Chapter XXXII - Maritime Mail

It is necessary to begin with some words about the Egyptian steamship line that operated in the eastern Mediterranean and in the Red Sea. It was founded as the Medjidieh Company on February 1st, 1857, flying the Turkish flag. Ismail Pasha, on becoming Viceroy, authorized the formation of the Egyptian Company for Steam Navigation on May 4th, 1863. It was granted a monopoly for passenger and freight traffic on the Nile and adopted the name Azizieh Misri Company. In 1870, the Government took over full control, renaming it the Administration des Paquebots Postes Khediviaux.

Eventually, the Company was sold to British interests in 1898 and operated as the Khedivial Mail and Graving Dock Company (KML).

Post offices were installed on the ships around 1875. The Postal Administration provided special date-stamps, inscribed UFFIZIO NATANTE ("floating office") (Fig. 1). In addition to the changeable date, a changeable slug reading either ALES. or COSP. was included to indicate the direction of sailing. The designation for this type is SP.O-1. Examples are very scarce but not rare on loose stamps, but covers are rarities.

When the UPU settled on the use of the word "paquebot", Egypt issued new handstamps (Fig. 4), introduced around 1899. Port Taufiq was added to the group at this time. These paquebot handstamps were commonly used to cancel stamps, in contrast to the "pleine mer" types. The great majority are on covers franked with British stamps in the earlier years.

By 1914, Port Said was given a circular date-stamp (Fig. 5) incorporating the word "paquebot". Alexandria also received a circular paquebot date-stamp (reported 1925-68). Port Taufiq was at first given a small date-stamp with spelling TAUFIQ, replaced in 1956 by a larger device spelling TAWFIQ.

Mail from ships leaving Egypt also received paquebot treatment at ports of arrival in foreign countries. Egyptian stamps may be found cancelled with the paquebot handstamps of ports in England, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and others (Fig. 6).

German: Germany operated steamships through the Suez Canal to serve Colonies in East Africa, the Far East, and the Pacific. Most ships carried sea post offices inscribed DEUTSCHE SEEPOST. German naval vessels also carried post offices (1895-1914), inscribed KAIS. DEUTSCHE MARINE-SCHIFFSPOST. Egyptian stamps were rarely used on such mail (Fig. 7).

Romanian: The Royal Romanian Steamship Line carried a post office on the Constanta-Alexandria route. Four types of cancellation are known, including CONSTANTA-ALEXANDRIA and later BIR. AMB. MARITIM (Fig. 8).

Dutch: Sea post offices were carried on board Dutch ships plying the route to the Dutch East Indies via the Suez Canal. Date-stamps read POST AGENT / AMSTERDAM-BATAVIA or similar variants (Fig. 9).

Cyprus: Cyprus maintained a sea post office on ships sailing between Cyprus and Egypt. Contracts were held by the Limassol Steamship Company and later the Khedivial Mail Line. Date-stamps are shown in Figure 10.

Indian: A sorting office of the Indian postal service was provided on P&O steamers carrying mails between Suez and Bombay. Date-stamps reading SEA POST OFFICE were used (Fig. 11).

In the twentieth century, handstamps of the Khedivial Mail Line can be found cancelling Egyptian stamps (Fig. 13). Most covers on the market are "Hendrey" covers (Fig. 14), produced by Alexandria dealer F. Hendrey between 1928 and 1932.

Other lines include the Navigation a Vapeur "Panhellenique" and the Société Misr de Navigation Maritime (Fig. 15), which used dated handstamps SP.S-1 and SP.S-2. A pictorial postmark was also used on the M/F Gripsholm in 1935.