April 2004 Cover |
by Steve Shay |
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USS VEGA |
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This cover must have been prepared by a stamp collector. It was cancelled in 1934 yet has 17 stamps, all issued prior to 1934. None of the stamps are rare, none of the cancellations are rare. It does make for an interesting cover though. The cover was cancelled aboard the Cargo Ship USS Vega, AK-17. Vega was probably carrying supplies to the Naval Base at Coco Solo in the Canal Zone. There are four Type 5 hks cancels from the Vega, all with a killer bar slogan of Coco Solo/Canal Zone, dated April 5, 1934 with a AM marking. One of the stamps is a Canal Zone Air Mail stamp and it was canceled April 5 at 2 PM. The postal clerk took care to make sure the Coco Solo postmark canceled only the Canal Zone stamp. The cover is addressed to a recipient in Sea Bright, New Jersey. The return address on the back is from a woman with an address on the Fleet Air Base at Coco Solo. The back of the cover has 3 hand stamp postmarks. The first is dated April 10, 1934, Jacksonville, Florida. The cover then went to Jersey City, New Jersey where it arrived on April 11 and was postmarked at 2 AM in the Central Terminal Post Office. The cover then went to Sea Bright, New Jersey where it was postmarked on April 11. The time in the cancellation appears to read 7 AM though it is difficult to read. The USS Vega was a Hog Island freighter built in 1919 that was acquired by the US Navy in 1921. After a rather mundane career, she was at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Vega served the fleet throughout the Pacific during World War II and was decommissioned in 1946 and sold for scrap after earning four battle stars. |
