North Korea has launched a postage stamp in 1983 The Colourful Cow with the value specified 20 Chon on the market.
The BUNTE KUH (Colorful Cow) was most probably built in Flanders as a “schnigge” (old English name “snacc”) as one of the flagships of the Hanseatic League in 1401 which took part in the attack on the fleets of the pirate Klaus Störtebeker and Gödeke Michels.
To secure the maritime trade with England and Holland against pirate attacks, the city of Hamburg paid the merchants Simon of Utrecht and Hermann Nyenkerken to supply two modern schniggen including weapons and sailors. One of these ships was the BUNTE KUH supplied by Hermann Nyenkerken and the other an unnamed schnigge was supplied by the Flaming Simon of Utrecht.
The light “schniggen” which could be rowed were ideal to hunt pirates, as she was very speedy and manoeuvrable against the heavy and slow merchant cogs.
From 1400 the ships from the city of Hamburg battled the two pirate fleets of Störtebeker and Michels, one of this pirate ships carried the name SEETIGER (Sea Tiger), this two fleets threatened the maritime trade on the North Sea,
As mostly given that the BUNTE KUH was under command of Simon of Utrecht which is not true, she was under command of Hermann Nyenkerken, and accompanied by a fleet of armed merchant ships which were called “peace ships” and which were under command of the Hamburg councillors Nicholas Schocke and Hermann Lange,
Störetebeker fleet which was off Helgoland was attacked and defeated and captured and the crews were taken on board the BUNTE KUH and transported in captivity to Hamburg, where Störtebeker and others in 1401 at Grasbrook in front of the tower were beheaded.
Not much is know of the BUNTE KUH only the name, the name of the shipmaster and the cost of the acquisition and maintenance of the BUNTE KUH. In Hamburg the town, register give the maintenance cost of the BUNTE KUH for several years.
The amount recorded for the BUNTE KUH lead to the conclusion that it was a “schnigge”, while otherwise the cost of construction and maintenance of a cog would have been more than twice as high.
The incorrect classification of the BUNTE KUH as a cog and that Simon of Utrecht was her commander, which is on a 17th Century renewed grave plate which got a faulty praise inscription is the source of this assertion.
Despite the lack of contemporary visual sources, numerous models of the BUNTE KUH and paintings and drawings exist made in a later period in which she usually is presented as a cog-like vessel. There are models of the BUNTE KUH in the Hamburg Council cellar and the Museum of Hamburg History.
In Lübeck the former Queen of the Hansa towns a district of this town is named Buntekuh but has noting to do with the shipsname.
North Korea 1983; 20Ch; SG?
Source : wikipedia