When the timing is wrong - postcards to E.W. Rose 1931

In this blog entry I will try to understand why the five picture postcards below were initially unsuccessful in reaching their proposed addressee: E.W. Rose. A philatelist approached me during our last auction because he had read somewhere that I fancied postal items with a story attached to them. Well, this blog is quite a testimony to this gentleman's statement, so I replied that I indeed write about interesting postal items from time to time. To my great surprise he handed me over the five postcards below, placing his confidence in me that I would deduce an interesting story from them. His initial feeling was right, since these five interlinking postcards presents us indeed with a telling view on how correspondence could still literally miss the boat as late as in 1931.

MS Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, the cruise ship which fared regularly between the Netherlands and the Dutch Indies in the 1930s and became a Dutch troop ship after WWII 

Saddles and Sugar      

A certain E.W. Rose had a saddlery on the Nieuwendijk in Amsterdam between 1903 and 1915 according to the archive of Amsterdam. I do not know if this E.W. Rose is the same Rose as our addressee, but my gut feeling says that our Rose would be his son. In the Dutch Indies newspaper De Indische Courant d.d. 30-12-1926 we read that E.W. Rose has departed a sugar factory called 'Wonolangan' (northeastern coast of Java) where he worked as first engineer. I cannot find anything about him or his family until 1931 where he appears in De Indische Courant again since he is listed amongst the boarding passengers for the Johan van Oldenbarnevelt which would return from the Dutch Indies to the Netherlands on the 14th of October. His son and daughter ('Dear papa') sent him various postcards which I guess where meant to entertain him whilst he was on route back to the Netherlands.

I've posted scans of them below as the Johan van Oldenbarnevelt would have travelled from the Netherlands to the Dutch Indies (in reverse order) instead however, since the postcard with destination Colombo would have arrived sooner than the one to Batavia obviously. Miep and Fik (?) sent their 5 cards to Colombo, Sabang, Singapore, Belawan and Batavia. 

       

Picture postcard sent from Amsterdam 09-09-1931 to Colombo 

Since all their postcards were sent on the same day (9 September 1931) one would expect the would all arrive at their proposed destinations on time. And I think in all cases there arrived way ahead on schedule (Sabang: 27-9-1931, Belawan: 28-9-1931 etc.). I even think E.W. Rose did actually board the MS Johan van Oldebarnevelt on the 14th of October since the postcard addressed to Singapore and Belawan seems to have been delivered without any problems although the pinkish cachet "on board Joh. van Oldenbarnevelt undeliverable" seems to suggest otherwise at first. But at a closer look we see that this cachet was crossed out with pencil. This might indicate he was on board the ship contrary to all the markings on several postcards.

Crossed out cachet reading "Aan boord 'Joh v. Oldenbarnevelt' ONBESTELBAAR" (on board Joh. van Oldenbarnevelt undeliverable) on postcard with destination Belawan. 

Picture postcard from Amsterdam 09-09-1931 to Sabang (27-09-1931) 

Several postcards, if not all of them, seem to have been addressed a bit carelessly since they were  sent without a clear indication if the addressee was heading for Batavia or Amsterdam (outbound or homebound). The Johan van Oldenbarnevelt departed Amsterdam on the 2nd of September 1931 so caused confusion, i.e. to the postal authorities on resp. Ceylon and in Sabang it was not clear what to do with the postcards.  A Colombo postal agent readdressed the card to c/o Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland in Singapore and indeed it was finally handed over to the S.M.N. Passage on the 12th of October: it functioned i.a. as the dead letter office for post addressed to passengers on the Netherlands-Dutch Indies steamboat lines. The Sabang postcard was readdressed to Batavia since E.W. Rose was not on board of the Van Oldenbarnevelt destined for Batavia. They probably thought E.W. Rose was on the boat to Batavia whereas he was only to leave the Dutch Indies on the 14th of October. In the end the markings in red on the Sabang postcard (return to sender, not on board) where crossed out because they noticed the hastily added instruction (van Batavia 14 October) whereupon they forwarded the card to Batavia.

Picture postcard from Amsterdam 09-09-1931 to Singapore

There was less confusion in Singapore and Belawan as the postcards weren't forwarded but just patiently had to wait until the homebound journey of the Van Oldenbarnevelt would pay his visit to these ports.

Picture Postcard from Amsterdam 09-09-1931 to Belawan (28-09-1931)

The postcard addressed to Batavia caused some confusion as well, since the sender wrote down "8 October" which might indicate E.W. Rose was a passenger on the outbound journey from Amsterdam. For some reason the postcard was readdressed to Soerabaja then, the main city on eastern Java. It travelled 400 miles in one day, so it was probably carried by train. Why did the postal authorities in Batavia decide to forward the postcard to Soerabaja? Somebody wrote Soerabaja below Batavia: did the children of E.W. Rose did this? The handwriting doesn't seem to match... Maybe the Van Oldenbarnevelt would have payed a visit to this major port as well before departing Batavia on the 14th? Or did E.W. Rose stayed in Soerabaja during his time in the Dutch Indies? As always we cannot find all answers on our questions.  

Picture Postcard from Amsterdam 09-09-1931 to Batavia (06-10-1931)

The SM Johan van Oldenbarnevelt in the harbour of Tandjoengpriok (harbour of Batavia) at some point in the 1930s. The white building was the main office of the Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland (S.M.N.), the Dutch Steamboat Company. 

Leeuwarden - Sint Annaparochie 1844

Folded letter sent from Leeuwarden to Sint Annaparochie on the 10th of September 1844 bearing the first Dutch date cancel type (type II) reading LEEUWARDEN 10 SEPT.. 

In the Netherlands the first 3 postage stamps were introduced on the 1st of January 1852, prior to that date the sender or addressee of letters, documents and printed matter etc. had to pay the due amount of the services provided to the courier or postman. In 1829 the Dutch postal service had introduced the first Dutch postmarks which denoted the exact date. These so-called date marks (I rather do not prefer to label them as cancels since such a 'cancel' would require a stamp to be devalued) were circular, bore the name of the city and indicated the day and month. A rosette or small cross can be found beneath the month. In our Leeuwarden postmark the rosette seems a bit blurred, which is a shame since the rosette makes this kind of marks aesthetically pleasing. Despite this minor deficit I decided to show you this entire nevertheless since it was posted exactly 150 years before my birth!  

This particular folded letter was sent from Leeuwarden on the 10th of September 1844 and according to the unrivalled reference work Postmerken & Postinrichtingen the Leeuwarden date mark belongs to subtype II of the 1829 type. Subtype I (used between 1829-1836) had the day and month indicators placed somewhat higher and more central in the actual postmark. Our example though clearly shows that the day and month are placed in the lower half of the mark.

Leeuwarden to Sint Annaparochie in red

The distance between the city of Leeuwarden  (23,400 souls in 1840) and the farmer's village of Sint Annaparochie is a mere 12 km as the crow flies, but for some reason it took the post 2 to 3 days to reach St. Annaparochie in 1844. The weather couldn't have delayed the Frisian letter-carrying flat bottoms boats, which were responsible for most of the traffic in Frisia back then, but I can imagine the post office in Leeuwarden had some difficulties in finding a 'pieton' (messenger) for taking the letter to Sint Annaparochie. There  was no distribution office in the village (i.e. a small, local sub post office with a distributor arranging incoming and outgoing mail), so a private messenger had to be found. A messenger earned 2 stuivers by delivering a similar letter sent from Leeuwarden to Sint Annaparochie in 1832. The weather should not have been an issue: it hadn't rained for a while and the wind was calm albeit a tat unsettled on the 10th of September.

'Received 13 September 1844' as stated on one of the folds of the letter

The letter is addressed to the council of the 'Grietenij' Het Bildt. On the map below it's obvious St. Annaparochie is situated in the heart of the Bildt. 'Grietenij' is the Frisian equivalent for the Dutch 'Gemeente': a municipality. I haven't found any marks on the letter which reveal something about a possible rate between the two places. I therefore suspect this particular entire was free of any postage, since the addressee seems to have been the director of the post office in Leeuwarden: a certain Mr De Graaff. Could the cross on the front indicate this special service? 

Indication distance between Leeuwarden and Sint Annaparochie on contemporary map

The postal service strongly advised their employees to use a reddish colour to impress the mark on letters etc. I guess that this colour resulted in the starkest contrast possible on beige paper, or was it just a cheaper option to use red ink instead of black? In 1844 a similar albeit smaller circular postmark replaced our type. They can easily be distinguished since the smaller type has the month placed above the day, whether the 1829 marks have the day placed above the month.

LEEUWARDEN 10 SEPT.

I hope to continue this story in the near future since many Dutch pre-philately items come in the shape of folded letters, i.e. their contents are preserved...:

    

The contents seem to involve the costs for 8 lots for an exhibition to be held somewhere in Frisia, most probably in Leeuwarden. De Graaff writes: "On behalf of his excellency Mr Straatzand, Gouvernor of the Province of Frisia, I have the honour to present to you, my lord, 8 lots on request in favour of those participants named below, for which you, my lord, will send me the sum of fl. 24,- by post to my address after their collection." Then follows a list of 8 names and lot numbers. The only clue that the purpose of these lots was for an exhibition to be held, hides in the subscript the addressee wrote down on the 13th of September. He signs the letter with his function: Secretary of the Commission of the Exhibition. At the moment I'm still searching for information about the kind of exhibition this would have been.