Built as a fast attack patrol boat by Chantier des Constructions Mécaniques de Normandie (CMN)in Cherbourg, France for the French Navy.
04 October 1984 keel laid down.
08 April 1986 launched as the LA MOQUEUSE (P 688), one of the P 400 type, of which 10 has built.
Displacement 373 ton standard, 477 ton full load, dim. 54.8 x 8 x 2.54m. (draught)
Powered by two SEMT Pielstick PA 4 V200 VGDS diesel engines, each 3,700 hp., twin shafts, speed 24 knots
Range by a speed of 14.5 knots, 4,500 mile.
Bunker capacity 73 ton diesel fuel, 20 ton fresh water and storage for 20 m³ provision and stores.
Armament : 1 – 40mm, 1 – 20mm type F2. 2 – 7.5mm MG AA52.
Crew 29.
16 May 1987 commissioned.

After a short stay at Toulon and Lorient she left for the Far East.
June 1987 rescued 354 boat people in the China Sea, then she headed for New Caledonia.
From the summer of 1987 based at Nouméa, New Caledonia together with her sister the La GLORIEUSE, where she have replaced the former mine sweepers La DIEPPOISE and La DUNKERQUOISE.
There missions was to patrol the waters of the French possessions in the western Pacific including New Caledonia, Wallis and Futune.
Also used in the patrol for fish poaching in this waters, she arrested a Taiwanese longliner in 1989, in 2002 she arrested the LI-SHEN and in 2005 the JIN...[click to read more]

In 2000 St Pierre et Miquelon issued a miniature sheet of 10 stamps to commemorate the 20th Century – 1900 to 1950. One of the stamps shows conscripts leaving New York for Le Havre in 1915 onboard the CHICAGO.

CHICAGO was launched by Chantiers et Ateliers de St Nazaire at Penhoet on 5 November 1907 for Compagnie Generale Transatlantique (CGT). She entered service on 30 May 1908 with her maiden voyage from Le Havre to New York.

GRT: 11127; NRT: 5871.
Dimensions: 508.4 x 57.8 x 3905 feet.
Engine by builder, twin screw 2 x 3 cyl tpl exp, 7938 IHP, 9 boilers giving a speed of 15.5 knots. She carried 1656 tons of coal which burned at 107 tons per day.
She carried 358 2nd class passengers and 1250 3rd.

CHICAGO made her last voyage to New York on 22 March 1915 as CGT thought it desirable to move their main terminal to Bordeaux due to the invasion of part of France by the German army. She commenced sailings from Bordeaux to New York on 16 May 1915 and in 1921 she recommenced sailings between Le Havre and New York.

On 13 October 1919 CHICAGO saved the passengers and the crew of the Fabre Line steamer VENEZIA which was on fire in the Atlantic.

In 1928 CHICAGO underwent a refit by Chantiers de la Gironde and was given extra ventilation below decks for the West Indies service. Renamed GUADELOUPE her first voyage under...[click to read more]

A snow rigged vessel of 356 tons.
Built in Liverpool in 1814. Was still registered in 1833.
In 1819 she was owned by a Mr Kermode and a William Kermode, featured on the stamp.
Vanished from the register before 1840.
Log Book August 1985.
Isle of Man SG183. (I do not have the stamp)

Built as a mine sweeper under yard No 30 by Saint John Drydock & Shipbuilding, Saint John, New Brunswick for the Royal Canadian Navy.
19 June 1951 laid down.
09 December 1953 launched as the HMCS FUNDY (MCB 145), one of the Bay Class.
Displacement 390 ton standard, 412 tons full load, dim. 46.3 x 8.5 x 2.7m. (draught)
Powered by two GM 12-cyl. diesel engines, 2,500 bhp. twin shafts, speed 15 knots.
Range by a speed of 11 knots, 4,500 miles.
Armament 1 – 40mm gun.
Crew 40.
19 March 1954 completed.

31 March 1954 sold to France.
21 May 1954 commissioned in the French Navy in Halifax under the name La DUNKERQUOISE (M 726).
1961 Departed for the Pacific from France via the Panama Canal. Arrived at Nouméa 09 August 1961.
Based at Nouméa and used as a patrol, escort and research vessel in the Pacific.
01 June 1973 reclassed as patrol craft (P 653).
15 October 1986 decommissioned.
The same year scuttled in Passé de Dumbea off Nouméa.

Norfolk Island 1990 45c sg485, scott481.

Source: The World’s Navies. http://la.lorientaise.pagesperso-orange ... quoise.htm

HMS Gallant, Destroyer of the Greyhound class built by A Steven & Sons Ltd of Glasgow and completed in February 1936.
Whilst on 'non-intervention' patrol duties in the Mediterranean during the Spanish Civil
War she was bombed by mistake by a Nationalist Aircraft, for which an apology was
subsequently tendered, but did not suffer any damage.Based at Alexandria at the outbreak of war in 1939 she was subsequently transferred to various commands within
the British Isles, where she was involved in several rescue operations, anti-submarine warfare and patrol and escort duties.
Whilst participating in operation 'Dynamo' the evacuation of The British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk, she was attacked by enemy dive bombers sustaining minor structural and electrical damage.
On arrival at Gibraltar in July 1940 she transferred to the North Atlantic Command operating with Units of Force H in escort duties for convoys in the Mediterranean.
Following a spell shadowing the French Vichy forces she transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in November 1940. Later that month formed part of the escort of a Malta convoy which made contact with the Italian Forces, including the battleship Vittorio Venetto and the action developed into the inconclusive Battle of Cape Spartivento.
Whilst on escort duties for Malta Convoy Operation 'Excess' she struck a mine off...[click to read more]