Irish Ships and Shipping
Paquebot mail by Brian Limerick
The whole concept of Paquebot mail would seem to be surrounded by much confusion, both in maritime and postal circles. It might be true to say that few seafarers are acquainted with, and understand the rules regarding the Paquebot mail privileges. Unfortunately, the same can also be said to be true of many postal officials.
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The
concept is based on the fact that a merchant ship on the high seas is sovereign
national territory of the country whose flag she flies (similar to an embassy)
and therefore mail posted aboard a ship in international waters is entitled to
be franked with stamps of, and in accordance with the postal rates of the
country of the ship's registry.
It can be seen that when the ship reaches its next port
and mail posted by passengers and crew is handed over to the local postal
authorities, that difficulties will arise and for this reason, back in 1893,
rules were laid down by the Universal Postal Union (U.P.U.). These rules have
been regularly updated, the last time being in Lausanne in 1974.
The relevant articles referring to the legal use of
Paquebot mail are as below:
Article 26 (2). If the items are posted on board on the
high seas they may be prepaid - by means of the postage stamps and according to
the rates of the country to which the ship appertains or is under contract.
Items prepaid in this way must be handed over to the post office at the port of
call as soon as possible after the ship's arrival.
Article 133 (6). The stamping (postmarking) of the items
posted on ships shall be the responsibility of the postal official on board
charged with the 8 duty or, failing those, with the post office at the port of
call at which these items are handed over. In that case the office shall impress
the correspondence with its date stamp and add the word NAVIRE, PAQUEBOT or any
similar note.
Many of the passenger carrying ships of certain countries
still have post offices on board, mainly Scandinavian ferries and cruise ships
but also some ships of the Italian, German and Russian fleets.
Since World War II use of the Paquebot privilege by
merchant ships has declined to where most (but not all) such mail today is
probably of philatelic origin.
Many of the old Paquebot markings have disappeared but
surprisingly, except for the Latin American countries, there is continued use of
such markings at most of the older ports and many of the new ports and new
markings keep appearing from not only the old ports but from the new ones as
well.
During 1981 some 116 new Paquebot markings were reported,
37 of these being from previously unreported ports. Included were . new markings
from large ports like New York and Bremen and smaller ports such as Port Cartier
in Canada, Port Huon, Tasmania and
Landskrona, Sweden. One new port also reported was Avilas
in Spain with a new marking first used on an envelope posted to me by the Master
of m.v. Tuskar Rock! Many of the ports of call of the ships of Irish Shipping
have Paquebot markings, including Durban, Baltimore, Antwerp, Liverpool,
Singapore and also many of the smaller European ports.
The U.P.U regulations were originally intended to apply to
surface mail but have since been revised to include Paquebot privileges for
airmail. However, these airmail regulations are more complicated than for
surface mail and therefore rarely used. Quite often, though, mail, with only
second class rate or printed matter rate, posted for me by obliging ship's
officers
has arrived within days rather than weeks.
There are many types of Paquebot markings in use
throughout the world and it is their variety, and the difficulty in obtaining
them, that makes them interesting to collect. Most are straight line marks,
sometimes with the name of the port included, or combined in a datestamp. Some
of these are illustrated with this article.
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