Welcome to the 16th installment of “Cancelling My Life” in which I am taking a look at postmarked items in my collections, starting from shortly before my birth on December 3, 1965. For a more detailed look at my personal philatelic history, take a look at the first entry here.
Today, we are looking at . . .
November 26, 1965, was a Friday. Those celebrating a birthday on this date are under the Zodiac sign of Sagittarius (which started on November 22). There are 35 days remaining until the end of this year. “I Hear A Symphony” by The Supremes was at the number one spot on the U.S. music charts while The Byrds’ “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season)” was number two. The Rolling Stones still topped the U.K. charts with “Get Off Of My Cloud”.
Webster Bivens was arrested by a team of FBI agents who entered his Brooklyn apartment on November 26 and searched the premises without a search warrant, giving rise to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1971 in the case of Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents. The Court would rule that, although there was no specific federal law that permitted Bivens to file suit against the government for a violation of his Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures, the constitutional amendment itself provided an implied right of action. The Court precedent would extend to similar interpretations of other Bill of Rights guarantees.
On November 26, 1965, France became the third nation to place a spacecraft into orbit around the Earth, as it launched a 42 kg (92 pound) satellite from the CIEES launch facility in Hammaguir, Algeria. Named Astérix after the popular French comic character, the primary mission of the probe, which carried radio and radar transmitters, was to test the effectiveness of the Diamant-A rocket. Although France was the third nation to launch its own satellite, the United Kingdom, Canada and Italy had each contracted with the United States to send spacecraft into orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The satellite only operated for two days. Astérix continues to orbit Earth as of 2025 and is expected to remain in orbit for centuries, “since,” as author Su-Yin Tan later noted, “an antenna malfunction does not allow any commands to the satellite.”
Today’s one and only November 26, 1965 is what is known as a Paquebot cover. This is a type of mail that is posted on a ship while at sea and is marked with a special cancellation indicating it was mailed from a vessel. The term “paquebot” comes from the French word for “packet boat,” While at sea the vessel is considered to be part of the country where the vessel is registered so uses the stamps of that country. The mail is taken ashore at the next port and given a “paquebot” mark to show they were posted at sea. This cove has a single 3-pence stamp of Great Britain issued on August 15, 1963, to commemorate the centennial of the Red Cross. It is listed as Scott #398. While the handstamp by the ship’s purser is dated November 26, the cover received a cancellation from St. John’s, Antigua, on November 28.
The ship from which this cover was mailed from was the RMS Andes, a 26,689 GRT steam turbine cruise ship, the flagship of the Royal Mail Lines fleet. Royal Mail Steam Packet Company was founded in London in 1839. After a troubled start, it became the largest shipping group in the world in 1927 when it took over the White Star Line. The company was liquidated and its assets taken over by the newly formed Royal Mail Lines in 1932 after financial trouble and scandal.
Andes was built in Belfast in 1937–39 and completed at the outbreak of the Second World War. The Admiralty almost immediately requisitioned her as a troop ship and had her converted to carry about 4,000 troops. In troop service she broke three speed records for long-distance voyages.
Andes was converted back into a civilian liner in 1947. She entered civilian service in 1948 on RMSP’s premier liner route between Southampton, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. For seven years she worked the route full-time, but from 1955 the frequency of her liner voyages decreased and she spent an increasing proportion of her time cruising. In 1959–60 she was converted at Flushing, Netherlands into a full-time cruise ship. She was no longer to carry cargo, so the shipyard of Koninklijke Maatschappij De Schelde converted her No. 4 hold into a 260-seat theatre and cinema called the Ocean Theatre. Additional refrigerating and an air conditioning plant was installed in some of the other disused holds. Without cargo the ship would be higher in the water, so holds 2 and 3 were ballasted with 250 tons each of concrete blocks.
Many of Andes‘ cruises were to the Caribbean (typically in spring and autumn), the Mediterranean or the Baltic. Most of them lasted from 16 to 26 days. Her calendar always included a Christmas and New Year cruise, typically to islands in the Atlantic and perhaps the North African coast. That was followed each year by a Winter Cruise, which was longer and could be up to two months. The length of the Winter Cruise allowed Andes to sail farther from her home port of Southampton, to any ocean that was exotic and warm while the Northern Hemisphere was in winter. Her 1964 Winter Cruise covered 20,570 miles and included visits to Madras, Bombay and the Far East.
Andes reached Southampton for the final time on 4 May 1971. She entered port flying a paying-off pennant 93 feet (28 m) long, and she was dressed with signal flags that spelt out a message in Latin: Andes in opus per mare ubique 1939–1971 hodie recedere (“Andes in operation by sea everywhere 1939–1971 today retires”. She had completed 285 voyages, called at 174 ports, and steamed about 2,770,000 miles.
Andes left Southampton on 6 May 1971 under a skeleton crew. The next day she reached Ghent in Belgium, where she was sold to Van Heyghen Frères for £325,000 for scrap. The Canadian Army plaque that had been presented to Andes in 1948 had already been removed, and RML presented it to The Seaforth Highlanders of Canada Regiment in British Columbia.
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