
The 20 ore Swedish stamp depicts the Swedish mail packet Hiorten, built in 1692 at Karlskrona. This sloop, the first of several similar craft, sailed between Ystand and Stralsund until 1702. Nowadays she would be termed ketch-rigged, the mainmast forward and the mizzen stepped ahead of the rudder post. The Hiorten had a standing gaffmainsail and a mizzen without booms. The sails were furled to the gaff and the masts through brails. At the masthead she flew a long pennant on a short gaff. The stamp is a fine engraving by Sven Ewert of the drawing by Professor 011e Hjortzberg, now in the Swedish Postal Museum. The design gives an excellent representation of the bluff-bowed postal packet, the first official craft to carry Swedish mail.
SG191 Sea Breezes 9/66