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There is only a brief treatment of this sea post office in the book Egypt: Stamps & Postal History, with only two illustrations. I had received from M. Michel Varin, of Bar le Duc, a description of the five Types of postmark known, with known dates of use, but it came too late to be incorporated, Since then I have acquired a hitherto unrecorded sub-type, and now can give a more complete treatment of the subject. The shipping line went from Constanta, on the Black Sea, via Constantinople/Istanbul across the Aegean Sea to Piraeus (for Athens), and thence to Alexandria. The first cancellation (shown in the book) is recorded by M. Varin from 30/12/06 to 7/08/14 (service was evidently interrupted by the outbreak of war). His examples are all northbound, but I can report a southbound postcard, inscribed CONSTANTA-ALEXANDRIA, addressed to Patras, Greece, franked with a Romanian stamp, in 1911. Type 2, which I was unable to illustrate before, can now be shown. Varin reported that only two examples are known (both with number 3 at the bottom). This new one is not only numbered 2, but it is inscribed in the reverse direction - Constanta-Alexandria. It is used as a transit marking on a cover (shown here) from Galata to Athens. The transit time of but 2 days does not seem long enough to have allowed an intermediate stop. The three known examples have dates 17/06/26, 26/10/26, and 6/12/26. The circumstances suggest that the sea post office may not have resumed operation until 1926. Type 3, inscribed BIR. AMB. / MARITIN / CONSTANTA-ALES_ANDRIA, is reported by Varin from 21/06/27 to 31/08/39. I can now confirm that it exists also in a northbound version, ALESANDRIA-CONSTANTA. Type 4 (illustrated in the book) has the correct spelling, ALEXANDRIA, and is reported from 2/05/29 to 23.09/36, with both northbound and southbound inscriptions. Type 5 is identical to Type 4, but with the month expressed in letter abbreviation instead of roman numerals: reported from 1/11/30 to 26/04/39. There is some overlap among the dates, and it is not unlikely that there was more than one device in use, perhaps on different ships. The Romanian sea post was terminated at the beginning of World War II, probably in 1939, and has not been resumed.  CONSTANTA-ALEXANDRIA Type 2  Posted at Galata (Istanbul), turkey, on the 26th of October, 1926, and handed over to the Romanian sea post office, which carried the letter to Piraeus for transmission to Athens, where it arrived on the 28th. this cover is therefore evidence that the Constanta-Alexandria line was not direct from Iistanbuli/Constantinople but went via Greece. this postmark was introduced after the line resumed operation following world war I; it was superseded by the Bir Maritin type in 1027. |
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