October 2004 Cover |
by Steve Shay |
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USS FAIRFAX |
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This cover reveals several stories about cover collecting in the mid-1930's. The cachet is a thermographed Lloyd Nace design. The cover was sponsored by Chapter 16, the Edwin Denby Chapter of the USCS. This chapter was formed in 1934 in the Detroit,Michigan area. It was named for Secretary of the Navy Edwin Denby. Denby had also served as a gunner's mate on the USS Yosemite during the Spanish American War. Like some other chapters formed during the early 1930's, the chapter only lasted a couple of years. The Chapter is not listed as active in the 1938 USCS Yearbook. (Interestingly, Edwin Denby Jr., I assume the Secretary's son, was assigned USCS number H-680 (Honorary) in 1934.) The artist, Lloyd Nace's rubber stamp is on the reverse of the cover showing his USCS member number as 318. Nace lived in Detroit, no doubt an Edwin Denby Chapter member. The Navy Mail Clerk on the ship, Russell Conwell Carey, USCS member 1088, signed the cover in the center of the cachet. Carey was stationed aboard the USS Fairfax, DD-93. Carey must have enjoyed servicing covers as he prepared several Fancy cancels for use on the ship. This cover has 2 such non-standard, Fancy (Type F) cancels, one with blue ink, the other with purple. The Navy Day cancel was almost certainly used on October 27, 1936 only. The other cancel was designed for multiple uses. Probably in part due to Carey's helpful services, Fairfax covers are relatively common. The cover was cancelled on October 27, the date for Navy Day. Navy Day was first observed in 1922 after the Navy League sponsored a move to recognize the naval service. The date of October 27 was chosen in honor of President Theodore Roosevelt who was born on that day. Roosevelt had advocated a strong navy. Cover collectors, often looked for holidays to prepare cachets to mark the holiday events since ship building was almost dormant at the time. Navy Day was a natural choice for a cachet. The cancels show that the Fairfax was at Flamenco Island in the Republic of Panama at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal. Fairfax was assigned to the Special Service Squadron, a squadron whose assignment was protecting Caribbean interests. Fairfax was commissioned in 1918 and would become 1 of 50 destroyers (the Famous 50) transferred to Great Britain in a destroyers-for-land bases agreement. She was commissioned as HMS Richmond in December 1940. After serving with the Royal Navy performing convoy escort service, she was transferred to Canada and then Russia, being renamed the Jivoochyi in the Russian Navy on July 16, 1944. The faithful old ship was scrapped in 1949. |
