Compare the ship on the stamp with a photo of the ship, she must be the CORINTHIC (II).
Built under yard no 1175 as a cargo- passenger vessel by Cammell Laird at Birkenhead for the Shaw Savill & Albion Co. Ltd. England.
30 May 1946 launched under the name CORINTHIC, she was christened by Mrs. William Douglas, daughter of the Hon. W.J.Jordan, then High Commissioner for New Zealand to the United Kingdom.
Tonnage 15.264 gross. Dim. 559.8 x 71.2ft.
Powered by geared turbines, manufactured by builder 14.000 shp., twin screws, speed 17 knots.
Passenger accommodation for 85 first class passengers. Later 91. Crew 124.
Cargo capacity, 158.293 cubic feet dry cargo, 518.609 cubic feet reefer cargo.
Built for the liner service from England to New Zealand.
While nearing completion in January 1947 a fire broke out in hold no 5 which soon spread. Local Birkenhead firefighters augmented by fire fighters from Liverpool and the shipyard fought the blaze, which was eventually brought under control. So much water was used that the vessel got a list of 15-20 degree.
She entered service on 12 April 1947 and her maiden voyage from Liverpool was around Africa to Australia and New Zealand and returning via Panama Canal.
The CORINTHIC was visited by King George VI in October 1950 at the London Docks.
Tonnage given in 1964: 15.682 gross, 9.060 net.
Her last voyage with passengers was on 18 Feb. 1965.
The same year her passenger accommodation was removed at Schiedam, The Netherlands.
Her tonnage as cargo vessel only was 14.285 gross, 7.659 net.
23 Oct. 1969 arrived at Kaohsiung to be broken up.
The Pitcairn Island has the following story on the stamp:
The first time that Capt. Arthur C Jones saw Pitcairn was on 5 May 1919, as an apprentice seaman aboard the steamship KATUNA. He traded clothing and soap with a Pitcairner in exchange for 2 baskets of fruit, a painted coconut and a piece of coral from Oeno Island and was captivated by the island and its people. It was the first of more than 100 visits Jones would make during a career of more than four decades.
During a call in 1933 as an officer aboard the Shaw Savill & Albion cargo-liner AKAROA, Jones noted an unsightly, barren appearance of the island and he watched with disappointment as over the years deforestation and erosion tightened their grip on the island. In the early 50s, as master of the CORINTHIC, Jones started carrying shipments of young trees from new Zealand to help to restore the island’s vegetation.
Trees were not all that he carried. Supplies, mail and Pitcairners were carried in either direction and would sometimes hoist the Pitcairn longboats on board and carry them to Henderson Island, where the Pitcairners would harvest Miro for there carvings. So much so did his name become synonymous with Pitcairn that he was know throughout the Shaw Savill Line as “Pitcairn Jones”.
On Pitcairn, he is remembered by the rocky point in Bounty Bay, named in his honour.
Pitcairn 2002 $1.50 sg?, scott?
Source: The ships that serve New Zealand by I.G.Stewart. Shaw Savill & Albion by Richard P de Kerbrech. Great Passenger ships of the world Vol 4 by Arnold Kludas.
http://www.government.pn/NotableFigures.htm