Lot 133A
Newfoundland 1919 Hawker cover SG 142
Stamps & Covers of the World | 5951
Auction: Day 1
£6,000
Description
1919 cover from St. John's to 'Commander A. MacDermott / Royal Navy, 42 Pall Mall, London', endorsed 'To be kept till called for or instructions received as to disposal' and franked by 1919 3c brown 'Hawker' with type 69 'FIRST TRANS- ATLANTIC AIR POST, April 1919' opt, tied by machine cancel, flown on the first attempt at the Daily Mail prize by Harry Hawker and Lt-Com MacKenzie Grieve in their Sopwith 'Atlantic'. A really fine example of this classic Airmail rarity, with the usual evidence of immersion. Of the 200 stamps originally overprinted, 95 were recorded as used on flown. Diena Certificate (1981) SG 142
Footnote
The Hawker flight took off on 18 May but had to ditch in the sea west of the Azores the next morning. The pilots were swiftly rescued by the Danish ship 'Mary', but the plane (with the mail) remained floating in the sea until May 23, when it was salvaged by the American ship S.S. 'Lake Charlotteville', and subsequently landed at Falmouth on May 29, with the mail bag reaching the GPO in London the following day.
