Ivan Yuryevich Moskvitin (Russian: Иван Юрьевич Москвитин) (? - after 1647) was a Russian explorer, presumably a native of Moscow, who led a Russian reconnaissance party to the Sea of Okhotsk, becoming the first Russian to reach the Pacific Ocean.Moskvitin is first attested in 1626 as residing among the Cossacks in Tomsk. In 1636 or 1637 Dmitry Kopylov with 54 men including Moskvitin were sent west toward Yakutsk. He went down the Lena River and up the Aldan River and on 28 June 1638 founded the fort of Butalsk about 100 km above the mouth of the Maya River and about 250 km southeast of Yakutsk. In May 1639 he sent Moskvitin with 20 Tomsk Cossacks and 19 Krasnoyarsk Cossacks and an Evenk guide eastward. They went down the Aldan River and up the Maya River and from the upper Maya crossed the Dzhugdzhur Mountains and went down the Ulya River and in August 1639 reached the Sea of Okhotsk.At the river mouth, or 25 km above its mouth, they built winter quarters. On the first of October he and 20 men sailed east for three days and reached the Okhota River where the town of Okhotsk was later built. Then they either sailed 500 km further east to the Taui River, or they learned enough from the natives to make a map of the coast as far as the Taui River (sources differ). That winter they built two large boats. There was some fighting with the local Lamuts and they captured a man to use as a guide and interpreter. The captive told him of a "River Mamur" at whose mouth lived the "sedentary Gilyaks". In late April or early May 1640 he sailed southwest as far as Uda Gulf at the southwest corner of the Sea of Okhotsk. There they learned of the Amur River, the Zeya River and the Amgun River and of the "sedentary Gilyaks" on the coasts and islands and the "bearded Daurs" who had big houses, cattle and horses, ate bread and lived like Russians. They then headed east, sighted the Shantar Islands and entered the Sakhalin Gulf. They may have seen the west coast of Sakhalin Island and seem to have reached some islands of the sedentary Gilyaks which may have been at the mouth of the Amur River. Because of the late season, they turned back and in November built winter quarters at the mouth of the Aldoma River which is 30 miles northeast of Ayan. By the middle of July 1641 they were back at Yakutsk. Information he provided enabled Kurbat Ivanov to make the first map of the coast (March 1642).
Russia1990; 5k. Рostal envelope. Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Moskvitin

One of the many Christmas stamps issued by many countries in 2018 had a maritime theme and to end this year the stamp of Christmas Island did catch my eye.


Located some 2,600 kilometres north-west of Perth, Christmas Island is the sole peak of an underwater mountain range that rises above the surface of the Indian Ocean. The island was named by Captain William Mynors, who sailed past it on Christmas Day 1643.
Australia Post has produced stamps for Christmas Island since 1993. While prior to 1993 the territory had issued Christmas stamps, Australia Post set a new direction for this annual issue, treating it in a more secular and light-hearted manner through the inclusion of Santa Claus and various personified local fauna engaging with the Christmas theme.

The stamps
The two stamps in this issue are held together by Christmas season narrative. They depict a race between Santa and a Red-footed Booby, who speed towards the shores of Christmas Island. This narrative is extended through the minisheet, which shows a whole panoply of local characters: the Blue-tailed Skink, Red Crab, Green Turtle, Golden Bosunbird, Christmas Island Frigatebird, Emerald Dove, Christmas Island Hawk-Owl, Java Sparrow and a host of tropical fish. The bright and cheerful Illustrations are by Melissa Webb.

65c Surfing Santa
Santa is hell-bent on getting his sack of gifts under the tree before expectant early-rising children emerge from beneath the covers on Christmas morning. In this nod to philatelic history – the Surfing Santa design of 1977 being one of Australia Post’s most controversial stamps – the smiling man in red carves up a wave on his sleigh, booty held over his shoulder above the sea spray.

$2 Kitesurfing Booby
But what are gifts without a tree under which to put them? The Red-footed Booby, a comical-looking bird at the best of times, was waylaid in decorating the tree and getting it to the island for Santa’s delivery. Keen to get any edge he can in the race against Santa, this clever bird uses the tree as a board sail in the race against time to install the tree ready to receive the gifts.

https://australiapostcollectables.com.a ... stmas-2018

Christmas Island 2018 65c/$2 sg?, scott?

Stanley Gibbons gives that the LENITA is depict on this 1983p stamp of the Falkland Islands, I found in Falkland Shipping Registry that the LENITA made a call at Port Stanley on 06 May 1898 under command of Capt. Clausen, arriving with a cargo of coal from Newcastle on Tyne, U.K. and she left on 25 June 1898. At that time she was sailing under the Danish flag.
Then she arrived on 08 March 1911 from London, and sailed again on 21 March 1911 bound for San Carlos, Port Stephens etc.
The last time she is given that she arrived 02 May 1911 from Port Stephens, Port Howard, etc., sailed on 07 May 1911 for Venezuela.

Mr. Tom Lloyd gives in Log Book October 1983 page 300/02 in an article how he identified the vessel depict on the stamp:

One of the most entertaining and satisfying aspects of our hobby is the time spent searching out the background information about the ships depicted on stamps.
Sometimes this involves writing many letters to people we don’t even know, or reading through volumes of books and magazines. Sometimes one almost gives up just before the answer turns up from an unexpected source. Take for example the 10p value of the Falkland’s 150th Anniversary set that was issued on January 3rd 1983, depicting a pair of ships under the title “Ship repairing trade 1850-1890”.
During this period shipping around the Cape (Horn) was increasing so that Port Stanley grew in importance for both ship repairing and re-victualling. The peak of this trade was reached in 1867, but, due to new and more stringent Board of Trade regulations, plus the advent of steam power meant that the trade began to decline, though Port Stanley remained and important port for the Royal Navy during both World Wars.
It has taken me ten months to “dig-out” the details of just one of the ships, the nearest), shown on this stamp which was designed by Ian Strange and Duffy Sheridan for lithographic printing by the House of Quests. This search involved writing to the Falkland Islands and the designers of the issue; but in the end it was a request in the “Upland Goose” which brought a reply from Mr. L. Griffiths, who like myself, is a member of the Falkland Islands Study Group.
He wrote to say that the ship in the foreground is a 392 ton Swedish barque (must be Danish barque) named the LENITA, which arrived at Stanley from London on March 3rd1910 under command of Captain Malquest and with a crew of ten.
She remained at the island for over a year, departing on May 3rd 1911 bound for the Columbian port of Rio Hache.
Both Mr. Griffiths and I find it puzzling why the LENITA was so long in the Falklands, unless she was involved in the carrying of inter-island cargoes, or even perhaps in seal or whale oil trading, for there are barrels pictures on the stamp, lined up on the jetty.
Mr. Griffiths informs me that he now owns a copy of the actual photograph upon which the design of the stamp was based; and reports that the ship, its sails, the jetty and the barrels have been faithfully reproduced.
However he adds on the original photograph there are four ships other ships; one to the west of the LENITA and three to the right. One is the hulk of the famous S.S. GREAT BRITAIN, two are steamers and the fourth is an unknown sailing ship, which judging from its condition could have been another floating hulk.
None of those other four vessels however are remotely like the background ship depicted on the stamp, which is more like a 19th century ship than one of the early 20th like the LENITA. (Which of course would fit in with the dates, 1850-90.)
It seems most odd that the LENITA was used to illustrate the late 19th century “Repairing Trade”, for she was photographed at Stanley, sometimes between 1909 and 1911 and was more likely involved in activities other than being repaired. The fact that she is pictured at the Government Public Jetty makes it unlikely that she was repaired, for such vessels were usually at anchor, or at one of the Falkland Island Company jetties. Thus it seems that the stamp artists have taken “philatelic Licence”, in order to make a picturesque design.
Research in the actual photograph used as the basis of the issue, turned out to be rather interesting, for it was one of a collection of old glass plates found by a Mr. Joseph Ring in his garage in 1977.
Mr Griffiths spent a deal of time with Mr. Peter Gilding enlarging the pictures on this plates and taking prints from them. Indeed the name of the LENITA was obtained by reading it on the ship as seen on one of Peter Gilding’s clever magnifications. Information about her was then researched from the Falkland Islands Government Shipping Records, with valuable additional information coming from some older residents of Stanley.
The approximate age of the photographic plates came from those showing a badly battered sailing ship in Stanley Harbour with masts severely damaged. From one of her lifeboats, Mr Griffiths and friends identified this ship as the WAVERTREE, and English vessel that arrived at the Falklands on December 7th 1910; and the background to this photograph that plus others in the collection, including that of the LENITA all fitted together as if the photographer had taken a set of pictures, “panning” round the view of the port. This discovered proving its rather “incorrect” use for the design of a stamp supposedly showing the repair industry of 1850 to 1890.
I must in all fairness end by expressing a debt of gratitude to Mr. Griffiths who has so interestingly “dugout” information about yet another ship-stamp from the British Territories in the Far South.

The Falkland Island Ship Registry gives for the LENITA also her Capt. name as Clausen I searched the net and I found the following, My Danish is not good at all so there could be mistakes be made in the translation.

Built at the Vindskärs Varv by J. A. Strandberg and Sjölén, Sundsvall, Sweden for A/S Barkskipet Lenita’s rederi (P.H. Clausen) at Norby, Fanø, Denmark.
09 June 1894 launched as the LENITA.
Tonnage 451 brt, 401 net, dim. 143.6 x 30.3 x 15.1ft.Bark rigged.
Wooden hull, copper sheathed.
The yard lost 23.000 Kr on this deal.

Sailed for her maiden voyage under command of Capt. S.P. Clausen after she had loaded a full load of timber in Sundsvall in July for Delagoa Bay arrived 10 November in Delagoa Bay, thereafter she proceeded to Beira, Fort Harnelin, Delagoa Bay to Miko in the Bismarck Archipelago, Samoa and Tonga from where she left with a cargo of copra to Valparaiso, Chile.
From Valparaiso she returned to Mioko Island and Sainoa where she loaded for Liverpool, where she arrived on 21 December 1896, after being away from Europe for 2¼ year.
1902 She loaded coffee in Batavia and Padang, Indonesia for New York where she arrived on 13 February 1903.
13 February 1903 her last long voyage was from Gothenburg with timber for Punta Arenas, Chile. Then in ballast to Montevideo where after she loaded in Conception for Hull. Her next voyage was to Sundsvall for a cargo of timber back to Hull.
From there she sailed to Coatzacoalcos, Mexico, then she sailed to La Vela de Corvo, Azores to load divi-divi for Hamburg where she arrived on 08 August 1905.
29 December 1906 the LENITA was sold to Robert Petersson in Bergkvara, Sweden for 20,000 Kr.
Used in Baltic and North Sea trades thereafter.
1910 After discharging props in Hartlepool, she loaded there a cargo of coal for Port Stanley, then she made some voyages in South America and the Caribbean
After 1914 re-rigged in a barkentine (other sources give schooner) and again used in the North Sea and Baltic trades.
1916 Sold in Gothenburg for 75,000 Kr. to Karl Lundgren, Bergkvara. A year later sold to Algot Södergren in Blidö for 115,000 Kr.
1922 Sold to N.O. Lagerstedt, Stockholm.
1927 Sold to J.E. Jansson in...

Cuba Post issued in 1992 four stamps for tourism, all this stamps shows some watercraft.

10c Depict a wind surfboard see viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11030&p=11712&hilit=windsurfing#p11712
20c Depict a pedalo, see viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11030&p=11712&hilit=windsurfing#p11712
30c depict according Watercraft Philately and the Stanley Gibbons catalogue a replica of a “caravel” (redonda) entering the port of Havana, the stamp is not so clear but she is square rigged on fore and main mast see: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10014&p=11903&hilit=caravel+redonda#p11903
50c Show a wind surfboard see viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11030&p=11712&hilit=windsurfing#p11712

Cuba 1992 10/50c sg3738/41, scott 3432/35.

Cuba issued four stamps in 1992 for tourism, the 20c shows us a “pedalo” of which
Wikipedia gives:
A pedalo (British English) or paddle boat (U.S., Canadian, and Australian English) is a small human-powered watercraft propelled by the action of pedals turning a paddle wheel.
The paddle wheel of a pedalo is a smaller version of that used by a paddle steamer. A two-seat pedalo has two sets of pedals, side by side, designed to be used together. Some models, however, have three pedals on each side to allow a person boating alone to pedal from a centrally seated position.
Pedalos, being particularly suited to calm waters, are often hired out for use on ponds and small lakes in urban parks.
The earliest record of a pedalo is perhaps Leonardo da Vinci's diagram of a craft driven by two pedals.

Also on the right of the stamp is a small sailyacht of which I have not any information.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedalo
Cuba 1992 20c sg 3739, scott 3433.

Iceland issued in 1986 four stamps for the “Bicentenary of the City of Reykjavik” of which the 12 Kr stamp shows us an 1856 view from the banks of the Tjörn (Pond) with in the background the bay of Reykjavik. By the stamp is given by the Icelandic Post:
In the background there is the French Imperial yacht La REINE HORTENCE. This illustration is copied after a picture in a book entitled’ Voyage dans le mers du Nord” by Charles Edmond, which was published in 1857 and described the French Prince Napoleon’s voyage around the Northern oceans in 1856.

August 1844 the 3-mast yacht was laid down for King Louis-Philippe under the name COMTE D’EU on the yard of Augustin Normand in Le Havre.
20 December 1846 launched.
Displacement 1,100 ton, dim. 62 x 10.80 x 5.7m.
Powered by a Creusot 4-cyl. steam engine, 320 nhp, speed 12 knots.
Armament 6 – 12cm guns.
Laid down as COMTE D’EU, the ship was renamed to PATRIOTE on 20 February 1848 after the French Revolution of 1848.

In June 1853, she became the imperial yacht REINE HORTENSE.
06 August 1853 in Dieppe.
July 1854 Sailed from Cherbourg for Bayonne, at the disposal of the Empress.
19 August 1854 arrived in Danzig.
In 1855, she served as a troopship to ferry forces bound for the theatre of the Crimean War.
08 February 1855 arrived in Kamiesch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamiesch with ships in tow.

In June 1865 (wrong given by Wikipedia, must be 1856) she took Prince Napoléon on an expedition to Greenland, with the ARTÉMISE (1847), a 28-gun corvette, La PERDRIX and, the COCYTE and two British coal tender screw steamers, the TASMANIA and the SAXON of 700 tons each. On 30 June at Reykjavík in Iceland, she met again Lord Dufferin who was on his own travels that would feature in his book Letters From High Latitudes, published the next year. Dufferin's journey was taking in Iceland, Jan Mayen and Spitzbergen. He had chartered the schooner FOAM for the task. Dufferin was invited to join Prince Napoleon aboard his royal steamer, and the Prince hearing that the FOAM had broken down offered them a tow north to Jan Mayen as they were going to the same region. On their last night in Reykjavik the prince held a ball to which all the rank, fashion, and beauty of the tiny town (population 700 or 800) were invited.
The FOAM was attached with two cables and the flotilla set off on 7 July, the collier SAXON traveling all too slowly behind. The fragile La REINE HORTENSE was soon to be in increasing danger from the ice and the French were required to abandon their journey 100 miles short of Jan Mayen, and return to Reykjavík. So on 11 July they let loose the FOAM to carry on north by sail. This was fortunate in a sense since on their return they were to discover that the SAXON had been damaged by ice, and would have meant that the convoy would have been short of fuel. This effectively cancelled the expedition.

18-20 May 1857 sailed from Bordeaux to Rochefort with the Emperor Napoleon III and Grand Duke Konstantine Nikolayevich of Russia. Then via other French ports to the Isle of Wight and returned back in Calais on 31 May 1857, where after the Grand Duke leaves the vessel and traveled to Brussel.
07 July 1857 back in The Isle of Wight with Prince Napoleon and his suite, where after she sailed via Lerwick and Bergen to the North Cape.
REINE HORTENSE ferried Prince Napoléon Bonaparte from Marseille to Genoa in early 1859 for his marriage to Princess Maria Clotilde of Savoy, and Napoléon III from Marseille to Genoa on 11 and 12 May 1859.
28 June 1860 in the port of Toulon, 12 April 1862 sails from Toulon with the Duchess of Hamilton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_ ... %80%931888)
In 1862 she was in the Baltic when she gave aid to a British vessel who she towed 80 miles from Bomarsund to Stockholm, on board had been Lord Dufferin, who she was to meet again 3 years later.
21 March1863 arrived in the harbour of Villefrance with the EAGLE.
06 October 1863 arrived on the road of La Rochelle with on board the Emperor.
01 January 1864 returned to the French Navy.
The REINE HORTENSE was recommissioned as the imperial yacht on 20 April 1865 for an official visit of the Emperor to Algeria.
01 October 1865 decommissioned as imperial yacht in Cherbourg.
On 14 February 1867, she was renamed to CASSARD, and commissioned for the Algiers station. She served there until 1881, when she was decommissioned in Toulon before becoming a littoral defence ship
Renamed to FAUNE in 1893, she was used as a hulk in Port-Vendre then munition depot in Toulon. She was eventually broken up in 1920.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Cassard_(1846) http://www.dossiersmarine.org/c-c5.htm
Iceland 1986 12 Kr sg 684, scott ?

In 1991, Australia issued a stamp and a miniature sheet, commemorating exploration of Albany, Western Australia by George Vancouver (1791) and Edward Eyre (1841). The coastline of the Albany area was observed for the first time in 1627 by the Dutchman François Thijssen, captain of the ship “ Gulden Zeepaert” (The Golden Seahorse), who sailed to the east as far as Ceduna in South Australia and back. Captain Thijssen had discovered the south coast of Australia and charted about 1,768 kilometres (1,099 mi) of it between Cape Leeuwin and the Nuyts Archipelago. GEORGE VANCOUVER: Departing England with two ships, HMS” Discovery” and HMS “Chatham”, on 1 April 1791, Vancouver commanded an expedition charged with exploring the Pacific region. In its first year the expedition travelled to Cape Town, Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, and Hawaii, collecting botanical samples and surveying coastlines along the way. On 29 September 1791, explorer Captain George Vancouver while exploring the south coast, entered and named “King George the Third's Sound” and” Princess Royal Harbour”, and took possession of New Holland for the British Crown. Vancouver went out of his way to establish good relationships with the local Aboriginal people.On the stamp In the background is the “Discovery”. JOHN EYRE: In 1841, Albany was the final destination of the explorer Edward John Eyre, the first European to reach Western Australia by land from the eastern colonies. Eyre, together with his Aboriginal companion Wylie , was the first European to traverse the coastline of the Great Australian Bight and the Nullarbor Plain by land in 1840–1841, on an almost 2000 mile trip to Albany, Western Australia . He had originally led the expedition with John Baxterand three aborigines. On 29 April 1841, two of the aborigines killed Baxter and left with most of the supplies. Eyre and Wylie were only able to survive because they chanced to encounter, at a bay near Esperance, Western Australia , a French whaling ship Mississippi , under the command of an Englishman, Captain Thomas Rossiter, for whom Eyre named the location Rossiter Bay .
Аustralia 1991;1.05;SG1303. Source: https://www.rosebedsstampshop.com/austr ... s-mnh.html. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_o ... _Australia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Vancouver. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_John_Eyre