Tristan da Cunha will issue a new set of stamps of ships on 06 December 2015 the press release give for this stamps:
Tristan da Cunha is the most remote inhabited island in the world lying some 2,430km from St. Helena and over 2,800km from Africa. The island was discovered in 1506 by the Portuguese navigator Tristão da Cunha. In 1816 the garrison was occupied by British Marines and when disbanded Corporal William Glass chose to stay on the island and he can be regarded as the founder of the present community.
Mail from and to the island became very important as it was their only opportunity to communicate with the outside world. Quite often this could take years as they were dependant on passing ships, like whalers, to carry the mail. Eventually after numerous requests British war ships would call annually but even this waned.
This definitive stamp issue depicts ships that carried mail to and from the island between 1904 and 1953. Of course most of the ships calling at Tristan would carry out this task and as such not all of the ships from this period are included.
1p HMS ODIN
Called at Tristan 23 January 1904. This was the last of the war ship visits for the next 15 years. Weighing 1,070 tons she was built in 1901 at the Sheerness Dock yard as part of the Cadmus Class. She was a 10-gun screw steel sloop built by the Royal Navy and undertook Survey work. At the time some of the islanders wished to leave Tristan. A proposal came on HMS Odin that they could be evacuated but there was a proviso that the terms would only hold good if the whole population migrated. Out of 17 families 7 voted to leave and 10 to remain, so the offer was withdrawn.
Built as steel screw sloop under yard by the Sheerness DY, Sheerness for the Royal Navy.
11 February 1901 keel laid down
30 November 1901 launched as the HMS ODIN one of the Cadmus class.
Displacement 1,070 ton, dim. 64 x 56.38 (bpp) x 10.05 x 3.5m. (draught)
Powered by 3-cyl triple expansion steam engines, manufactured by Devonport Dockyard, 1,400 hp, twin shafts, speed 13.2 knots.
Range 4,000 mile by a speed of 10 knots.
He steel hull was sheathed with timber to about three feet above the waterline
Barquentine rigged with square sails on the foremast, yards and sails were removed before 1914, but log entrees of the ODIN give she still used fore and aft sails as late as April 1920.
Crew 150.
08 January 1903 commissioned.
ODIN spent the first part of her life at the South Atlantic Station. On 23 January 1904, she called at the isolated island of Tristan da Cunha, carrying Mr William Hammond Tooke with an offer to the islanders;
“ Should all the inhabitants wish to leave the Island, the Cape and Home Governments would provide them with a free passage, purchase their live stock from them and settle them within 100 miles (160 km) of Cape Town, allowing them about 2 acres (8,100 m2) of land on rent, and would advance them money on loan to start their homes... They would be near the sea coast, where they would be able to start fisheries to supply the people of Cape Town... and that in future they could not rely on a yearly visit from a man-of-war ”
After vaccinating children, conducting a census (74 people) and baptising a child, they received the answer of the inhabitants: three families were for, seven against, and one neutral. The offer was therefore withdrawn, and the ship carried only one passenger to the Cape, a Mrs Amy Matilda Hagan. ODIN steamed for Nightingale Island and Inaccessible Island, before returning to the Cape. By 1909, ODIN had become a drill ship for the Cape Naval Volunteers, but by March 1914 had recommissioned at Muscat for service on the East Indies Station.
October 1914 saw ODIN ESPIEGLE and DALHOUSE protecting the Abadan Island oil refineries at the northern end of the Persian Gulf. On 7 October, the Turkish Government delivered a formal letter to ESPIEGLE protesting at the violition of Turkish waters within the Shatt-al-Arab. An uneasy peace was sustained until 31 October, when ESPIEGLE learnt that the Turkish Navy had shelled Odessa, thus effectively declaring war. On 5 November, Great Britain officially declared war on the Ottoman Empire, and on 6 November, ESPIEGLE engaged a series of trenches opposite Abadan Island. On 21 November, ESPIEGLE and ODIN bypassed a sunken barrage in the Shatt-al-Arab and steamed as far as Basra. A naval landing party put an end to looting in the city ODIN and ESPIEGLE supported British and Indian Troops in engagements near Basra, firing on Turkish positions. Beyond Basra the waters of the Shatt-al-Arab are too shallow for all but the smallest vessels, and the naval contribution to the Mesopotamian campaign was taken over by an improvised fleet of tugs and paddle steamers. ODIN continued to serve on the East Indies Station, and near Aden on 5 March 1917, she pursued the German raider ILTIS, which was scuttled rather than be captured. ODIN was sold at Bombay on 12 November 1920 on the same day as CLIO.
Tristan da Cunha 2015 1p sg?, scott?
Guyana 2015 $80 sg?, scott?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadmus-cl ... p#HMS_Odin