Ironically the last stamp to be issued by Belgium for use in the Belgian Congo commemorates the independence of that country showing the bridge of the tug Kinshasa, based on a photograph made in April 1956, by C. Lamote of the Congo Press. The tug belonged to an organisation with the incredible name "Exploiting Service of the Colonial Board of Traffic" which had a technical school at Leopoidville. The abbreviation of this institute's title reads" Otraco" (from the French name "L'Office d'Exploitation des Transports Coloniaux"). The school trained natives for pilotage, engineering and kindred vocations ; the stamp shows a pupil at the tug's wheel. Built by Cockerill at Hoboken in 1938, the tug's dimensions (in metres) are: 30 x 7 x 1.6. She has two oil engines each of 250 h.p. and a speed of 11 kilometres per hour. The institute's compound of initials 'Otraco' is printed on the cap-band of the pupil sailors' hats and can be seen on the quartermaster's cap in the stamp illustration.
SG1732 Sea Breezes 3/61