Philately - The Fiction Connection
The Mystery Box book is the proud winner of a Silver Medal awarded by the Chicago Philatelic Society CHICAGOPEX Literature Exhibit
Read the Book Review by Barbara Kinne of the APS American Philatelist
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One of our Mystery Box readers sent in these scans of a "Titanic" cover found in an old stamp album, a family heirloom.
What makes this cover mysterious is that back-stamps show this cover as having been designated overseas mail ["ETRANGER"] and mailed from Paris on March 5, 1912 and received in Washington, DC on March 18th.
Was this piece of mail originally intended for the R.M.S. Titanic mailroom but delivered by another ship? The Titanic was not even operational until March 31. She did not make her maiden voyage across the English Channel until April 10.
The first transatlantic voyage of the Titanic was also her last, for the "unsinkable" ocean liner plunged to the bottom of the Atlantic after ramming an iceberg on April 14, 1912.
Of the 2200 passengers and crew on board only 705 survived. Since the Titanic was designated an R.M.S. or Royal Mail Ship she was carrying several hundred bags of registered mail, none of which was recovered, despite the heroic efforts of the British and American postal clerks aboard the ill-fated ship.
The cover, a yellowish brown and darker than is shown on the scans, measures 4 by 5 inches. The name TITANIC is hand-stamped vertically on the front.
The cover is addressed to "Chez Mr. Al. Winter Co., Winter Building, Washington, D.C., North America."
The front of the cover also bears French postage, two faint postmarks, a "RECEIVED MARITIME ____" block hand stamp and a [registered mail?] control number hand-stamped in light blue.
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