From time to time I (Ernest Argyle) receive requests from collectors of ship stamps asking for information about some of the vessels they have been unable to identify or about which they have experienced difficulty in obtaining information even when they have known the name of the particular ship. One vessel which regularly occurs in these requests is the Ingolf, shown on the stamp illustrated.
The design shows the Ingolf in the harbour of Charlotte Amalie, and this vignette was used for the 1, 2, and 5 francs values of a set of Danish West Indies stamps issued m 1905. At that time the currency of the islands had been changed from cents and francs to bit and francs, the relative values of the new currency being five bit to one cent, 100 bit to one franc. Consequently, new stamps had to be printed for the bit values, while franc values, which had not been previously used in the islands, made their appearance. These franc values remained current until 1917, when the Danish West Indies were purchased by the United States of America for $25,000,000.
The Ingolf was built at the Royal Danish Naval Dockyard, Copenhagen, at a cost of £44,000 and was launched on September 1, 1876. She was a barque-rigged, single-screw vessel, with engines of 670 i.h.p. supplied by R. Napier and Son, which drove her at a speed of 10 knots. Her dimensions were: length 192ft., breadth 28ft., draft forward 12ft. 6ins., and draft aft 13ft. Bins. Her bunkers carried 130 tons of coal.
She was often referred to as a cruiser and as a corvette, but she was officially listed as an "iron gun vessel `. She was afloat for exactly half-a-century and for at least a third of this period was a training ship for naval N.C.O.s. Hundreds of men of the Danish Fleet had a great affection for the old ship, many of their fathers having served in her.
The Ingolf saw considerable periods of service in the Danish West Indies, where she was stationed at St. Thomas, and she also had spells of duty in Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. Naturally her rig, armament, etc., varied over the years. Originally she was built to carry a complement of 117, her armament being two 5.9-in. Krupp guns, four 3.4-in guns and two Maxim guns. Later she was given four 6-pdr. and three machine guns. Her displacement varied from 870 tons to 1,012 tons. She was broken up in H. C. Christensen's dockyard at Marstal in 1926.
While the stamp is undoubtedly a most attractively designed piece of work by the Danish architect Mr. P. Jensen-Klint, the vignette cannot be said to be an accurate representation of the Ingolf. The vessel appears flush-decked, while she actually carried considerable superstructure between the fore and main masts, on which superstructure was located her large funnel. The funnel can be seen on the stamp, with the smoke curling ahead between the fore course and fore topsail, but the superstructure is missing!
SG57,8,9. Sea Breezes 3/50