4 Postal routes and stamps

 

Post routes II

Most of the mail to Norway was loaded into the transport vessels to the other stations. Up to the end of the 1920’did theese ships normally stop at St. Vincent or Las Palmas for supplies and fuel. The vessels did not go directly to Norway, but stopped First in other harbours in Europa for unloading  the oil. Mail from Norway to South-Georgia did also leave with the vessels. First stop for theese was Great Britain and loading of coal to the whaling stations. From here the ship went to Las Palmas or St. Vincent for own supplies before crossing the ocean and ended up in Gryteviken. From time to time some of the vessels also went into a harbour in South-America before arrival at South-Grorgia.

Whaling season 1935/36. Correctly postage letter from a whaler sent to his wife in Holmestrand Norway. He was employed at Leith Harbor station, and the letter was deleverd at the post office in Gryteviken and cancelled 28-10-1936. Stamping of the stamps was not done with care. Almost all cancellations are unclear or ugly, so it is often impossible to read the date. Part of the content shows place and date: 29-10-1936

From coal to fuel oil

The route from South-Georgia was not changed signifcantly when the stations went from use coal to fuel oil on the end of the 1920’. The other way, from north to the south faced big changes. First stop was now one of the Islands in de Carabien, normlly Aruba/Curacao or Venezuela where the vessels could get fuel oil. From here they sailed directly to South-Georgia-sometimes via Buenos Aires / Montevideo. After the second World war was mostly of the mail transported by airplane to Aruba/Curacao or Buanos Aires/Montevideo, and from here transported in vessels to South-Georgia. 

        We can fine stamps with “Falklan Islands” from the period 1909-1940

The stamps at South Georgia

Unlike many other islands in the British Empire, did never South-Georgia get their own postal service and stamps. The post office in Gryteviken became a branch of the post office in Port Stanly at the Falkland Islands. The stamps from Falkland Islands over-printed with South Georgas Dependency was used from 1944-1946.

From 1946 to 1954 is it common with inscription Falkland Islands Dependencies.

From 1954 and up to 1963 is all stamps printed with FALKLAND ISLANDS DEPENDENCIES. Not before the beginning of 1963 – when the hunting for whale in South-Georgia was shut down – it ws released stamps with text SOUTH-GEORGIA

The most usual stamps in the period 1954-1963