, and put on board the schooner Aklavik. The Aklavik returned to Gjoa Haven Harbour

Figure 2. Air mail cover carried west by ship and dog team through the Northwest Passage be-tween 1938 and 1940. (Courtesy of Kevin O’Reilly).


and delivered the covers to the M.S. Seal, which arrived at Fort Ross on September 17, 1939, too late for the covers to be put onto the Nascopie. The Nascopie picked up the covers on September 12, 1940 and took them to Montreal via Ivigtut, Green-land. Much of this journey can be fol-lowed by the postmarks shown in Fig. 1.

The cover in Fig. 1 bears the signa-tures of six people involved in its passage: J.H. Webster, postmaster at Coppermine; Lorenz A. Learmonth, the Hudson’s Bay Company Post Manager at Fort Ross; Ma-jor D.L. McKeand, Officer Commanding the Eastern Arctic Patrol; A.L. Fleming, An-glican Bishop of the Arctic; F.R.E. Sparks, postmaster on the Nascopie; and R.W. Hale, Postal Superintendent, Edmonton.

A westbound Northwest Passage cover

is illustrated in Fig. 2. The westbound cov-ers appear as Flight 613A, described as an exploratory mail test made by the Post Of-fice Department, in the Canada section of the American Air Mail Catalogue (Volume 4). This mail left Montreal on July 9, 1938 in the Nascopie in care of Rev. Fleming, who looked after them until they reached Fort Ross. The covers were taken by dog team to King William Islands, from where they were taken in August 1939 in the Tudlik to Perry River. They were taken by R.C.M.P. dogteam patrol to Coppermine via Cam-bridge Bay, eventually reaching Edmonton on January 27, 1940. Figure 3 shows the facing slip for the forwarding of these cov-ers from Fort Ross to Coppermine. Adven-turous trips were certainly made by all of these envelopes. e

Figure 3. Facing slip to the Postmaster, Coppermine, NWT for the west to east Northwest Passage covers from Fred Sparks, Postmas-ter, Eastern Arctic Patrol at Fort Ross, NWT. (Courtesy of Kevin O’Reilly).


Canadian International Geophysical Year (IGY) Expedition

Operation HazenMike Street

After seeing a similar cover in his ex-hibit at BNAPEX 2002 in Sploane, WA, the late John Powell, FRPSC of Edmonton kindly gave me the cover in the associated figure for my barrel cancel collection. It had been mailed by John to his family in England while he was taking part in the Canadian International Geophysical Year (IGY) Expedition Operation Hazen. In a 2005 email exchange John promised to send more details about the expedition as soon as he finished his then current round of treatment in hospital. Sadly, he passed away a few days after writing that mes-sage. Several months later Keith Spencer, FRPSC obtained from the family a copy of John’s 48-page exhibit, Cancellation Points for Mail En Route from Lake Ha-zen IGY Station 1957-1961 and Later Years (1964, 1965, 1969 And 1979). The fol-lowing text, from the title page of John’s exhibit, tells the story of the Lake Hazen research station.

The Canadian International Geophys-ical Year (IGY) Expedition Operation Ha-zen, organized by the Defence Research Board of Canada carried out scientific studies in the Lake Hazen area of northern Ellesmere Island, Northwest Territories,

from April 1957 to August 1958. Eight scientists undertook studies around Lake Hazen, on Gilman Glacier and the Icecap from April 28 to August 18, 1957, before leaving on the icebreaker USS Eastwind. Four meteorol ogists over-wintered at Ha-zen Base Camp from August 15, 1957 to April 30, 1958 and continued through the summer until August 15. During the 8-month winter period there was no op-portunity for mail to leave the camp except on a March 29 flight. The third phase of the Expedition, from April 30 until mid-August, involved continuation of winter studies and expansion of 1957 summer activities and new studies by 7 members based on Gilman Glacier, and 12 members stationed at Hazen Camp. From May 18 to August 24, 1959, 3 sci-entists conducted studies in the Gilman Glacier area; one only briefly at beginning and end of period. From May 20 to June 12, 1960, 3 scientists conducted limited research on Gilman Glacier and near Lake Hazen; one only briefly at beginning. In 1961, from May 10 to August 21 a party of 5 scientists undertook studies around Hazen Camp, while 3 were on the Icecap. In most of the years 1962 to 1969 Lake


Hazen Camp was occupied in the summer months by teams of scientists from Bio-systematics Research Institute, Agriculture Canada, and/or Entomology Department, University of Alberta.

“Lake Hazen is now part of the large Northern Ellesmere Island Park Reserve, administered by Parks Canada, but still serves as an expedition or tourist base, e.g. Explorers Club flight to the North Pole in 1979.

“Hazen Camp was not an official Ca-nadian Post Office; thus mail from the expeditions proceeded south by a num-ber of sea or air routes, and received sev-eral different postmarks. These routes and postmark cancellations are the subject of this exhibit. Canadian post offices known to have franked Lake Hazen mail, during the 1957-59 summers, were Montreal, Quebec; Ottawa, Ontario; Fort Churchill, Manitoba; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Edmon-ton, Alberta, Goose Airport Suboffice A,

Labrador; Goose Airport, Labrador, New-foundland; Alert, NWT; & Resolute, NWT United States post offices which franked mail were Army-Air Force Postal Service APO-23, Thule AFB, Greenland; USS Atka; and Dover, Delaware. Covers from sum-mer expeditions in 1960 and 1961 add two new Canadian post offices: Frobisher Bay, NWT; and Eureka, NWT Limited mail in later years was generally flown by light aircraft to nearby weather stations of Alert or Resolute Bay. This gives a total of 14 post office cancellation points, plus the North Pole, for mail from Lake Hazen.

“Much of the mail is from expedition members to family or friends. Of particu-lar interest is use in l969 of a small “Hazen Camp NWT” unofficial handstamp over-print on at least four then current Cana-dian stamps! [I]n 1979 Hazen Base Camp [was used] to fly mail to the North Pole.

“Information on early Lake Hazen expeditions and their mail is reported in


Polar Post No. 32, May 1958, and No 5 1, Oct. 1962, and briefly in Ice Cap News, vol. 3, nos. 4 & 6; cover photo in vol. 4, no. 5, 1959; and note in vol. 5, no. 5, 1960.”

From a notation on the reverse, the cover shown herewith originally con-tained letters XXXIV-XXXV of John’s se-ries of missives home, written about April 1, 1958. According to the exhibit, it and the next three letters in the series were “sent out on May 1 on an RCAF C-119 to Thule, staying onboard until the plane ar-rived at [Fort] Churchill, on May 6, the plane having made several trips between Lake Hazen and Thule with supplies.” The 30¢ of postage for a double airmail rate to the UK applied by John was cancelled

“Fort Churchill / 6 V / 58 / MAN.” The additional 15¢ of postage cancelled by the “WINNIPEG, MAN. / 6 V 8PM / 1958” bar-rel cancel was applied somewhere along the way, likely in Winnipeg, by persons unknown. It should be noted that the co-ordinates given on the return address la-bel on this cover were slightly in error. On later letters the coordinates were corrected to 81° 49’ N, 71° 18’ W.

Acknowledgements: My thanks to the late John Powell, his family and to Keith Spencer for their help in making this ar-ticle possible. Thanks also to my daughter Alison who in 2011 worked on Ellesmere Island for a short period and sent photos of the terrain and scenery. e

Why not show your favourite cover?

Our next favourite cover issue is #154.Absolute deadline is 15 August 2013.

Covers will be included on a first-come-first-served basis.Those not included in issue #154 will be included

in later issues on a space-available basis.

Send your cover scan and article to the Editor via emailor snail mail at the address shown on page 74.


The Plaisted Polar Expedition 1968Larry Goldberg

On April 29th 1968, a U.S. Air Force weather reconnaissance plane radioed the following message to a small team of men below: “Everywhere from where you are is now south!”

The men were four members of the Plaisted Polar Expedition team and they had reached the geographic North Pole.

It all started in a bar in Duluth, Min-nesota in 1983 when Ralph Plaisted, with the help of a couple beers, extolling the many virtues of snowmobiling to Dr. Ar-thur Aufderheide, spoke of his plan for a seal hunt in the wilds of northern Canada and decided to stretch the challenge and expand it to include a snowmobile trip to the North Pole. Peary supposedly did the trip with dogs, so no logical reason would preclude the success of a similar trip via snowmobile.

Plaisted’s four-man team at the Pole consisted of himself plus navigator and ra-dioman Gerry Pitzl, a 34-year old univer-sity geography teacher, 40-year old Walt Pederson, who owned a Ski-Doo dealer-ship in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and Jean-Luc Bombardier, the 29-year old nephew of Ski-Doo inventor Joseph-Armand Bom-bardier, designer of the Ski-Doo snowmo-biles used by the expedition.

Two other members of the team, Dr. Aufderheide and Don Powellek, an elec-tronics engineer, had been flown back to base to resolve some critical supply and electronics problems that could impede the success of the expedition.

Plaisted and his team were certainly the first team to make it to the North Pole via snowmobile, but it took many years before one might feel any degree of assur-ance that it was the Plaisted group who were indisputedly the first expedition to reach this heretofore evasive goal via land.

After researching Peary’s attempt, Plaisted found himself doubting Peary’s claim of being the first expedition to reach the North Pole. Once Plaisted final-ly reached the Pole and spent two months on the ice cap, Plaisted was convinced that there was no way Peary could have accomplished his goal in the amount of time Peary reported.

Peary’s account of his expedition had been in doubt since the day he returned, but, in 1911, a Senate committee and the influential National Geographic Society, which co-sponsored Peary’s expedition, certified his claim.

Plaisted’s own Arctic experiences (including a failed expedition in 1967) convinced him that Peary claim was ques-tionable. Peary claimed that he made the trip to the Pole in 37 days and returned over the same trail in 16 days. Plaisted insisted that there was no way Peary could have traveled back along the same route because it couldn’t happen. Plaisted not-ed that his own trails were gone in a few hours. He pointed out that the area was 1/2 million square miles of ocean and it constantly moved.


It took 20 years for the proof that Peary never reached the North Pole. Bal-timore astronomer Dennis Rawlins found that Peary had suppressed his 1909 diary’s only explanation of steering toward the Pole, when he read his diary to Congress in 1911. According to Rawlins, the notes, which had been sealed for 50 years, did not agree with real observations. The po-sition Rawlins had calculated from Peary’s coordinates showed that Peary was 105

nautical miles from the Pole.The Plaisted Expedition was a private

venture and didn’t make any scientific breakthroughs. Plaisted was quoted as saying, “About the only scientific achieve-ment was that we found that scotch freez-es at -65 degrees.”

A very big win for Plaisted and team and a long way from that bar in Duluth, Minnesota. e

A signed cover by members of the Plaisted Expedition mailed from Eureka, NWT on Elles-mere Island, the site where Plaisted and his team touched down before moving to the polar ice cap.


Hudson-70Gray Scrimgeour

The 1969-1970 voyage of the CCS Hudson (Canadian Scientific Ship Hudson) was one of the last year-long, multidisci-plinary oceanic explorations. Exploration is now done by satellite, or by focused, shorter-distance trips. The 1969-1970 ex-pedition was called ‘Hudson-70’, and in-volved exploration in both the south and north polar regions. This extended voy-age was the first circumnavigation of both South and North America. Details of the voyage are described in a book by Peter Wadhams1 and in an article he wrote.2 A series of home movies taken by Iver W. Duedall during the 1969-1970 voyage of the Hudson can be viewed on youtube.3 D.L. McKeown has presented a brief re-view of Hudson-70,4 and Alan Edmonds

wrote a book entitled Voyage to the Edge of the World about Hudson-70.5 Many scien-tific details of Hudson-70 are in the Bed-ford Institute Biennial Review 1969/70.6

The Hudson, a vessel with an ice-breaker hull, was designed for oceano-graphic and hydrographic research. Built in 1963, she was used in 1965 to survey Hudson Bay, and in 1966 scientists aboard her performed the first winter survey in the Labrador Sea. Hudson-70 was her ma-jor expedition, though. CSS Baffin circum-navigated North America in 1970, and accompanied the Hudson in surveying in the Beaufort Sea. These two ships were joined in this survey by the CSS Parizeau from the Institute of Ocean Sciences at Sidney, BC.

Figures 1 (left) and 2 (above). CCS Hudson in 1970.


On November 19, 1969, the Hudson departed from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and proceeded through the Caribbean and down the east coast of South Ameri-ca and into Antarctic waters. The Hudson then travelled in the Pacific Ocean, up the 150-west meridian. After a stop in Brit-ish Columbia, by August 1970 she was in the Beaufort Sea. She proceeded to study offshore from the Mackenzie River for four weeks. After this, she headed across the Arctic via Prince of Wales Strait and Melville Sound to Resolute. Finally, she

rounded Newfoundland and completed the 55,000-mile circumnavigation of the Americas on October 16, 1970. The route of the Hudson is shown in the map in Fig. 3. The workers on the Hudson received mail at each major port of call. Thanks to several philatelic organizations (including the American Society of Polar Philatelists) and both Dr. Cedric R. Mann (Chief Sci-entist and Coordinator of the project) and the Captain of the Hudson (Capt. David W. Butler) the progress of this historic voyage can be documented with commemorative covers posted along the route. Fig. 4 is a typical undated cover posted on board the Hudson and signed by Capt. David Butler.

The expedition had nine phases. The first, between Halifax and Rio de Janeiro, took from November 19 to December 20, 1969. Scientific observations were made along the route south. The next phase was from Rio to Buenos Aires, December 20 to January 16. Fig. 5 presents a cover mailed at Buenos Aires on January 20, 1970.

After a week in Buenos Aires, the third phase took Hudson on January 22 to Punta Arenas, Chile on February 23, with much survey work being done between South America and Antarctica. Fig. 6 shows a Canadian card mailed at Punta Arenas on March 6.

A new group of Canadian and Chil-ean scientists joined the Hudson at Punta Arenas. The next phase in the voyage was from Punta Arenas (March 1) to Valparai-so (April 7), where there was another staff change. Much of this time was spent sur-veying the biological life of the fjords of Figure 3. Map showing the voyage of the Hud-

son, from Halifax around South America, then North America, returning to Halifax.7


Figure 5. Commemorative cover mailed at Buenos Aires on January 20, 1970.

Figure 4. An undated cover posted on board the CCGS Hudson during Hudson-70.


Figure 6. Canadian postal card mailed at Punta Arenas, Chile during the visit of the Hudson.

Chile, seeing how they compare to those of British Columbia. Included was a visit to Juan Fernandez Island, the home at one time of castaway Alexander Selkirk.

Phase V was from Valparaiso (April 15) to Papeete, Tahiti (May 12). This ac-tually was part of a 13,000-mile trip to Vancouver via Tahiti. Hudson went to 65º S, 150º W and then north on the 150º W meridian, taking scientific readings regu-larly. Phase VI, started in Tahiti on May 16, continued north to the Gulf of Alaska. Then, on June 7, the survey paused, and the ship went to Vancouver, arriving on June 12, 1970.

Hudson stayed in southern British Columbia for almost two months for en-gine repairs at Esquimalt and then coast-al research studies. Phase VII involved survey work in Juan de Fuca Strait, then

north almost to Haida Gwaii. Hudson de-parted from Victoria on July 12 for work west of Haida Gwaii and returned to Vic-toria on August 5. On this phase, she did pioneering surveys of the Pacific Plate off Vancouver Island, related to plate tecton-ics.

The trip to Canada’s Arctic (Phase VIII) started from Esquimalt on August 13, 1970 and ended at Resolute Bay on Sep-tember 30. Hudson departed from Esqui-malt on August 13, heading for Unimak Pass in the Aleutians, Herschel Island, and then the Northwest Passage if the ice conditions were suitable. The three ships (Baffin, Hudson, and Parizeau) worked for a month surveying the Beaufort Sea. Their work was related to the discovery of off-shore Beaufort Sea oil. Hudson headed north from Herschel Island into unchart-


ed open water. A newly-added helicop-ter took mail ashore to Herschel Island. By September 7, Hudson’s scientists had made measurements at 72 oceanographic locations. A cover, probably written at or near Herschel Island and entered the mail stream at Inuvik, is shown in Fig. 8. On September 11, the Hudson refueled from a barge at Tuktoyaktuk. Some of the sci-entists took Northward Aviation’s Otter from Tuk back to southern Canada, and the scientific personnel for the Northwest Passage leg joined at Tuk.

Hudson’s route through the Northwest Passage was through Prince of Wales Strait and Parry Channel. She was too large a ship for the more southern route through Coronation and Queen Maud Gulfs. She raised anchor on September 22 at Tuk-toyaktuk and followed the Baffin east.

Figure 7 illustrates a cover mailed at Victoria on August 11, commemorating Hudson’s time there during Hudson-70.

The icebreaker CCGS John A. Macdonald was sent from Resolute to assist the two ships through the worst ice of the Passage. By September 29, they were within heli-copter distance of Resolute. The North-west Passage and its oceanographic survey work had taken one week. An October 1 cover from Resolute is shown in Fig. 9.

The final phase of Hudson-70 was from Resolute (September 30) to Hali-fax (arriving October 16, 1970). In Baf-fin Bay, seismic work was performed with the US Coast Guard ship Edisto. Hudson reached the southern end of Davis Strait on October 10, and entered the Atlantic Ocean. Rather than passing through the Strait of Belle Isle, she went round New-foundland so that she had circumnavigat-ed all of North America. On October 15, she moored alongside a tanker in Halifax


Figure 8. Cover from the Hudson, postmarked September 8 at Inuvik, N.W.T.

Figure 9. Cover postmarked October 1, 1970 at Resolute, signed by Capt. Butler and by Cedric Mann, head of the physical oceanography group.


Officer of the Hudson is illustrated in Fig. 10. In 1981, the CSS Hudson made a nine-

month circumnavigation of North Ameri-ca. She went from her base in Nova Scotia to the Pacific through the Panama Canal, then east via the Northwest Passage, with-out the support of an icebreaker. The Hud-son was transferred to the Coast Guard in 1996. The CCGS Hudson (Fig. 11) under-went a major refit in 2012 but is due to be replaced in 2016. e

harbour and the next day moved to an-other dock, where a reception was held for her arrival.

The work done by the workers on the Hudson on this expedition added greatly to our knowledge of the oceans visited. Many parts of these oceans were no longer unexplored masses.

Collectors have obtained few covers from voyages of the CSS Hudson. A cover sent from Greenland in 1974 by the Third

Figure 10. Cover mailed by a crew member of the CSS Hudson at Dundas, Greenland on August 4, 1974.

Figure 11. CCGS (Canadian Coast Guard Ship) Hudson. The Hudson was repainted from white to red after the Coast Guard took over her management in 1996 from the Canadian Oceanographic Service.


In Memoriam: Ross W. Irwin1921-2013

With sadness we report that Ross W. Irwin, a long-time member of the Postal History Society of Canada passed away peacefully on March 17, 2013 in his 92nd year. Survived by his wife Doreen, chil-dren John and Carol Anne, as well as five grandchildren and brother Lorne of Peter-borough, Ross was a loving husband, fa-ther, and grandfather. He was able to do what many of us have failed to do and that was to mentor sons and daughters in the passion for the hobby.

Ross served for nearly 4 years in World War II with the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. Following his discharge in 1945 he took employment with Canadian General Electric for a short period. Thereafter he attended Ontario

Agricultural College (Univ. of Guelph) and Iowa State College. He researched and taught soil mechanics and land drainage systems, returning to the University of Guelph where he taught for 35 years.

Ross was a busy person and gave much energy to his passion for both local his-tory as well as postal history. He authored many articles and papers for the Guelph Historical Society. A quick search of the PHSC website shows that Ross contributed at least 28 articles for this Journal, the last of which was written just a few weeks be-fore his death and was published in issue 152, “Oakwood Postmaster Dies at 103”.

Ross was born at Cambray, Victoria County, and never forgot his roots. One of his postal history passions was collect-ing that county.

For many years Ross drove from Guelph to attend the monthly meetings of the Kitchener-Waterloo Philatelic Soci-ety and did so until this past spring. He had a table at the Club where he shared his knowledge of postal history freely with all.

I, for one, thank him for that, for I learned much about postal indicia and machine cancels, but most of all about Victoria County.

Ross was PHSC member #184, having joined in 1976. He will be sadly missed. J. Gus Knierim


P.O.D. Rules & RegulationsGus Knierim

As collectors we do not always give full attention to how those precious covers we collect get handled. Far be it from the mail just being thrown into a bag, we learn that instructions with

great detail are to be adhered to in the processing of mail – little did we know.

MAKING UP AND DESPATCHING MAILS

128. Date Stamping. All letters and post cards mailed at an office (or brought in by the collector in places where street letter box services are in operation) are to be legibly stamped on the address side with the official dating stamp to show the actual date of posting.

At offices where such machines are used the letters, etc., are run through the postmarking and cancelling machine.

No letter or other article of mail, or envelope, wrapper or cover, is to be date stamped unless it is actually posted.

Once a letter or other article is posted or date stamped it is in the custody of the Post Office and is not to be returned to the sender or mailer under any consideration.

129. Cancellation of Postage Stamps. The postage stamps on all letters, post

cards, and newspapers, samples, packets and parcels must be neatly and effectually cancelled.

Too great importance cannot be at-tached to this duty. [Ed.: How times have changed].

130. Sortation. Letters, post cards and circulars are to be sorted and tied into packages in accordance with the distribu-tion scheme outlined by the District In-spector and instructions issued by him from time to time.

131. Letters, Post Cards and Circu-lars. Must Not be Thrown Loose into Bags but must always be faced the same way and made up into securely tied packages.

132. Facing Slips. A facing slip is a paper slip on which is either printed or written the name of the office of destina-tion, office of origin and initials or name of the dispatching Postmaster or sorter. The slip, which is date stamped at the dis-patching office, is placed on the top of a package of letters to indicated the office to which it is to be sent.

Blank facing slips, i.e. without the name of the office of destination, are used for back slipping (see section 133).

133. Direct Letter Packages. When-ever there are eight or more small ordinary letters for the same post office, a direct package should be made up for that office


Newf’d T.P.O. facing slip

by placing a plainly addressed letter on the top and a facing slip on the bottom of the package. This is called back slipping.

A direct package of large letters should be made up when there are six or more to the same post office.

134. Packages for Railway Post Of-fices, Province, State, or Country. Simi-larly whenever there are eight or more small, or six or more large ordinary letters for any railway post office, province, state, or country, separate packages should be made up.

The name of the railway post office, province, state or country should be plainly written on the facing slip, which is to be placed on top of the package, the top letter to be turned in.

Letters for Great Britain and other countries (except the United States) may be made up in one package labeled “Brit-ish and Foreign” if there are not enough

letters to make up separate packages for different countries.

135. Mixed Packages. Letters and post cards which cannot be included in direct packages are to be made up into a package for distributing post office or rail-way post office by turning in the top let-ter and placing a facing slip (on which is plainly written the name of the distribut-ing post office or railway post office) on top of the package.

136. Packages to be Securely Tied.Letter packages must be tied very secure-ly so that they will not become loose in the bag. To ensure this, the twine must be drawn around the package first lengthwise and then twice crosswise.

137. Newspapers, Printed Matter, Samples, Parcels, etc., are sorted at the larger offices into bags hung on the bag

Loading Railway Mail Car


P.O.D. Rules & Regulations continued

rack and labeled in accordance with the distribution scheme outlined by the Dis-trict Inspector and instructions issued by him from time to time.

138. Tie Sacks are used for dispatch-ing newspapers, samples, printed and mis-cellaneous matter.

139. Newspapers and Periodicals. Mailed by Publishers are to be carefully weighed and the postage chargeable there-on collected in cash and accounted for in accordance with the regulations given in the book Financial Procedure for Account-ing Post Offices under the heading “Col-lection of Postage on Newspapers”.

Mail Bag

140. Fragile Parcels. The Postmas-ter should see that a red “Fragile” sticker (form 7 P.P.) is affixed to all parcels when the contents are said to be of a fragile na-ture, also on parcels marked “Fragile”.

Fragile parcels of considerable size or of a collapsible nature are to be dispatched in special “fragile” bags of which there are two kinds, viz., “all red” and “all blue”.

Small fragile parcels are protected equally as well, if not better, when dis-patched in the ordinary bag with other pieces of mail matter, which serve as a buffer against damage.

A “Fragile” tag (form 3 P.P.) must be at-tached to each mail bag other than a spe-cial “fragile” bag in which a fragile parcel is dispatched.

This procedure, if followed carefully, will result in ample protection being giv-en to small fragile parcels and at the same time reduce the quantity of bag equip-ment used. Source: General Information for Postmasters in Charge of Post Offices on the Revenue Basis. King’s Printer, Ottawa 1948

To be continued in issue 154

Fragile Label


Study Groups ReportMartin Schofield

GREY, BRUCE, DUFFERIN & SIMCOE POSTAL HISTORY STUDY GROUP (phsc)

Issue #48 of the Georgian Courier is an-other very attractive full-colour edition.

The first article on Allenford, ON is written by the late James E. Kraemer, FRPSC, FRPSL. The village is on the banks of the Sauble and was first known as Floodwood Crossing. James describes how a treaty was signed by the Ojibwa in 1854 followed by a dispute over the interpretation. The resulting meeting at this point was referred to as the Flood-wood Pow Wow. The Ojibwa interpreta-tion was agreed upon and the band was given increased frontage on Lake Huron. The town was named after the first set-tler James Allen who was born in Ireland, and was Township Reeve for 16 years and was Justice of the Peace. John Sharpe first brought the mail to the settlers at his brother George’s general store, in the town. The post office was first established in 1868 and George was appointed Post-master. The first train arrived in 1882. James was able to describe in detail all the politics behind the postmasters appoint-ments up to the present day. The article includes 8 different proof strikes, photos of the post offices and covers with differ-ent postmarks of Allenford. The second

article by Dave Hanes describes the Wasa-ga Beach Post Office in Simcoe County. It boasts of the world’s longest freshwater beach and the sinking of th schooner HMS Nancy during the war of 1812. A com-memorative cover and postmarks from this post office are a welcome addition to the article. I almost missed the Scar-let Hill, Dufferin County Post office. The post office was open for almost 7 years from 1882 to 1888. There are no known postal artifacts to be found. Gus Knier-im wrote the final article in this report, Mowat Station in Parry Sound District. It is a very interesting story about a logging camp post office that was short lived fol-lowing a partnership that was blown out of existence, over a sawmill that was not to be. The Mowat Station Post Office was established in 1916 and closed in 1918.

MONEY ORDER OFFICE STUDY ESTAB-LISHMENT (MOOSE) (phsc)

The Money Order Office Study Estab-lishment (MOOSE) issue # 84 has an at-tractive cover showing various postmarks from Collingwood ON including Registra-tion Date stamp, rect. MOOD on a send-ing coupon and a Supervisor Operations postmark. The Editor’s note has an insert from a Post Office Department booklet granting rural route drivers the right to process C.O.D. parcel services as a Money Order Post Office to facilitate catalogue mail orders. There is also an updated list of Money Order Office (M.O.O.) and Mon-


ey Office (M.O.) markings divided into broken circle, full circle and duplex mark-ings. Jim Slough provided an article on the most boastful of “Cancels to Collect” or “Vanity Cancels” , the date stamps that claim to be the Capital of … (whatever), from the Apple Capital of Nova Scotia to the Root Cellar Capital of the world in NL. The editor has discovered about 40 differ-ent Special Delivery Time Markings used in various depots and stations in Vancou-ver alone. Doug Murray reproduced early markings from Montreal and Quebec City including a mail bag stamp used on an envelope. Dale Speirs discovered a postal code error on a Calgary Sub-Post office in Sunridge RePO which belonged to the Vil-lage Square RePO which is also in North East Calgary. The report also included two pages of Wings, errors and oddities in postmarks and had an updated list of 37 new post offices in Canada.

BRITISH COLUMBIA POSTAL HISTORY RESEARCH GROUP (bnaps)

Issue #83 of the British Columbia Postal History Research Group has docu-ments from Slocan Park, name changed from Gutelius, in the District of Kootenay, BC. A letter of appointment to Postmas-ter of a Gutelius (first name not legible) on the 13th of March 1903 is shown. The postmaster of Slocan Park had requested a weekly half holiday, which was granted on September 27th, 1938. Another docu-ment shows the appointment of Mrs. Lola Conkin as Postmaster on the 1st of August 1946 with an attachment of Rates of Com-pensation for Rural Postmasters. There are also listings and copies of Special Delivery

– Time Markings from Vancouver and a few larger centres in BC.

FANCY CANCEL AND MISCELLANEOUS MARKINGS (bnaps)

In issue #60 of the (BNAPS) Fancy cancel and miscellaneous markings study group, Ken MacKay sent in a query for a Toronto parcel cancel with a ‘6’ indicator and was identified as Brockton PO. A new ‘Toronto 2’ cover has been discovered by Labron Harris, an American stamp dealer. Bob Turkowski sent in another ‘Toronto 2’ item in a leaf design, which was listed as a separate item. A note of interest; quite a few ‘Toronto 2’ covers were to the same address. The covers were often addressed to Alex McNabb, Crown Land Agent, from Saugeen, Ont. Ron McGuire is seeking in-formation on Small Queens overprinted ‘SPECIMEN’ which was apparently pre-sented by the PO. A fancy ‘236’ on a cover from Petrolia Ont. with a Apr. 1881 CDS is a ‘red herring’ as later covers indicated New Edinburgh Ontario as the originat-ing PO. Mike Street sent in an example of the original crest of Nicaragua as a cancel originating from Ste. Genevieve, Quebec. Ron Smith showed a recently purchased fraternal cover embossed with the ‘In-dependent Order of Good Templars, with a fancy cancel L 671 from Napanee, Ont dated Feb. 1877. Under bogus or fake can-cels the editor is suspicious of an L409 ‘F’ from Fredericton NB. Apparently there is only one cover dated Apr 1885. To con-clude, Eastern Auctions “Libra” sale of Oct 2012 had two Legislative marking covers. One cover had two Legislative markings


in red, applied at the Parliament building and ‘Free’ and Ottawa CDS in black, ap-plied at the Ottawa Main PO. The second cover has a very rare Legislative Council Canada ‘Crown’ date stamp (only two ex-amples are known).

WORLD WAR II STUDY GROUP (bnaps)

Issue #50 showed how the war affected civilian life. The newsletter describes the efforts to form a national registry of Can-ada’s Manpower, under the National Re-sources Mobilization Act of June 18, 1940. The Act was to prevent “fifth column” activities such as sabotage and espionage and also to provide the Government with an inventory of mechanical and indus-trial skills in our labour force. Postmasters across Canada were appointed as Deputy Registrars. Every person over the age of 16 was expected to be registered. Depart-ment of Labour O.H.M.S. Covers included, National Selective Service, Mobilization Section; National Registration; and Ex-planation of Manpower Control Orders, National Selective Service. A second ar-ticle titled ‘The Local Ration Boards’ was designed to control the supply and distri-

bution of available goods and services to all users on a per capita basis. Two ration covers are shown and one cover identify-ing Waterloo as Local Ration board , L-53. Another article shows a postwar Travel Permit issued under the Foreign Exchange Control Board. The editor is looking for other examples. The final article is an ex-ample of a Foreign Export Stamp, issued by the Dominion of Canada, Department of Agriculture.

CALGARY PHILATELIC SOCIETY

Issue #117 of the Calgary Philatelic So-ciety features a four-page article on the pe-troleum industry by James Taylor. Gordon Demke continues his look at the Canadian stamps of remembrance (part 7) remem-bering the year 1944. Peter Fleck wrote an article on the stamps issued for the 100th playing of the Grey Cup. This article in-cludes a photo of the Grey Cup special train with the Montreal stamp painted on one of the cars. There is also a look at the closed and relocated retail postal outlets in Calgary. The newsletter concludes with small ads of stamps for sale and wanted by individual members. e


ILLUSTRATED • HARD COVER • 216 PAGES

PRICE $45.69 (+ postage)please make cheques payable to

postal history society of canada

PayPal payments accepted at e-mail address, below

PHSC Treasurer Scott TraquairP.O. Box 25061, RPO Hiway, Kitchener, ON N2A 4A5 Canada

e-mail: [email protected]

Stampin’ Aroundor

The Life of a Stamp Collector

The Memoirs ofFred Jarrett

available from Postal History Society of Canada

P.O. Box 25061, RPO Hiway, Kitchener, ON N2A 4A5e-mail: [email protected]$30 (plus shipping)

please make cheque payable to J. Knierim – we can also accept PayPal payments at above e-mail address

The

ONTARIOPOST

OFFICEEric Manchee

– 2003 –

ONTARIO POST OFFICE

The

Atlas

ALL ONTARIO COUNTIES + THE DISTRICTS OF MUSKOKA, NIPISSING (SOUTH HALF), PARRY SOUND, & MANITOULIN IS.

Atlas

The PHSC Book Page

CANADA’S BARREL POSTMARKSperfect bound, 8½ x 11, 64 pages – full colour

is available, printed on demand, for just$28 + $5.00 (s&h) – H.S.T. includedfrom Postal History Society of CanadaJ. Gus Knierim, [email protected] make cheques payable to J. Knierim

Limited Edition!

Allan Steinhart’s

The Rates of Postageof Canada 1711-1900

available on a print-on-demand basis

444 PAGES, 8½ x 11 ISBN 978-0-919615-40-3

published by PHSC

PERFECT-BOUND (soft cover)

$39.00 + shippingfor general inquiries, shipping

costs, and orders

email [email protected]

Postal History Society of CanadaP.O. Box 25061, RPO Hiway, Kitchener, ON N2A 4A5We accept PayPal payments at the above email address

(cheques payable to j. knierim)


Classified Ads Reach over 450 interested postal historians and collectors and support your Society. Take out an ad-vertisement in the PHSC Journal. Classified ads are just a $1 per line or portion thereof. Simply type out your message and send it with your remittance (cheque or money order) to the Advertising Manager, George Power, RR2, 668207 20th Sideroad, Lisle, Ontario, L0M 1M0. telephone (705) 466-3221 or email <[email protected]>. Please make cheques/money orderspayable to the Postal History Society of Canada – do not send cash in the mails.

DUFFERIN COUNTY postal history on post cards orcovers. Require the following offices: Auguston, Blount (1),Cardwell, Chedworth Crombie, Elba, Elder, Farmington, Granger, Lorraine, Lucille, Scarlet Hill, and Vanatter. Contact George Power, RR 2, 668207 20th Sideroad, Lisle, ON L0M 1M0 or e-mail [email protected]

• 153

NEW SPECIAL PRICE: Stampin’ Around or The Life of a Stamp Collector – Fred Jarrett’s memoirs are exciting to read and give a real insight into the hobby of previous generations. Now available. Cdn $29.95 + postage (please make cheques payable to postal history society of canada; we also accept PayPal at the email address listed below):

PHSC Treasurer Scott TraquairP.O. Box 25061, RPO Hiway, Kitchener, ON N2A 4A5

or e-mail [email protected]

CANADA, NEWFOUNDLAND COVERS on-line from my web-site, <http://www.donslau.com>. Thousands scanned – stampless to QE II – have a look. Don Slaughter, Box 8002, Sherwood Forest RPO, London, ON N6G 4X1 • 156

FOR SALE WANTED

LITERATUREWANTED: GRAIN COMPANY post cards, covers and covers with contents. D. Jansen, Box 161, LeRoy, SK S0K 2P0.

• 153WANTED: Duplex cancels of Harrow, Ontario on cover. Buy or trade. Contact: Larry Goldberg at [email protected]. or by snail mail (see page 74). • 153

Got something to buy or sell?Classified ads in the PHSC Journal …

efficient, effective, economicalonly $1 per line per issue!

LOOKING FOR CANADA, PROVINCES, GREAT BRITAIN, BRITISH COMMONWEALTH OR FOREIGN?

For over 85 years we have been helping philatelists worldwide enhance their collections. We are sure to have something for you, as every auction includes extensive Postal History, Proofs, Covers and Stamps (from choice classics to modern rarities), from better individual items and sets right up to specialized country collections and worldwide lots.

Contact us for a free catalogue or view our sales, including colour photos, on line. CANADA’S PREMIER AUCTION HOUSE, DEALERS IN FINE STAMPS SINCE 1924

r. maresch & son 5TH FLOOR 6075 YONGE ST TORONTO ON M2M 3W2 CANADA (416) 363-7777 www.maresch.com FAX (416) 363-6511


OFFICERS * TERM: 2012–2014 # TERM: 2013–2015

PRESIDENT: * Stéphane Cloutier, 255 Shakespeare St., Ottawa, ON K1L 5M7 • email: [email protected] PRES.: G. Douglas Murray, 26 Alexandra Court, Stratford PE C1B 1KB • email: [email protected] PRES.: # Dr. Robert G. Leigh, Champaign, IL, USA • email [email protected].: # Scott Traquair, P.O. Box 25061, RPO Hiway, Kitchener, ON N2A 4A5 • email: [email protected]: # Larry Goldberg, P.O. Box 7170, Buffalo Grove, IL 60089-7170 USA •˜email: [email protected] # Justus (Gus) Knierim • email: [email protected] # Roger F. Narbonne, 136 Morphy Street, Carleton Place, ON K7C 2B4 * Kevin O’Reilly, P.O. Box 444, Yellowknife, NT X1A 2N3 • email [email protected] * William S. Pawluk, Box 6032, Station A, Calgary, AB T2H 2L3 • email: [email protected] LARGE: * Dr. Gray Scrimgeour, 188 Douglas St., #570, Victoria, BC V8V 2P1 • email: [email protected]

JOURNAL EDITOR / CIRCULATION MANAGER:

The PHSC Journal is the official organ of the Postal History Society of Canada and is published quarterly. The subscription price for PHSC members is $35, per annum, included in the membership fees. All members automatically receive the Journal. Non-members cost: $40 per annum. Changes of address, undeliverable copies, and orders for subscriptions are to be sent to the Secretary at the address above; return postage guaranteed. Recent back issues are available from Gus Knierim: 113-144 may be obtained for $3 each; issues 1-140 at $7.50 each; and issue 141 and later $8.75 each. A one-time example may be purchased by a non-member for $8.75 postpaid. Membership applications should be mailed to the Secretary.

DUES: Canadian addresses, Cdn$35 per year, July 1 to June 30 membership year, prorated to the time of joining. US addresses: Cdn$45 per year; addresses in other countries: Cdn$55 (due to higher postage rates outside Canada).

ARTICLES: Anyone interested in reprinting articles published in the Journal must contact the Editor for details. The Publisher, the Society, its Directors, and its Members assume no responsibility for statements made by authors of articles in the Journal.

Copyright 2013 by Philaprint Inc. Printed by Conestoga Press, Kitchener, ON N2H 1V6 Canada Post Agreement Number 40069611 Published July 15, 2013

☛ PayPal accepted at [email protected] for all your PHSC payments

Larry Goldberg • email: [email protected] P.O. Box 7170, Buffalo Grove, IL 60089-7170 USA EDITORIAL COMMITTEE: Larry Goldberg • email: [email protected] Gus Knierim, Editor Emeritus • email: [email protected] K. G. Scrimgeour • email: [email protected] R. C. Smith • email: [email protected]: George Power • email: [email protected] RR 2, 668207 20th Sideroad, Lisle, ON L0M 1M0PHSC CERTIFICATES & RIBBONS: J. Michael Powell • email: [email protected] 72 R12 Big Rideau Lake, RR 1 Lombardy, ON K0G 1L0

WEB SITE COMMITTEE: www.postalhistorycanada.net Rob Leigh, webmaster, [email protected] Stéphane Cloutier • email: [email protected] Gus Knierim • email: [email protected] APPLICATIONS, CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Scott Traquair • email:[email protected]

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Documents

PHSC Journal€¦ · Tom Hare, Chris Green, Robert Haslewood and David Hobden. President Stéphane Cloutier started by explaining that 2012-13 was not a year of significant major