Great Voyages of New Zealand

 

Date of Issue : 5 September 2012

New Zealand Post will issue a set of 5 stamps and a Miniature sheet on 5th September 2012 featuring Great Voyages of New Zealand.

2012 is a fitting time to look back at New Zealand’s maritime history, as it marks a number of significant anniversaries, including 50 years of the Cook Strait Inter-Island Rail and Road Service. 100 years have passed since the Earnslaw was successfully launched, and it’s been 130 years since the Dunedin completed the first successful shipment of frozen meat between New Zealand and England.

These important milestones are celebrated in the ‘Great Voyages of New Zealand’ stamp issue along with waka, which transported people and trade goods across Cook Strait, and the Rotomahana – the first ocean-going ship built of mild steel.

Whether they were enabling trade, increasing efficiencies or transporting people, each of the vessels in the ‘Great Voyages of New Zealand’ stamp issue has a unique story to tell.

70c - Aramoana

The Aramoana’s big stern door transformed domestic transport in 1962. Prior to then, double-handling had made it too costly and slow for rail to compete with coastal ships, but roll-on, roll-off ships seamlessly connected the islands. In 2012 five such ships form a ‘floating bridge’. The 4,160-ton road/rail ferry Aramoana served until 1984.

$1.40 - Waka

Over time Māori developed a range of distinctive dugout canoes ranging from the imposing waka taua (war canoes) to the humbler fishing canoes, river canoes and reed and flax craft. Usually paddled but sometimes assisted by mat sails, the bigger vessels could transport large quantities of people and trade goods across Cook Strait.

$1.90 - Earnslaw

Tourists walk the triple - expansion steamer Earnslaw’s decks these days, but 100 years ago the ‘Lady of the Lake’ was a hard-working passenger, freight and livestock carrier, one of several linking the isolated farms and settlements of Lake Wakatipu. Designed and built in Dunedin and reassembled at the lakeside in 1912, the Earnslaw still burns coal today.

$2.40 - Dunedin

In 1874 the Albion Line (later Shaw Savill & Albion) commissioned the 1,320-ton Dunedin for the immigrant trade, which it served until being converted in 1881 to carry frozen meat. A regular caller to Oamaru, the Dunedin vanished with all 35 crew after sailing from that port for London in March 1890; the ship probably hit an iceberg.

$2.90 - Rotomahana

With its rakish bow, masts and funnel, the Rotomahana looked like an elegant steam yacht. The first ocean-going ship built of mild steel, the 15.5- knot ‘Greyhound of the Pacific’ spearheaded the Union Steam Ship Company’s grab for the trans-Tasman trade in the late 1870s. The 1,727-ton ship later served on the Wellington-Lyttelton and Melbourne-Hobart runs before being discarded in 1925.

The first day covers feature imagery of historical nautical maps as well as two unique date stamps.

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100 years of the Titanic disaster….

 

Souvenir sheet from Hungary

Date of issue: 13 April 2012

Hi ! Here is a unique souvenir sheet with two stamps  issued on 100 years of Titanic..This is the most unusual issue of this year with embossed design. The ship theme collectors would love to have this nice magnificent  item in his/her collection !! Thus is all for Today….Till Next Post …Have a Nice Time !!

Magyar Posta has issued an exclusive commemorative souvenir sheet  in memory of the Titanic and Dr Árpád Lengyel, the ship’s doctor on the first vessel to hurry to the aid of the Titanic, the British steamship RMS Carpathia. The main motif of this unusual philatelic product is the Titanic heading towards the iceberg, while the stamps show parts of the liner.

In the top right corner there is a portrait of Dr Lengyel and the outline of RMS Carpathia. The unusual feature of this release is that, in addition to offset printing and embossing, iridescent spot-varnish screen printing, usually a security device, has been used and the particles scattered across the surface sparkle icily.

The first day cover features a portrait of Dr Árpád Lengyel, while the silhouette of a lifeboat has been used for the special postmark.

Titanic

The Titanic was built in the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and when she was launched, she was the world’s largest steam-powered passenger liner. She left Southampton at noon on 10 April 1912 with 2207 pas-sengers on board. Several ice warnings were received on the evening before the disaster, but the high volume of telegrams prevented some from reaching the bridge. Although the Titanic was the largest and most elegant vessel on the transatlantic route, it was not the fastest, which jeopardised the planned arrival in New York on 16 April 1912.

For this reason it steamed full ahead and did not try to avoid the potentially dangerous area of drifting ice. At 11.40 pm on 14 April the watch spotted a floating iceberg. The officer on duty ordered the ship to be steered to the left and the port propeller to be put into reverse. A long time passed before the gigantic vessel slowly began to turn, and so the iceberg punctured a series of fatal holes below the waterline on the starboard side of the ship. The captain immediately sent distress signals and gave the order to abandon ship.

RMS Carpathia heard the Mayday but was too far from the scene to offer immediate help. The Titanic sank at 2.20 am on 15 April. The people in the lifeboats were picked up by the Carpathia about 75 minutes later.

The ship’s doctor of the Carpathia, which hurried to the Titanic’s aid, was Dr Árpád Lengyel, who did all within his power to save the survivors, endangered by hypothermia. The survivors gave him a medallion in gratitude. His grave is in the Kerepesi Cemetery in Budapest.

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