June 2004 Cover

by Steve Shay

USS PHILADELPHIA

On June 27, 1908 Navy Department General Order #74 was implemented. The order provided the terms and conditions for appointing Navy Mail Clerks and manner in which they were to operate their post offices. Navy Mail Clerks are required to obey general postal regulations and any special regulations imposed by the Navy. Vessels with 650 or more officers and receiving ships were allowed a mail clerk and assistant mail clerk, vessels with 125 or more and less than 650 were allowed a mail clerk and in regularly organized flotillas of 125 or more officers and men, the flagboat was allowed a mail clerk.

The Philadelphia was serving the Receiving Ship at Puget Sound in 1908. The ship's post office was established on July 29, 1908. Philadelphia had previously served as a cruiser, commissioned July 28, 1890. The ship was decommissioned September 22, 1902 and converted to a Receiving Ship in 1904. She was converted to a Prison Ship in 1912 and then back to a Receiving Ship in 1916. In 1926 the Philadelphia was finally sold for scrap.

Philadelphia's Mail Clerk was appointed September 17, 1908, Chief Yeoman George Aulmann.

The Type 1 cancel was a rubber handstamp issued to ships in 1908 (an up to about 1918.) This example is a USS Philadelphia Type 1 cancel dated December 6, 1908.

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