Covers from the
1931 Wilkins-Ellsworth
Trans-Arctic Submarine Expedition
This was a well-publicized, yet
ill-fated expedition
of which the philatelic proceeds played a major role in getting the
submarine out to sea. Wilkins had purchased a U.S. Navy surplus
submarine, the O-12, and fitted it out for arctic conditions. The
airplane had replaced old forms of travel, but Wilkins was determined to
make a transpolar crossing in another form. Wilkins had hoped to cross
the Arctic Ocean in his submarine, the Nautilus. The
"Ellsworth" portion of the expedition referred to American
millionaire and explorer Lincoln Ellsworth, who was to achieve separate fame
a few years later, by making the first flight across the Antarctic
continent. Wilkins,
who had already executed some previous philatelic documentations of his
events, used the additional proceeds from philatelic covers being serviced for a fee,
to
help finance the venture itself; philatelists sent specially formatted
envelopes to Wilkins for servicing on this historic mission.
Apparently, to save
space onboard an already cramped submarine, he had the collectors place their
own address in the
section that normally would have been used to put his address when sending
the un-serviced cover to him. Wilkins then used small "to" and
"from" rubber stamps, along with some "killer" plugs, to cover over the original
intent; then added a stamp or stamps for whichever route the collector had asked for (routes
available for documentation included New York to
London, New York to North
Pole, New York to
Spitsbergen, New York to
Bergen, etc.-often you will see these routes written in pencil or ink by
the original sender) and applied the appropriate foreign stamp(s) when mailing the original envelope
back to the collector, thus resulting in the dual-franking that is so
commonly seen here. All covers which have been registered (sent by
registered mail, and appropriate label and markings for that service applied) in the
country of its sending are more valuable to polar collectors, inasmuch as
less registered mail was tendered for delivery by Wilkins.
Typical New York to North Pole Routing
The above cover, from my collection,
is almost singular in the fact that the standard violet cachet has not been
applied over the top of anything. The manner in which the
sender wrote his name resulted in a perfect application of the expedition
cachet, and this is seldom if ever seen on covers that went to collectors
who used the mail-in approach. My thought is that this gentleman might
have given this cover to Wilkins in person, as there is no indication he
mailed the cover to Wilkins. Covers which Wilkins sent
back to himself for souvenirs also usually have a clean application of
the cachet as opposed to having been applied over the top of the Wilkins
address.
This cover is interesting in that it
appears on a Linprint airmail envelope, as produced by George W. Linn, the founder of Linn's
Stamp News, likely for use in aero-philately events, and this would be an early issue for him. Also, the use of a
plate block single by the sender was a nice touch.
A great rarity are covers that not
only received the dual franking here, but also had seen service in one of
Wilkins' previous missions to Deception Island and had received postmarking
at Port Stanley, Falkland Islands. Note the light green circular
cachet in upper left corner with the Deception Island wording and perhaps in
slightly different ink at upper right. In addition, this is an A.C.
Roessler cover, often characterized by the barbershop airmail border and in this
instance, what appears to be a rubber-stamped return address for Roessler in
East Orange, New Jersey.
As far as the expedition itself, it did
not pan out; as stated, Wilkins
had bought an old "O" class submarine from the United States, and it
was a very old one and developed major mechanical problems, having problems with
the diving gear, as well as encountering violent storms. They ended up
being rescued at
sea, and the Nautilus was towed in for possible repairs. Repairs were found to be
unfeasible, and the submarine was eventually scuttled. It was almost
another thirty years before the U.S. Submarine Nautilus, propelled by
atomic power, actually made the first under-ice polar crossing. Submerging
under the ice, the Nautilus traveled the
1,830 miles from the ice off Point Barrow to a point near Spitsbergen in only 96
hours.
For more about another one of Sir Wilkins'
great adventures, which unfortunately turned out to be his last adventure prior
to his death in 1958, go to my Wilkins'
1957 Bi-Polar flight page.
Back
to My "Graf Zeppelin Meets the Malyguin" Page
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to My Main Polar Philately Page
QSLnet/KG0YH page last updated
10-08-2003
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