Steamship Company Cancels: Boston & Philadelphia Steamship Company

Boston & Philadelphia Steamship Line

Steamship Saxon

The company hedged on the reliability of steam power with the Saxon by running both steam power and sails. 

R163 1c documentary battleship on steam ship document fragment

"PHILADELPHIA" can be made out under the upper left corner of the stamp

B. & P. S. S. CO.

SEP

26

1901

*  *  *

From The Historical Dictionary of the US Maritime Industry, 2011, by Kenneth Blume: 

I recommend this book for anyone research shipping cancels.

Shipping Companies: Oelrichs & Company

OELRICHS & CO.

AUG

3

1899

NEW YORK

Shipping Companies: Compagnie Generale Transatlantique

Postcard for the S. S. France of the Compagnie Generale Transatlantique

COMPAGNIE GENERALE TRANSATLANTIQUE

AGENCE

SEP  25  1899

DE

BOSTON

Langlois scan

CANCELED

MAY  14  1901

Cie. Gle. Tque.

Thompson scan

Cancels on M. Michael & Brother Bills of Lading

M. Michael & Brother returns today courtesy of Bob Hohertz who emailed me today with scans of another M. Michael & Bro bill of Lading and a cancelled stamp from an additional BOL.  Bob has several bills of lading from this firm, each with a different type of cancel on the stamp.

Of the 8 M. Michael & Bro BOLs in Bob's collection, none have the N.P.C.P. Co handstamp shown in yesterday's post.  He guesses, as does David Thompson, that the initials stand for Nashville, Paducah, Clarksville Packet Company.  After a bit of searching, I have established that there was a Nashville, Paducah & Cairo Packet Company.  On many of Bob's BOLs there are references to Cairo, Illinois.  And as you can see in the postcard at the bottom of this post, the Steamer Dick Fowler is shown docking at Cairo.  Consequently I believe the C stands for Cairo in N.P.C.P.Co. 


With regard to the name of the packet boat in yesterday's post, Bob states:  I can sorta see "Buttorft" in the scribble on your receipt, but on the one of mine that used it, the scribble looks like "Burdoff." The line also had packet boats called the "Joe Fowler," the "Dick Fowler," and the "Henry Pierce." (The scrawl on the last one looks like "Henry Prirce.") The cancels on the stamps include "Recd. Fowler Wharfboat Co." in red on some and on others, "STR. D.F.", the latter tete-beche with the date in two cases but not in a third. Others have pencil scribbles."

Two examples of the cancels that Bob refers to above are shown below:

Bill of lading for goods shipped on the Steamer Dick Fowler, with stamp canceled by Fowler Wharfboat Company.

RECEIVED

Subject to Rules of Carriers Bills of Lading

OCT 13 1898

FOWLER WHARFBOAT CO.

AGENTS

A biography of the late Captain Joseph Fowler in the volume Memorial Record of Western Kentucky, Lewis Publishing Company, 1904, pp 465-467 [McCracken] contains this little bit about the Fowler Wharfboat Company: 

Captain Joseph H. Fowler was reared in Princeton, Kentucky, and there educated in Cumberland College. In 1849, when only sixteen years of age, he started in life for himself, beginning what has been an unbroken, eventful and successful life in the wharf and steamboat business. For years he has been a conspicuous figure among those interested in navigation upon the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Among the many financial and industrial enterprises with which he has been identified may be mentioned: The Fowler Wharfboat Company, of which he is vice president; the Evansville, Paducah and Cairo Packet Line, of which he is president. To him and his associates is due much credit for the maintenance of river navigation, and among those who have

contributed much toward the upbuilding [sic] of Paducah he has always been a prominent figure.

OCT  18  1898

STR.  D.  F.

STR. D. F. should stand for Steamer Dick Fowler.

The Steamboat Chickasaw

Str CHICKASAW.

MAY

13

1899

Dave Thompson sent me a scan of this cancel months ago, and I never posted it because neither of us were sure at the time what Str Chickasaw meant.  During the intervening period, Dave figured it out, and we now know this stamp was cancelled by the Steamboat Chickasaw, a riverboat on the Mississippi that varied its area of operations over time.  In a photo below the boat was described as working rivers around Memphis in the early 1880s. 

The annual report page at the bottom of this post clearly shows the boat operating in Louisiana near New Orleans with a home port of Brashear by the late 1890s.  Funny how management showed the boat to lose $407 dollars in 1899 following receipts of more than $70,000.  Good old fashioned Louisiana book-keeping!

Enhanced Chickasaw cancel from the stamp above

$3 and $5 Ocean Passage Tickets?

This is a continuation of a series of blogs about Ocean Passenger Tickets.

So far we've documented six tickets with on-document usages of the $1 Commerce Documentary paying the tax on a ticket costing up to $30. But no full on-document usages of the $3 and $5 Commerce issues paying for higher priced tickets have yet surfaced. We're confident some eventually will surface as there is ample evidence of usage of those rates.

Piece clipped from Ocean Passage Ticket
W. H. EAVES
TICKET AGENT.
JUN/9/1900
201 WASHINGTON ST.
BOSTON

Above is a on-piece usage of a $5 Commerce issue that clearly must have been used on a ticket sold by W.H. Eaves, whose listing below appears in the 1900 travel guide, Going Abroad: Some Advice, by Robert Luce.

"Mass Boston WH Eaves 201 Washington Street Agent for Atlantic Transport Line Dominion Cunard American White Star Red Star Holland America and other first class lines Also New England agent for Qaze's Tours High class personally conducted parties to Europe the Orient and Round the World at frequent Intervals Programmes free Also Independent travel tickets for any desired tour throughout the world hotel coupons letter of credit etc Correspondence solicited Telephone Boston 3956"

Below is another $5 Commerce Documentary bearing a cancel of The American Transport Company. The firm, American owned, but British operated, was best known at the time for shipping horses, but carried cargo and passengers as well between the US and Great Britain. This stamp, too, likely came from a individual ocean passage ticket costing more than $60, the tax for which was $5.

I was interested to learn that the United States government actually purchased some American Transport Company ships for use as military transports during the Spanish American War.

The Atlantic Transport Co.
MAY 14 1900
NEW YORK.

Finally, compare the cancel on the I.N. Co. cancel (International Navigation Company) on the following $3 Commerce Documentary with the cancel just tying the $1 Commerce Documentary to the American Line ticket below and you'll see they are identical except for the date, suggesting that the $3 stamp came from a ticket as well. $3 paid the tax on a ticket costing more than $30 up to $60.

I. N. CO.
OCT ?? 1898
PHILA.

Ocean Passage Ticket Sold By
International Navigation Company
I. N. CO.
MAR 4 1900
PHILA.

If anyone can report the existance of either the $3 or $5 Commerce issue on a full ocean passage ticket, please let us know at 1898revenues@gmail.com.

Another Florida Ocean Passage Ticket - The Plant Steamship Company

The Plant Steamship Company headquartered in Tampa on Florida's West Coast actually predated the Florida East Coast Steamship Company whose tickets we've reviewed in prior blogs. The Plant Steamship Company was running trips from Tampa to Key West and Havana by 1887. The two companies eventually would merger to become The Peninsular and Occidental Steamship Company.

The Company was founded by Henry Plant whose resurrected several Southern transporation companies from the ashes of the Civil War and later turned his attention to the development of Florida, at first in Tampa and then in Key West.

Plant Steamship Company

S.S. Mascotte Ocean Passenger Ticket

K(ey) W(est), Florida to Havana, Cuba

September 30, 1898

Bob Patetta scan

Reverse side of ticket

R173, $1 Commerce Documentary

tied by an illegible cancel dated SEP/30/1898

Bob Patetta scan

Actually Henry Plant's development of rail lines into Tampa as well as his docks there lead the US Army to choose Tampa as an embarkation point for the invasion of Cuba by the Cuban Expeditionary Force in late June 1898. Cuba was in American hands in a matter of weeks and presumably it didn't take long for the Plant Steamship Company to resume regular service to Cuba.

Thanks go to Bob Patetta for providing this ticket and several others that we've included in our series of blogs on ocean passage tickets.

Two More Florida East Coast Steamship Company Ocean Passage Tickets

This is a continuation of a series of posts about Ocean Passage tickets.

To date we've viewed a ticket from Philadelphia to Bremen via the American Line S/S Pennland; a ticket sent to us by JW Palmer for a trip from Jacksonville, FL to Nassau, Bahamas via the Florida East Coast Steamship Co. steamer Lincoln; and a ticket from New York to Bremen via the North German Lloyd Steamship Company steamer Luitpold, one of four tickets sent to us by Bob Patetta.

Two of Bob's four tickets, like JW Palmer's submission, are from the Florida East Coast Steamship Company. In fact they are both datelined: NY Dec 22/99, exactly like Palmer's ticket!

Front and Back of

Florida East Coast Steamship Company

Ocean Passenger Ticket

Jacksonville, Florida to Nassau, Bahamas

"Including Room and Meals"

Patetta's tickets are nearly identical so we only are showing the one for Thomas Charleston. The other ticket was for Miss Agnes Munroe, who along with Miss Lizzie Johnston (Palmer's ticket) must have been traveling together with Mr. Charleston.

Bob tells me that he purchased these two tickets separately from different sources and Palmer's ticket came from a third source, so who knows how long they have been separated. It's nice to unite the three again, but that begs the question of how many others might have been on this NewYear's gambol to the Bahamas, and how many other tickets may still survive in philatelic hands?

Double Ring cds

FLORIDA EAST COAST R.R. Co.

DEC/30/1899/BURSAR

*S. LINCOLN*

We're still looking for more ocean passage tickets, especially showing the higher tax rates of $3 and $5. If you have one please send a scan and details to 1898revenues@gmail.com

Ocean Passage Tickets Revisited - Oelrich & Co. New York

BLOG UPDATE - 2/20/2011

OELRICHS & CO.

AUG/3/1899

* NEW YORK *

Most likely the $5 R175 Commerce stamp above bearing an Oelrichs & Co. cancel is from an Ocean Passage ticket sold by that firm. Tickets taxed $5 would have cost in excess of $60, a tidy sum in 1899.

ORIGINAL BLOG - 10/26/2010

North German Lloyd Steamship Co. - Oelrichs & Co. Agents

Steerage Passenger Ticket for the S/S Luitpold

New York to Bremen July 21, 1898

Bob Patetta answered the call in our prior posts by sending scans of four more examples of ocean passage tickets tripling the number reported to six. Today we review a ticket for the S/S Luitpold of the North German Lloyd Steamship Co. Some considered the North German Lloyd line to be the most luxurious of all the ocean lines at the time, although steerage travel on any liner wasn't exactly the finest way to travel.

The ticket was sold by Oelrichs & Co. of New York to a Miss K. Leilich for $30, the tax for which was $1, properly paid here by an R173 Commerce issue documentary.

double ring cds cancel

OELRICHS & CO.

JUL/21/1898

* BREMEN PIER, HOBOKEN. *

Oelrichs & Co. was a respected firm and the Oelrich family was active in the New York social scene. In 1898 the firm celebrated its 100th Anniversary by publishing a 116 page history tracing its beginnings to a firm established in New York by Caspar Meier in 1798. In 1898 the firm was conveniently located at 2 Bowling Green on the first floor of the same building that housed the German Consulate.

Oelrichs & Co. Office

2 Bowling Green, New York City

On Ground Floor of the Building Housing the German Consulate

We'll review Bob's other tickets in upcoming posts. They too are all taxed $1, so we're still looking for tickets bearing the higher $3 and $5 rates. Can anyone else show us examples? Here again are the Ocean Passage tax rates:

$1 for a ticket up to $30.

$3 for a ticket more than $30 to $60

$5 for any ticket more than $60

Ocean Passage Ticket

Steerage embarkation ticket for the S/S Pennland

Philadelphia to Bremen via Liverpool March 4, 1900

The tax on passenger tickets by any vessel from a port in the United States to a foreign port was:

$1 for a ticket up to $30
$3 for a ticket more than $30 to $60
$5 for a ticket more than $60


A $1 Commerce issue pays the proper tax for a $27 embarkation ticket to Bremen via Liverpool aboard the American Line steamer S/S Pennland. The endorsement penned at left in red by the International Navagation Company, who sold the ticket, reads, "not good only Government Stamp attached by Company".

Originally christened the Algeria when first launched in 1870 by the Cunard Line, the ship was renamed Pennland when purchased by the Red Star Line in 1881. It was chartered by the American Line in 1895. This so-called emigrant ship was near the end of its service when this ticket was purchased in 1900 as it was scrapped in 1903. For an image of the ship, a brief history, and a partial record of voyages go here.

Can anyone offer an example of a $3, or a $5 ticket?