Cover of the Month

Tin Can Mail.

Front of Cover.

Back of Cover.

The tiny island of Niuafo’ou in the South Pacific Tonga group is little more than a 15 square kilmometre tip of a volcano jutting out of the Pacific Ocean. Since there is no safe anchorage for ships, an innovative way of sending and receiving mail had to be devised. Incoming as well as outgoing mail was sealed into biscuit tins that were carried by strong swimmers who often used long buoyant poles to keep them from sinking. Inevitably one of the “mailmen” was killed by a shark. Queen Salote of Tonga ordered that further mail transfers were to be done by canoe. This was difficult since the canoes had to thrown from the cliff tops and the crew then had to jump into the water and climb aboard. Since there was no restriction on the locals fishing using their buoyant poles, many of the islanders continue to swim out to the ships when no one was looking. Of course the philatelic opportunities offered by this method of moving mail did not go unnoticed. When George Quensell arrived on the island in 1928 he produced a rubber stamp that read “Tin Can Mail” and applied it to all outgoing letters. He then arranged for ships’ captains to encourage passengers to put letters into the incoming “tin” along with 6d to cover stamps and costs and then forwarded that mail. Ships’ captains soon created their own cachets showing where and when the items were “posted” at sea. As an active volcano, Niuafo’ou was constantly subject to tremors. In 1946 a major eruption covered a large portion of the island resulting in the evacuation of everyone. It was not until 1958 that the residents were allowed to return. In response to requests from islanders the Matson cruise line reinstated Tin Can Mail service in 1962, which continued until 1983 when an airfield was built on the island. A great piece of postal history! Thanks Jerry!

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