The International Website for People Interested in Netherlands+Philately!
Mail sent by ship (surface mail). For paquebot covers see the tag “paquebot”.
For the serious philatelist, there is nothing more fascinating than a piece of postal history that transcends borders—both literally and metaphorically. Paquebot envelopes are precisely such a piece of history. These letters, dispatched from ships drifting on the high seas, not only have a captivating …
Sending a telegram used to be the best way to get a message across quickly. In the age of the (steam) ship it could take weeks or months before normal mail arrived. Airmail was faster of course, but even that could still take quite some …
A lot of mail can be found to passengers (or workers) on board of a ship. Quite a number of them are returned to sender or redirected, mainly because the person is not on board or because the ship has left.
As recently as 2016 a letter has been found with a VOC postmark from Cape Town, South Africa, which has really been sent from Cape Town. Till 2014 it was even doubted that there had been any VOC postmarks at all in Cape Town in …
The cover shown in Figure 1 was sent in 1893 from Amsterdam and addressed to “Schietschool Fort de Kock Java.” What mainly attracted me was the multitude of postal markers on it. On the front it showed a small round cancel “Amsterdam / 4 MRT …
The cover shown in Figure 1 has a blue marker that reads “BESCHADIGD DOOR RAMP HARWICH BOOT” (damaged because of disaster with Harwich boat). It concerns a letter from London (U.K.) to Amsterdam. The flaps of the envelope (Figure 2) had become lose, probably because …
In this blog entry I will try to understand why the five picture postcards below were initially unsuccessful in reaching their proposed addressee: E.W. Rose. A philatelist approached me during our last auction because he had read somewhere that I fancied postal items with a …
The printed matter (“Drukwerk”) cover shown here was mailed aboard the frigate Hr. Ms. ”Johan Maurits van Nassau” in January 1953. Its destination was Yokohama, Japan. The frigate was on assignment in Korean waters during the Korean War. Upon the frigate’s arrival on January 22, …
Today I present to you 2 original letters that I am very pleased to put in my collection! The 1st one below was sent to me by Velu, a blogger friend from India, who travels the world on board his merchant ship, the MT Maroni, …
door 
door 
door 
door 
door 
door 
door