May 2004 Cover |
by Steve Shay |
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USS GLACIER |
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Here is a early example of naval cancel collecting. Cancelled August 27, 1911 aboard USS Glacier with a Type 2 cancel, (25 to 100 known copies,) it is the message on the reverse that tells the story. Edie Bridge must have been a cancel collector. The note implies that he had sent the post card to the cruiser Marblehead with a request for a cancellation. The Marblehead had no post office at the time, not getting a post office until 1917. In fact the cruiser was out of commission at the time, most recently being used by the California Naval Militia as a training ship. The cruiser forwarded the card to the Refrigerated Store Ship Glacier who had a post office, first established in 1908. The "Mail Orderly" aboard the Glacier, W.R. Early, cancelled the card and wrote the collector a nice note. Glacier was at Mare Island, Vallejo, California at the time. USS Glacier, AF-4, was built as a merchant ship in 1891 and purchased by the US Navy in 1898. She was named USS Delmonico for 6 days and then her name was changed to Glacier. She supplied ice, meat and supplies to the Fleet during the Spanish American War and operated in the Philippines at the turn of the century performing the same tasks. In 1904 she towed the drydock Dewey from Maryland to the Philippines. She performed provisioning, personnel transportation and towing targets and barges the rest of her career. Glacier was decommissioned at Mare Island in March 1922 and sold for scrap the following year. This is a very early example of naval cancel collecting. The USCS would not be formed until 23 years later in 1932. |
