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Built under yard No. 5184 as a double-hulled crude tanker by Daewood Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Ltd., South Korea for Majestic Shipping (Hellespont Shipping Corporation, Greece).
24 September 2001 keel laid down.
15 December 2001 launched, built under the name DAEWOOD 5184, am not sure of she ever carried this name. Three sisters ships.
Tonnage 234.006 gross, 16.2477 net, 442.470 dwt., dim. 380 x 68 x 24.5m., length bpp. 366m.
Powered by a HSD –Sulzer 9RTA84T-D diesel engine, 37.463 kW, one propellers, speed 17.5 knots.
Cargo capacity 500.282 cubic meter.
03 June 2002 delivered to owners, under the name HELLESPONT METROPOLIS, with homeport Majuro, Marshall Islands. Her registered owner given as Metropolis.

09 November 2002 transferred to Greece flag, with first homeport Andros, later Piraeus.
2004 Sold Africa Tanker Corp., renamed TI AFRICA.
25 July 2004 transferred Belgium flag, with homeport Antwerp.
July 2005 transferred again to Marshal Islands flag and registry.

Who can identify the smaller tanker alongside the TI AFRICA?. Click on stamp to get a larger image of the stamp.

Marshall Island 2006 39c sg?, scott?

www.equasis.org gives for 2008. Owned by Africa Tanker Corp., Marshall Islands, managed by OSG Ship Management Ltd., Newcastle-upon-Tyne, U.K. IMO No. 9224764

source: www.eagle.org

Built as a Suezmix double-hulled tanker under yard No. 1179 by Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., Ulsan, South Korea for Metrofin Ltd. (Eyelet Navigation), Greece.
24 August 1999 keel laid down.
03 December 1999 launched under the name CRUDE DIO.
Tonnage 81.151 gross, 52.036 net, 159.959 dwt., dim. 274.5 x 48 x 23.1m. Draught 17.07m. Length bpp. 264m.
Powered by a B&W diesel engine ?hp, one propeller, speed ?
14 February 2000 completed.

After delivery managed by Metrostar Management Corp.
04 July 2002 she was blocked by Greenpeace activists from the Greenpeace vessel ESPERANZA who boarded the vessel at the north entrance to the Bosporus, preventing the vessel from transiting the Straits.
14 Activists had boarded the vessel by inflatable boats during the afternoon, while the CRUDO DIO was waiting her turn to transit the Bosporus.
They put up banners promoting a ban on oil and favouring “clean” energy.
After 11 hours of blockade 13 activist were arrested by the Turkish authorities.
The CRUDE DIO at that time was carrying a full cargo of crude oil from Novorossiysk, Russia.

June 2003 sold in block with 19 other Metrostar tankers for US$525 million to General Maritime Corp. US.
CRUDO DIO was owned then by GMR Spyridon, Marshall Islands, renamed in GENMAR SPYRIDON, and managed by General Maritime Management.

18 March 2004 she got engine trouble 700 nautical miles south-west of the Azores, towed by the tug FOTIY KRYLOV to Setubal, Portugal for repairs, where she arrived early April 2004.

March 2006 management was taken over by General Maritime Portugal.

www.equasis.org gives for 2008: IMO no 9185528.Owned still by GMR Spyridon, Marshal Islands and managed by General Maritime Portugal, Lisbon. Under Marshall Islands flag and registry.

Marshall Island 2006 39c sg?, scott?

Source various web-sites. DNV Exchange on line.

Built as a ro-ro passenger ferry under yard No 325 by Chanters du Nord et de la Mediterranee, Dunkerque, France for Soc. Nationale des Chemis de Fer Francais.
17 July 1985 ordered.
15 April 1987 launched under the name NORD PAS DE CALAIS.
Tonnage 7.264 gross, 2.492 net, 4.795 dwt, dim. 158.09 x 22.4 x 7.53m., draught 5.92m., length bpp. 150m.
Powered by two 16-cyl. Sulzer 16ZAV40 diesel engines, 24.484 hp., two controllable pitch propellers, speed 22.5 knots.
Accommodation for 80 passengers could carry 90 truck and trailers. (WP gives she has 600m railtrack, but nowhere can I find of this is correct or that she ever carried train wagons.)
14 December 1987 delivered to owners.

January 1988 used in the service between Calais and Dover.
09 May 1988 in the day-service from Dunkerque to Dover.
1989 Transferred to Societe Nouvelle d’Armement Transmanche (SNAT), Calais, France.
22 December 1995 in the day-operation from Dunkerque to Dover.
07 January 1996 renamed in SEAFRANCE NORD PAS-DE-CALAIS used in the service of Seafrance from Calais to Dover, mostly in use for hazardous cargo transport, what was not allowed to be carried on the Channel Tunnel trains.
03 July 1996 laid up in Dunkerque.
29 November 1996 again in the service from Calais to Dover only to transport cargo.
2006 Still in this service.

www.equassis.org gives for 2006: IMO No 8512152, owned by Seafrance.

Vietnam 1990 3000d sg 1495, scott 2163.

Source: Watercraft Philately Vol. 38 page 58. http://www.veristar.com http://www.faktaomfartyg.se/nord_pas_de_calais_1987.htm

Built as a wooden paddle vessel by Chatham Drydock for the Royal Navy.
18 March 1841 ordered.
15 November 1841 keel laid down.
25 July 1842 launched under the name HMS VIRAGO one of the Driver class.
Displacement 1.590 tons, 1.059 ton (BM). Dim. 54.86 x 10.97 x 6.4m.
Powered by one 2-cyl. direct acting steam engine, manufactured by Boulton, Watt & Co., 300 nhp., speed 9.5 knots.
Armament 2 – 10 inch on pivots. 2 – 68pdr., 2 – 42pdr. carronades.
Crew 149, later increased to 175.
May 1843 commissioned, under command of Comdr. George Graham Otway
29 July 1843 completed, building cost £42.713.

The class was designed by Sir William Symonds.
After completing stationed in the Mediterranean where she arrived in November 1843.
20 May 1846 command taken over by Comdr. John Lunn, still in the Mediterranean.
16 November 1847 paid off at Woolwich, U.K. and put in reserve.
05 August 1851 re-commissioned, under command of Comdr. William Houston Stewart, sailed for the Pacific.
She recaptured the Chilean colony of Punta Arenas, which was taken over by mutineers, and seized also the former British schooner Eliza Cornish, which was captured by the mutineers in Punta Arenas in the Straits of Magellan.
27 January 1853 she visited Pitcairn Island, the first steam vessel that arrived on the Pitcairn. When she left a few days later the Magistrate Matthew McCoy died when the Pitcairners wanted to fire an old BOUNTY cannon in a farewell salute. The ramrod happened to contain a nail, which caused a spark that ignited the powder in the cannon, killing McCoy.
05 April 1853 command taken over by Comdr. Edward Marshall stationed in the Pacific.
1854 Command taken over by Comdr. James Charles Prevost, on the west coast of Canada, when gold was discovered in Queen Charlotte Sound, the crew of the VIRAGO made surveys of the harbours in the islands, adjacent coastal channels and the Port Simpson area.
From August till September 1854 was a unit of the French-Anglo Pacific squadron, which took part in the Crimea War including the operations at Petropavlovski, the main town in Kamchatka.
Returned home in 1855 for repair and a refit.
06 May 1856 under command of Comdr. Henry Vachell Haggard on the southeast coast of America.
15 March 1858 under command of Comdr. Montagu Buccleuch Dunn, stationed at Devonport, U.K.
30 November 1866 together with HMS CHARYBDIS sailed for Australia as a unit of the Australian Station.
May 1867 arrived on the Australian Station. Took much survey work in the Australian and New Zealand waters, including Norfolk Island.
25 August 1869 command taken over by Comdr. Elibank Harley Murray.
When in February 1871 HMS CLEO grounded on an uncharted rock in Bligh Sound on the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand, she rendered assistance by making temporary repairs to the CLEO and escorted her to Wellington for repairs.
28 June 1871 sailed from Sydney bound for England, arriving in Sheerness early autumn, after arrival paid off and laid up.
1876 Deleted from the navy list, and scrapped in September 1876 at Chatham.

Pitcairn Island 1988 90c sg 323, scott 306a.

Sources: Ships of the Australia Station by John Bastock. http://www.pdavis.nl/ShowShip.php?id=2260
The Sail and Steam Navy List by Lyon & Riff.

Built as self-discharging bulk carrier under yard No. 10301 by Oshima Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., Japan for T Klaveness Shipping AS, Oslo, Norway.
20 November 2001 keel laid down.
23 March 2002 launched under the name BARKALD.
Tonnage 28.912 gross, 17.772 net, 49.463 dwt., dim. 189.99 x 32.29 x 16.67m. draught 11.893m, length bpp. 182m..
Powered by one B&W type 6S50MC-C diesel engine, manufactured by Kawasaki Heavy Ind. Ltd., Japan, 12.874 hp. (9.466kW.), one propeller, speed ?
11 June 2002 completed.
Under Norway International Ship registers.

Used mostly on the East Coast of North America.
July 2005 under Marshall Island registry, homeport Majuro.
20 September 2006 on a outward voyage from Bridgetown to Halifax, Nova Scotia, she collided with the 92 foot long sailboat ESSENCE in the Long Island Sound, just east of Port Jefferson at 04.00 a.m. in which the sailboat sank killing a woman Gina Bortolotti, the two other crew members were rescued.

www.equassis.org gives for 2008, Owned by same owner, managed by Klaveness Maritime Logistic, Oslo
IMO No. 9233404.

Marshall Island 2006 39c sg?, scott?

Source: various web-sites. DNV Exchange.

Built as a LNG tanker under yard No. 41 by General Dynamics, Quincy USA for Wilmington Trust Co. USA.
Launched under the name LNG AQUARIOUS.
Tonnage 83.102 gross, 72.511 dwt, (when built) dim. 285.3 x 43.9 x 11.0m. (draught), length bpp. 273.4m
Powered by two General Electric Co. steam turbines, 43.000 hp. (31.629 kW.), one screw, speed 20.5 knots. Thw. bow-thrust forward.
5 Tanks, total 126.300 cubic meter. Can keep her cargo down to -165 C.
07 June 1977 completed. Building cost $US 82 million.

07 June 1977 sailed from the USA. Under USA flag and registry.

Mostly used in the transport of lng between Bontang, Indonesia and Nagoya, Japan.
Later her tonnage is given as 95.084 gross, 67.406 net, 72.622 dwt. ( Lloyds Shipping Index 1989 gives a net tonnage of 28.525 ton.)

28 April 1998 sold to Pronav Ship Management Inc. USA for $US 9.755.000.
December 2000 transferred to Marshall flag and registry.
February 2005 her owner given as SMBC Leasing, Panama, and managed by Pronav Ship Management, Stamford USA.

www.equasis.org gives for 2008, same owner and manager. IMO No 7390181, and still under Marshall Islands flag and registry.

Marshall Island 2006 39c sg?, scott?

Source: Various web-sites and info received from Mario Rosner.

She was ordered by the Spanish Steam Navigation Company, by J & G Thomson, Govan Scotland but was bought by Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (French Line), Le Havre.
Built as a passenger-cargo vessel under yard No 57.
17 December 1861 Launched under the name CORTES.
Tonnage 2.045 grt, dim. 280 x 39 x 36.1ft.
Powered by a direct acting steam engine 500 hp. One lifting propeller, trial speed 13¾ knots.
Later re-engined by one 2-cyl compound steam engine, manufactured by SA de Construction Navale, Le Havre, 500 ihp., one propeller, speed 10 knots.
Ship-rigged.
Passenger accommodation for 250 first and second class passengers. Her main salon dine 140 persons.
March 1862 trials.
1862 Sold after trials together with her sister to Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, renamed LOUISIANE, her sister was renamed FLORIDE. Her sister was built by Caird and Co. at Greenock under the name COLON.

She was built with the intention to use her together with her sister COLON in the service from Cadiz to Havana, but the despatch of the French Expedition to Mexico made it desirable to put forward the inaugural date of the French Line, Mexican service to July 1862 and the 1.800 ton iron screw steamers LOUISIANE and FLORIDE were purchased in England for the purpose.

14 April 1862 she was the first vessels when she left Saint Nazaire to inaugurated the service between France and the West Indies and Mexico.

Cuba issued in 1982 a miniature sheet which depicts the LOUISIANE and the services of the French Line to the West Indies.

20 December 1875 she collided with the GIRONDE of Messageries Maritime off Pauillac , she was underway from Colon. Panama to Bordeaux under command of Capt. Riboulet on board were 128 persons, and she carried a general cargo.
After taken on board a pilot off Pauillac she proceeded inwards, the pilot did know there was an other ship under steam on the road, but in the darkness and foggy weather the visibility was greatly reduced.
At 22.15 she collided with the GIRONDE of Messagiers Maritimes, and sunk after 3 minutes, 17 persons lost their live on board the LOUISIANE, and one on board the GIRONDE.
111 Persons were rescued by the British steamer IBERIA.

Cambodia 1990 15r sg 1119.scott 1085.
Cuba 1972 13c sg 1983 and 1982 1p sg MS 2822.

Source: The Times of 07 March 1862. North Atlantic Seaways by N R P Bonsor. Log Book, some web-sites, under which Miramar and Clyde built ships. Info received from Mr. John Stevenson

Not much is know about the caravel, where and when built unknown.
Tonnage 200 ton, dim. 85 x 25 x 14ft. (draught)
Four masts, fore and main mast square rigged, mizzen and Bonaventura mast lateen rigged.

She was the flagship of Don Pedro de Mendoza (1487-1537) expedition to the River Plata.
Mendoza held a post in the court of Charles V, when he in 1534 made an offer to Emperor Charles V to make an expedition on his own account for the discovery and conquest of Paraguay and the countries on the Rio La Plata.
24 August 1534 Mendoza on board the MAGDALENA and 13 other vessels, with 3000 men set sail from San Lucar, Spain.
Receive from the Emperor before sailing 2.000 ducats, with the condition, when he transported to the new founded colonies 1000 colonists and 100 horses, build a road to the Pacific Ocean, erect three forts within two years he would receive 2.000 ducats more. Also he had to take 8 monks, a physician, a surgeon, and an apothecary, but he was forbidden to introduce a lawyer in the colony.
He was to have half the treasure of the chiefs killed and nine-tenths of the ransom.
Mendoza was made before sailing military governor of all the territory between the Rio de la Plata and the Strait of Magellan. The office of the Governor was also made hereditary.

Off the coast of Brazil the fleet was scattered in a heavy storm, and Medoza lieutenant Osario, was assassinated, according to some authorities by the orders of Mendoza himself because of suspected disloyalty.
1535 Mendoza sailed up the Rio de la Plata, and founded Buenos Aires on 02 February 1536.
He erected two forts there to defend the place.
Pestilence broke out and the natives became unfriendly after ill treatment by the Spaniards.
His brother Don Diego led a force against the hostile tribes, but was killed with three-fourths of his men.
A general conspiracy of the natives was formed, and Buenos Aires was captured and burned by the natives.
Mendoza retired to the forth Sanctus-Spiritus, from where he dispatched Juan de Ayolas to explore the upper part of the river.
Another brother, Gonzalo arrived with reinforcements and founded the city of Ascención in Paraguay in 1536.
Mendoza, disappointed and with a broken health, embarked on board the MAGDALENA for Spain in 1537, leaving Juan de Ayolas in charge.
During the long voyage to Spain he died maniac on board the MAGDALENA on 23 June 1537.

The fate of the MAGDALENA is not known.

Argentine 1979 400p + 400p sg 1646

Source: mostly copied from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_de_Mendoza http://famousamericans.net/pedrodemendoza

Built as a wooden three-masted full-rigged ship by William Dawson Lawrence at Maitland. Nova Scotia for his own account.
September 1872 the keel with a length of 244.9ft. was laid.
Work was not regularly carried on until April 1873, and it was 27 October 1874 before she was launched.
Named after her builder and owner W D LAWRENCE.
At the time of her launch she was the largest sailing vessel of the world. (there was a other larger sailing vessel but she was a conversion of a steam vessel)
Tonnage 2458.82 gross, 2.458.82 net, and 2315 tons under deck. Dim. 262 x 47.6 x 29.2ft.
She was built of spruce chiefly, with some hard wood stem and stern-post.
Copper fastened to the deep draught line and iron fastened above.
Her total spread of canvas was 8000 square yards.
Two decks.
Crew 35.
Building cost Can$107.453.

04 December 1874 sailed for her maiden voyage with a cargo of deals from St Johns N.B. to Liverpool under command of James Ellis, son in law of the owner. Arrived there after a passage of 23 days.
In England she was fitted out with donkey boiler and winch.
From Liverpool she sailed with a cargo of coal for Aden.
13 September 1875 sailed from Aden to Callao, Peru in 83 days, she arrived at Callao on 06 December 1875.
14 December she cleared Callao for the Chinchas Islands, Peru, on charter to Dreyfus Fréres et Cie to load guano for Le Havre, her loading port was later changed to Pabellon de Pica.
She had to wait eleven months before she could load her cargo of guano.
11 December 1876 sailed from Pabellon de Pica around Cape Horn for Le Havre.
From Le Havre she made again a voyage to Aden, not anywhere can I find what she was bringing to Aden, I believe most probably coal for the steam vessels there, the coal most probably loaded in the U.K.
02 March 1878 sailed from Aden bound for Callao arriving there the 28 July, a very poor passage of 148 days. After clearing in Callao she sailed for Huanillos to load a cargo of guano.
23 December 1878 she sailed from Huanillos, arriving on 09 April 1879 at Falmouth for orders, after a passage of 106 days.

Thereafter used in the trade from the U.K. to India.
On a voyage from Calcutta to London she put in at Mauritius on 03 May 1880, to land Capt. Ellis for medical treatment, and the first officer James Tornay took over command, arriving with her in London on 04 August after a passage of 140 days.
The same year she made a passage from 138 days from Newcastle, England to Bombay.
In 1822 she made a passage from Liverpool to Bombay in 122 days.

Command for her last voyage under Canadian flag was taken over by Captain William Lawrence, jun. he drove her very hard and made her last round voyage one month quicker than her previous voyages.
She sailed that voyage from Narakal, Cochin, SW India on 03 September 1883 and arrived London 03 January 1884, after a passage of 101 days.

Due to this good performance Lawrence could sell her to the Norwegians for $86.000 after arrival at London.
During the period she was owned by Lawrence she made a clear profit of $ 140.848.
Sold to Norwegian owners in Sandefjord, and renamed in KOMMANDØR SVEN FØYN.
Her new captain Johan M Bryde owned 1/16 part of the ship.
First used in the timber trade across the North Atlantic, then for many years in the oil trade from New York.
1889 Sold to Chr. Christensen, Sandefjord not renamed.

Around 1890 she loaded deals at West Bay near Parrsboro not far from where she was built.

1892 Sold to A.S. Union (Johan Bryde) Sandefjord. And sailed till 1896 under command of Capt. G.M. Bryde.
From 1896 till 1898 under command of Capt. A. Nielsen.
December 1897 on a voyage from Dalhousie, N.B., Canada to London loaded with timber; she was partly dismasted during a storm near the Goodwin Sands in the Strait of Dover. Towed to Gravesend.

Not worth to repair the old ship, she was sold for £1.500 to French owners.
Used as a barge at Dakar, West Africa. Most probably in use there till she was abandoned.

Canada 1975 8c sg 818.
Laos 1987 2k sg 983

Source: Ships of Canada. Wooden Ships and Iron Man by Frederick William Wallace. http://www.bruzelius.info/nautica/Ships/Merchant/Sail/W/WD_Lawrence(1874).html

Built as a wooden screw frigate by the New York Navy Yard, New York for the US Navy.
03 August 1863 laid down.
15 December 1864 launched as USS WAMPANOAG sponsored by Miss Case, daughter of Capt. Augustus Ludlow Case, second-in-command of the Navy yard, one of the Wampanoag class, a class of five ships. The WAMPANOAG was named after an Indian tripe living in Massachusetts’s and Rhode Island, the name means “Easterners”
Displacement 4.215 ton, dim. 108 x 13.8 x 5.54m. (draught)
Powered by steam engine, 4.100 ihp., one screw , speed 18 knots. Four funnels.
Bunker capacity 700 ton coal.
Armament: 10 – 8 inch, 2 – 100pdrs., 2 – 24 pdrs. Howitzers, 2 – 12pdrs. Howitzers, 1 – 60 Parrot.r. pivt.
Crew 330.
Barque rigged.
07 February 1868 trials
17 September 1867 commissioned under command of Capt. J.W.A. Nicholson.

Commerce raiding by CSS ALABAMA and CSS FLORIDA both built in English yards, reached a point in 1863 where continued peaceful relations between the United States and Great Britain were seriously jeopardized. As a result, Congress responded by authorizing construction of a new class of screw frigates as part of the naval procurement bill of that year. This class were designed to be the fastest in the world, and were intended for use in hit-and-run operations against British ports and commerce in the event of war.

WAMPANOAG contained numerous design features unprecedented in American naval construction; her hull designed by clipper ship architect B.F. Delano was unusually long and tapered relative to the vessel’s beam. Her machinery, developed by controversial naval engineer B. F. Isherwood, was unique for its geared steam engine in which slow-moving machinery coupled to fast-moving propulsion gear. Tremendous debate caused by this design completed in time to serve in the Civil War.

She finally sailed from New York for sea trials on 07 February 1868. On 11 February, she commenced speed tests running flat-out in rough weather from Barnegat Light, N.J. to Tybee Island, Georgia.
She covered the distance of 633 sea-miles in 38 hours for an average sustained speed of 16.6 knots, at one point making 17.75 knots.
Another naval vessel the American cruiser CHARLESTON, did not equal this record for 21 years.

From 22 February till 08 April 1868, WAMPANOAG was deployed as flagship of the North Atlantic Fleet.

05 May 1868 decommissioned at the New York Navy Yard.
The controversy generated by the frigate’s unconventional design reached a peak in 1869 when a naval commission examined and condemned the vessel. Rear Admiral R.M. Goldsborough, Commodore Charles S Boggs and Engineers E.D. Roble, John W Moore and Isaac Newton judged the ship unacceptable for active duty in the Navy.
They complained of her unusually large machinery spaces counted for nearly 30% of the displacement, heavy coal consumption, and little space for crew and stores, and found particular fault with her narrow breadth relative to her length. The commission said this caused inordinate rolling and straining of the vessel. As a result she was put in ordinary.
15 May 1869 renamed in USS FLORIDA, in ordinary at New York.
06 March 1874 sailed from New York bound for New London Conn. To become a receiving and store ship at the naval station there till February 1885 slowly rotting away.
27 February 1886 sold at New York to Edwin LeBars for dismantling.

Marshall Islands 1997 20c sg 897, scott 649i.

Source: Conway All the World’s Fighting Ships 1860 – 1905. mostly copied from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Florida_%281869%29