Finally A $3 Ocean Passage Ticket -- The Pacific Steam Navigation Company(PSNC)

Frank Sente is back with this post on Ocean Passage Tickets.

It's been nearly two years since we last blogged about Ocean Passage Tickets, and I'm now pleased to report that an example demonstating the $3 tax rate has surfaced.  Now examples are known for all three tax rates: $1 for tickets not exceeding $30; this $3 example for tickets costing more than $30 and not exceeding $60; and $5 for tickets costing more than $60.

Pacific Steam Navigation Company Steamer Colombia  

On March 6, 1901, J.(ohn) O.(scar) Meyerink, a commission merchant from San Francisco, booked first class passage from San Francisco to Punta Arenas on the Pacific Steam Navigation Company Steamer Colombia. 

The Pacific Steam Navigation Company Ocean Passage Ticket

San Francisco, California to Punta Arenas, Costa Rica

March 6, 1901   

At first I assumed the destination, Punta Arenas, referred to the Chilean port city by that name in the Strait of Magellan.  However as I began to research the document and the various travel endorsements penned upon the back side where the $3 stamp is located (see image below), I'm now quite certain that Meyerink's ticket instead was for Puntarenas, then a major port city on the west coast of  Costa Rica.

According to this destination and rate chart for the Pacific Steam Navigation Company as published in the Pacific Line Guide to South America, the company's routes did not extend south of Valparaiso, Chile and note that the reduced cabin rate for "Punta Arenas", Costa Rica is listed as $40, the price of this ticket.  Flip back a page in the rate chart, and you'll see that the rate previously had been $80.  Apparently the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, a British firm, was having a rate price war with the better established and more popular Pacific Mail Steamship Company, a U.S. firm, but that's another story.  I also was particularly interested to note mention of  "U.S. Revenue Stamp Additional" in the heading of the PSNC rate chart.

Reverse of PSNC Ticket
$3 R174 Commerce Issue tied by blue double ring cancel of
The P.S.N.C. Co. and C.S.A. de V.
MAR
6
1901
San Francisco

stamp and cancel detail

(double click to enlarge)
 

The stamp is damaged, creased, and has a cut cancel, but hey, it's the only example of a $3.00 ocean passage usage that's ever been reported, and only the ninth ocean passage ticket recorded from the Spanish American War tax era.
 

Five separate endorsements appear on the reverse side of the ticket.  First, a typed endorsement at right reading:

 

Stop-over between San Francisco and Corinto (Nicaragua)

good for three (3) months.

Balfour, Guthrie & Co.

Signature

Genl Agts.

 

That stop-over provision was standard practice for the firm, applicable to every ticket sold, as it appears as one of the purchase conditions stated on their rate chart.
 

NOTE:      For a map showing the location of Meyerink's various stopover

locations that are detailed in the following text, go to the end of this blog.  

 

The red boxed handstamp at the top seems to be a ship purser's marking in Spanish documenting the first leg of Meyerink's journey from San Francisco to Champerico, a Guatemalan port town. We don't have other examples to compare to, but it appear to read as follows:
 

De San Fc. (San Francisco?) a Champerico (Guatemala)

por "Colombia" illegible Z2? or 32?

Signature CONTADOR (PURSER)
 

I'm guessing it was applied to the ticket when the Steamer  Colombia arrived at Champerico and Meyerink disembarked. The handwritten endorsement to the left of the red boxed handstamp also appears to be in the purser's hand and as part of it extends across the left edge of the box, it likely was written directly after the boxed endorsement was completed.  It appears to read as follows:
 

Good for P.S.N.Co

steamer only from Champerico

to Punta Arenas. Signature

26/3/01 (March 26, 1901)
 

Nine days later it seems that Meyerink traveled further down the coast of Guatemala from Champerico to San Jose aboard the Chilean C.S.A. de V. steamer Tucapel. The relevant endorsement which appears to the right of the $3 tax stamp reads:

Champerico a San Jose

v.(ia)  Tucapel  3

9/4/901 (April 4, 1901) Signature

  

Compania Sud-Americana de Vapores

Chilean Steamer Tucapel

Built in 1900 and primarily a cargo ship, the Tucapel, laden with oranges, sank off the coast of Chile in 1911.

The final ticket endosement, to the left of the cancel tying the $3 tax stamp to the ticket, documents travel from La Union, El Salvador to Corinto, Nicaragua, both ports of call on the PSNC route chart, via the steamer Chile.  The endorsement in green ink reads:

La Union to Corinto

por "Chile" v. 4

May 3/01

Signature

How Meyerink got from San Jose, Guatemala to La Union, El Salvador is unclear.  Perhaps by land transporation, but I suspect by sea via an undocumented PSNC steamer voyage.  I'm betting that sometime between April 4, when he left for San Jose, Guatemala and May 3 when he left La Union, El Salvador there was another voyage between those locales where Meyerink showed his ticket and the ship's purser simply allowed him to embark and travel without bothering to endorse the ticket. That's conjecture on my part, but I doubt that land travel between San Jose and La Union would have been easy and it would have added to his expenses. 

So why did this ticket survive?  Generally, when one traveled they surrendered their ticket to the ship's purser upon boarding.  In this instance as Meyerink had the opportunity to make stop-overs on his voyage to Punta Arenas, he either was allowed to keep his ticket after it was properly endorsed, or it was returned to him at each point of disembarkation so that he could reboard another vessel to continue his voyage. 

While Meyerink's ticket was written for travel to Punta Arenas, Costa Rica I suspect his final destination all along was Corinto, Nicaragua.  The typed endorsement allowing for stop-overs specifically refers to Corinto, not Punta Arenas.  And if one looks carefully, it appears the handstamped word "Corinto" appears underneath "Punta Arenas" on the face of the ticket. 

       

faint "Corinto" underneath "Punta Arenas" on ticket

Again, while simply conjecture on my part, I suspect that when Meyerink bought the ticket he specified a final destination of Corinto and in the course of purchasing the ticket a helpful agent pointed out that the price of a ticket to the further port of Punta Arenas, Costa Rica was the same $40 fee as for the Nicaraguan port of Corinto.  So why not have the ticket written for Punta Arenas so that should Meyerink so decide he could have the opportunity to travel to that further destination?  Per PSNC's rate chart, tickets from San Francisco to Corinto, San Juan del Sur, and Punta Arenas all cost $40.

Thus when he disembarked in Corinto, Meyerink was allowed to keep his ticket as it still allowed him the opportunity to travel on to Punta Arenas.  I'm betting he did not travel beyond Corinto, Nicaragua.

Further, in seeking information about J. O. Meyerink, I discovered he was a stamp collector!  His name appeared in the March 1893 Secretary's Report of the American Philatelic Association (became American Philatelic Society in 1908) as a reinstated member.  APS confirmed that Meyerink originally joined in 1891 and became a stockholder in 1893 after the APA incorporated.  He apparently let his membership lapse in 1894.  That he was a collector, I'm sure gave him added incentive to keep this document , not only as a souvenir of a trip, but also because it had that $3 tax stamp on it.  Thank goodness for stamp collectors!

I found him listed in several San Francisco directories at 428 Sansome Street as a shipping and commission merchant, one of which indicated he was a fruit wholesaler.  An 1895 suit against a California salt manufacturer who delivered inferior salt through Meyerink to a Guatemalan firm and an 1894 report of dealings with a Guatemalan coffee plantation offer confirmation of his Central American business dealings and connections. 

His listing in the 1900 census indicated he was born in Germany in 1862, immigrated  in 1880, and became a U. S. citizen in 1892.  In 1884 he married Katie Meyer and they had four children between 1887 and 1895.  Apparently he died sometime before 1910 as he doesn't appear in that census, but Katie, listed as a widow, and the four children are included in the 1910 census.

Most assuredly this was a business trip to either visit existing merchant contacts or to establish new business connections.  It must have been a fancinating trip and a great time to be living in San Francisco.       

Central America Map showing the location of the

five ports referenced on Meyerink's ticket:

1. Champerico, Guatemala

2. San Jose, Guatemala

3. La Union, El Salvador

4. Corinto, Nicaragua

5. Puntarenas (Punta Arenas), Costa Rica

Anyone having knowledge of other taxed ocean passage tickets is invited to report them, with scans if possible, to 1898revenues@gmail.com.



  

Finally A $5 Ocean Passage Ticket Usage -- Hawaiian Line

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

Finally an ocean passage ticket illustrating the $5 tax on tickets costing more than $60 has surfaced. Serendipitously, I spotted this one on eBay in December 2010 just a few weeks after inquiring via this blog about possible usage examples for the $3 and $5 rates. We've previously blogged about several $1 tickets, but until now, no $3 or $5 tickets had been reported.

Hawaiian Line Ocean Passage Ticket

San Francisco to Honolulu

July 21, 1899

The Hawaiian Line ticket above covered cabin passage for W. S. Dole and wife (Walter Sanford Dole and Miriam Dreier Dole) from San Francisco to Honolulu via the Irmgard, a barkentine mostly used to transport sugar cane and supplies between the Hawaiian Islands and San Francisco. A typical trip to the Islands from San Francisco took 10 or 11 days, so presumably they arrived in Honolulu around the end of July 1899. The ticket cost $80 and was taxed $5, the proper rate for any ticket costing in excess of $60.

Walter Sanford Dole

Left @ 1892 Cornell University

Right @ 1918 US Army

Walter S. Dole was a nephew of Sanford Dole, the first President of the Republic of Hawaii and subsequently the first Governor when Hawaii became a US Territory in 1900. Another uncle, James Dole, who actually was a few years younger than Walter is the credited with planting the first pineapples and starting the Hawaiian Pineapple Company in 1901.

Walter was born July 30, 1868 at Koloa and spent his childhood on the Islands. He graduated from Cornell University in 1892 with a degree in civil engineering. According to a notice in the May 1899 Cornell Alumni News he then was living in Chicago on Greenwood Ave. He married Miriam Dreier of Chicago on Christmas Day 1897. They apparently continued to reside in Chicago after marrying as their first son, Carl, was born there in October 1898. Although not mentioned on the ticket, it is possible that Carl, who then would have been 9 months old accompanied them on this voyage. Presumably, they were moving to the Islands as the February 1900 Cornell Alumni News indicated Walter was the superintendent of a sugar plantation in Hawaii.

But by 1902 Walter and Miriam were in California where they lived thereafter, except for a short period in Tucson Arizona in the early 1920s. Perhaps the death of Carl in 1900, at age 2, had something to do with their return to the States. They would have four more children. Walter died August 15, 1945 in Los Angeles and Miriam died March 12, 1947.

Williams, Dimond & Co., the agents for the Hawaiian Line, and from whom this ticket was purchased were highly involved in the Hawaiian sugar trade with nine ships, the Irmgard being one of the smallest, in operation in 1900. At this time they also maintained a branch office in New York City and according to Lloyd's 1901 Register of Shipping, the firm's San Francisco based ships also served Atlantic Coast ports and Cuba. In the early 1900's Williams, Dimond brokered the transplantation of many Puerto Ricans to Hawaii to work on the sugar plantations.

The firm continues in business today as a ship chandler at Pier 15 in San Francisco. Williams Dimond also serves as a ship broker and liner agent with offices in other major US port cities. A History of Williams, Dimond Co. Since 1862 by Michael Nerney was published in 1988.

This Hawaiian Line ticket is just the eighth ocean passage ticket from the Spanish American War tax period to be reported and the first illustrating the $5 tax rate. We're still looking for a usage of the $3 Commerce stamp, appropriate for tickets costing more than $30 to $60.

Anyone having knowledge of other taxed ocean passage tickets is invited to report them, with scans if possible, to 1898revenues@gmail.com.

Another Florida East Coast Steamship Company Ocean Passage Ticket

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

Florida East Coast Steamship Company

Ocean Passage Ticket

Jacksonville, Florida to Nassau, Bahamas

December 30, 1899

A fourth Florida East Coast Steamship Company Ocean Passage ticket has surfaced. All four tickets are from the same party, purchased December 22,1899 in New York and presumably all used December 30, 1899. At least the $1 stamps on all four tickets were cancelled on that date.

I'm not sure about the last name of the traveler listed on this ticket, but William's known companions via the steamer Lincoln were Miss Lizzie Johnston, Thomas Charleston, and Miss Agnes Munroe whose tickets previously have been reported. Were there others on this same New Year's holiday trip to the Bahamas? How did these four tickets reach the philatelic market? We may never know the answers, but our thanks goes to Bob Mustacich for adding to the census of known ocean passage tickets by reporting this one.

Eight tickets now have been reported. Seven bear the $1 Commerce Issue appropriate for tickets costing $30 or less. A single ticket bearing a $5 Commerce stamp, appropriate for a ticket costing more than $60, will be featured in an upcoming blog. We're still looking for a usage of the $3 Commerce stamp, appropriate for tickets costing more than $30 to $60.

Anyone having knowledge of other taxed Ocean Passage tickets is invited to report same, with scans if possible, to 1898revenues@gmail.com.

$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

Another Ocean Passage Ticket

My prior blog about an ocean passage ticket brought these scans from J. W. Palmer of a ticket from the then fledgling Florida East Coast Steamship Company.

Florida East Coast Steamship Company

Ocean Passenger Ticket

Jacksonville, Florida to Nassau, Bahamas

"Including Room and Meals"

Reverse side of ticket

Tens of thousands of embarkation tickets, and maybe many more, likely were written for ocean passage from major Northern ports like Boston, Philadelphia, and New York during the Spanish American War taxation period, but there could not have been many written for travel via the Florida East Coast Steamship Company. The company, founded by Henry Flagler, who almost single-handedly spearheaded the development of Florida's East Coast during the 1880s and 1890s, didn't initiate service until 1896 and Florida was just beginning to become developed at that time.

Actually examples of ANY tax-stamped documents from Florida are hard to find let alone such an unusual usage as an ocean passage ticket. Thanks, J. W., for sharing yours! This one and the one I put up last week are the only two I've ever seen. Can anyone report another example of a taxed ocean passage ticket?

Double ring cancel for the

Florida East Coast Steamer Lincoln
DEC

30

1899

The front of the ticket is datelined N.(ew) Y.(ork) December 22, 1899. Its cost is not mentioned but the $1 stamp on the back indicates it was less than $30. The ticket was written "on account" of the Florida East Coast Hotel Company so presumably Miss Lizzie Johnston also was staying in one of Henry Flagler hotels and the ticket price was added to her room bill.

The stamp appears to be cancelled December 30, 1899, presumably the date of travel aboard the steamer Lincoln. Perhaps Miss Lizzie celebrated the beginning of 1900 in the Bahamas.

The red oval Florida East Coast Ry. auditor's cancel on the front is undated.

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?