The Admiralty announced on December 14, 1956, that negotiations for the purchase of the aircraft carrier Vengeance by the Brazilian Government had been successfully completed, and that the ship after modernisation would be commissioned in the Brazilian Fleet under the name Minas Gerais. She is now shown on the 3.30 cm. stamp of the Admiral Tamandare commemoratives. Built by Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson, Ltd., at Wallsend-on-Tyne, she was laid down on November 16, 1942, launched on February 23, 1944, and completed on January 15, 1945.She has a displacement of 13,190 tons standard, and 18,040 tons fully loaded, on dimensions of 695 ft. x 112.6 ft. x 23′/2 ft., and capacity for 35 aircraft. H.M.S. Vengeance served in the Royal Navy from 1945. She was fitted out late in 1948 and early 1949 for an experimental cruise to the Arctic, and was lent to the Royal Australian Navy early in 1953, returning to the Royal Navy in August 1955. Her flight deck is reported to have been strengthened to take aircraft off over eight tons in weight, and to allow for passage through the Panama Canal sponsons can be dismantled to the extent of 31/2 ft. on either side. SG970
Brazil has shown two of her post-war naval acquisitions on a pair of stamps issued to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Admiral Tamandare, a father of the Brazilian Navy. A 2.50 crs. stamp shows the cruiser Tamandare of 10,000 tons standard displacement, 13,500 tons fully loaded. She was originally the cruiser St. Louis of the U.S. Navy and was transferred to Brazil on January 29, 1951, for a sum representing 10 per cent of the original cost plus the expense of reconditioning her.
The Tamandare was built by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, and laid down on December 10, 1936, launched on April 15, 1938, and completed on December 10, 1939. A hangar right aft can accommodate six aircraft together with engine spares and duplicate parts although four planes were the normal capacity. The cruiser’s dimensions are 608′/2 ft. overall length, 69 ft. beam and a maximum draft of 24 ft. Her armament consists of 15, 6 in., eight, 5 in., 28, 40 mm. AA.., and 24, 20 mm. A.A. guns, and she has a cruising radius of 14,500 miles at 15 knots. Her maximum complement is 975. At the same time Brazil also bought the similar cruiser Philadelphia, which has now been renamed Barroso.
SG969 Sea Breezes 8/58
H.M.S. Rodney turning at speed is the subject of one of a series of labels issued during the last war to publicise “Warship Weeks” which were held throughout the country in aid of the war effort. These labels are now quite scarce. The Rodney and her sister-ship, the Nelson, were the first British battleships to mount 16 in. guns. A curious fact in their construction was that part of the material used was originally ordered for two battle cruisers, the construction of which was abandoned in 1919. The Rodney was, with H.M.S. King George V, in action with the Bismarck in May 1941 when the German vessel was sunk. Built by Cammell Laird, at Birkenhead, the Rodney was laid down on December 28, 1922, and completed in August 1927, at a cost of £7,617,799. Her armament consisted of nine, 16 in. guns in triple turrets, 12, 6 in., six, 4.7 in. A.A., three multiple pom-poms, and 21 smaller guns. She also carried two 24.5 in. submerged torpedo tubes, and two aircraft. Placed in reserve in 1946, she was scrapped in 1948.
Japan issued a 2 cents stamp in 1943—for use by her forces occupying the Philippine Islands—commemorating the Fall of Bataan and Corregidor. The right-hand side of the design shows the Mutu, a battleship of the Nagato-class. This vessel was laid down at the Yokosuka Dockyard on June 1, 1918, and completed on October 24, 1921. Of a standard displacement of 32,720 tons, the Mutu was 660 ft. 6in. in length, with a beam of 95 ft. and a maximum draft of 30 ft. When built she was driven by quadruple-screws, powered by geared steam turbines supplied with steam from 21 Japanese Kanpon boilers, designed for 80,000 h.p. and a speed of 23 knots. Following an extensive refit however in 1934-36 her new boilers and machinery were stated to have developed 84,000 h.p. for a speed of 26 knots. Her armament consisted of eight, 16 in. guns, 20, 5in, guns and eight 5 in. anti-aircraft guns, besides four 21 in. torpedo tubes, and she carried three aircraft, launched from a single catapult. The total complement was 1,332. In the Second World War the Mutu was in the Inland Sea, W.S.W. of Kure on June 8, 1943, when she was destroyed by an explosion, the result of an accident.
Both Bulgaria and Albania have issued stamps depicting the Russian cruiser Aurora to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution of 1917 in which the cruiser played a leading part in support of the revolutionaries. Built by the Galemy yard at St. Petersburg, the Aurora was launched in 1900 and completed three years later. Her complement was 422. She displaced 6,731 tons on dimensions of 413.25 ft. by 55.75 ft. by 21 ft. and had an armament of eight, 6 in., 20, 3 in., and four smaller guns, and three torpedo tubes (two below the waterline). Bulgaria SG1071 Albania SG601
The Variag, built by Cramps of Philadelphia, was laid down in May 1898, launched the following year, and completed early in 1901. Her complement varied at different periods but ranged from 580 to 770. She displaced 6,500 tons and had a waterline length of 416 ft. (420 ft. overall) with a beam of 52 ft. and maximum draft of 21 ft. The Variag was driven by two sets of 4-cylinder triple-expansion engines, with a designed h.p. of 20,000, giving a speed of 23 knots. Her principal armament consisted of 12, 6 in., 12, 3 in., and six 3-pdr. guns, and at first she carried six torpedo tubes, two of which were under water. The cruiser was sunk at Chemulpo, Korea, in February 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, but raised by the Japanese in August 1905. She was reconstructed and renamed Soya but in 1916 Japan retroceded her to Russia, when the ship was given her original name. She was eventually removed from the active list about 1920. The stamp shows this cruiser with her original funnels. SG2184
Some facts about the Karteria, the first steam warship of Greece, are to be found in the book by R. C. Anderson, “Naval Wars in the Levant.” The Warship which is shown on the 2.50d. Greek stamp of 1971, was built in 1822 at Deptford, and armed with eight 68-pdr. guns. Her first commander was an English naval officer named Hastings, who had joined the Greeks in 1822 and had fought both afloat and ashore. He had then been sent to England to take command of the first steamer to engage in naval hostilities.
The Karteria reached Nauplia on September 15, 1826. Hastings and the Karteria took part in the first operation of 1827, an attempt on February 5 to relieve surrounded Greeks in the Acropolis of Athens by an attack on the harbours of Phaleron, Munychia and Piraeus, occupied by the Turks. The Karteria engaged the Turkish artillery near Piraeus, particularly during the first Greek attack and the unsuccessful Turkish counter-attack. The ship sustained superficial damage. SG1171
. Built as a herring boat in 1872 at Rosendal, Norway, by Knut Johanneson, for Asbjorn Sexe, she was cutter-rigged, of shallow draft with an auxiliary engine of 13 h.p. A vessel of 47 tons, she had a length of 72ft. and beam of lift. She was sold after many years in the herring fishery to H. C. ,Johannessen, of Tromso, who used her for 12 years in research work in the Arctic. In this cockleshell of a boat, Amundsen, of Arctic and Antarctic fame, sailed with six companies from Christiania (now Oslo), at midnight on June 16, 1903, to seek the North-West Passage. As was to be expected, it turned out to be anything but a pleasure cruise, with gales, snowstorms, low visibility, reefs, rocks, confused seas, ice packs, fog, the whole gamut of Arctic weather, together with faulty instruments. Naturally the ship was frozen in the ice. Despite all the adverse circumstances, the expedition achieved its object. The North-West Passage was discovered, the long voyage terminating on August 31, 1906, at Nome Harbour, Alaska.
The Gjoa was presented to the City of San Francisco in 1909, but gradually became neglected and in bad condition, so much so that the Norwegians requested that the vessel be returned to Norway for preservation in the Bygdoy Museum alongside the Fram and Kon Tiki raft. The request was approved by the Americans and the little Gjoa was shipped in a deplorable condition in April last year on board the Star Billabong, bound for Oslo, where she will have a thorough overhaul and be restored to her original condition. SG692
She was built in 1917 for Amundsen, by Chr. Jensen, at Asker, near Oslo. The Hudson’s Bay Company bought her in 1926, renaming her Baymaud, and using her as a permanent store and repair ship at Cambridge Bay, Victoria Island. She became a total loss in 1930, sinking at her berth after she had developed a bad leak. This wooden, screw, schooner had a gross tonnage of 392 tons, net 292, her length being 107ft. tin beam 41ft. and depth 15ft. 9in. She had two decks. Port of registry was Christiania, and her captain Roald Amundsen, served in the Norwegian Naval Air Service in the First World War. From that time it would appear he favoured aerial navigation for exploration. It was not until 1918 that he took any further part in exploration, in which year he bought the Maud, with the idea of’ drifting across the Pole. He navigated the North-East Passage, but early in 1919 his engine broke down and he was compelled to land in Alaska. Two years later he tried to reach the Pole in an aircraft from the Maud, but without success. In 1928, Amundsen lost his life in a seaplane while attempting to rescue his old companion, Nobile, in the Arctic. SG690
; The Kladno is another ship built by the Hitachi company for the Czechs, and was launched in 1959 at Osaka. Her gross tonnage is 8,837 tons; net 5,467 and deadweight 12,450 tons. She is a cargo vessel with dimensions of 489ft. 8in. o.a. x 61ft. loin. x 29ft. 2in. draft. A B. & W. Hitachi engine of five cylinders, developing 6,250 b.h.p. gives the vessel a speed of 14 knots. SG2058
