In 1963 the Uruguayan Post Office issued a set of four stamps to honour the world cruise of the small schooner Alferez Campora which voyaged around the world for 341/2 months and received a rousing welcome home from the Uruguayan people. The schooner was built in 1934 at Amsterdam and was originally owned in Holland under the name of Microcosmos, but subsequently she was sold to Mr. Hugo Stunz, an Argentinian engineer, who renamed her Acherra. In December 1939 when the German warship Admiral Graf Spee had taken refuge in the harbour of Monte Video, the Acherra was lying at Punta de Este. A number of British citizens residing in Monte Video hired the vessel privately, ostensibly for a fishing expedition; she sailed from Bueco, Monte Video, with her British crew, proceeding to fish in waters where a watch could be kept on the Monte Video channel in order to radio a warning to the British naval forces that the Admiral Graf Spee was on her way out.
After this excitement the vessel was used for shark fishing in the South Atlantic until her sale to Mr. Armando Salem, who ran her in the Monte Video—Florianopolis race. Laid-up at Olivos, Buenos Aires until 1956, she was then bought by the three Uruguayan officers and Second Lieutenant Campora. They planned a world cruise, but unfortunately Campora died after a surgical operation before the voyage commenced. His three associates decided to carry on with their plans and in tribute to their late colleague, renamed the schooner Alferez Campora (Ensign or Second Lieutenant Campora). They left Monte Video on January 31, 1960, their voyage taking them to Rio de Janeiro, Recife, through the Panama Canal, across the South Pacific to Port Moresby, Indonesia, Singapore, Colombo, Aden, through the Suez Canal to Alexandria, Malta, Naples, Gibraltar, Casablanca and back across the South Atlantic to Recife and home to Monte Video.
SG1231 Sea Breezes 12/64