When Germany invaded Norway on April 9-1940, the Norwegian ships that were in allied waters at the time were requisitioned by Royal Norwegian Government, which early on in the war managed to escape to the U.K. The Norwegian Shipping and Trade Mission was established in London at the end of April, and the name abbreviated to Nortraship, following a suggestion from the British Postal Services. Several offices were subsequently opened in various parts of the world. The three main offices were in London, New York, and Montreal, with sub offices in several cities in the U.K., USA and Canada, as well as in Bombay, Calcutta, Cape Town, Reykjavik, Santos, Suez and Port-of-Spain.  British naval authorities requested the Norwegian Navy to help fill gaps in their ships complements one being the shortage of minesweepers, patrol vessels and auxiliaries for different types of naval service. Norway could actually make a contribution from the large Norwegian whaling fleet which was in the Antarctic at the time of Germany's invasion of Norway. These numerous whalers were sturdy and seaworthy ships of 300-500 tons. They were well suited for conversion to minesweepers, patrol vessels, escort vessels and different types of naval auxiliaries. They served throughout the war in different waters: mine-sweeping in the Persian Gulf, the Suez Canal, the inner Mediterranean and along the southern and eastern coast of Great Britain. Little philatelic evidence has been found from the flotilla based as Suez a mention being made in Stamp weekly in the sixties and a cover described in the FPHS NL 261 Autumn 2004. As the cover used in this article is the one used in the QC article and the brief mention in Stamp weekly is almost certainly the same one these articles have not been archived here.
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