Finland has issued two stamps depicting ships which most ship-stamp collectors have been unable to identify. The first of these is the 100mk. design of 1942 showing two steamers at South Harbour, Helsingfors. This stamp, designed by an elderley lady, Mrs. Signe Hammarsten-Jansson, shows the passenger steamer Ilmatar on the right-hand side and on the left, the cargo steamer Baltic.(SG cat refers this as Rigulus)
The Ilmatar was built in 1929 by Burmeister and Wain, at Copenhagen, for the Finska Angfartygs Aktiebolaget (Finnish Steamship Company Ltd.,) generally known as the F.A.A. She was mostly in service between Helsingfors and Stettin, but after the Second World War was included in Finland's war reparations to the Soviet Union. The Ilmatar was a vessel of 2,349 gross tons, 1,186 net tons, on dimensions 283ft. x 41.6ft. x 18ft., and her engines, of 2,300 i.h.p., gave her a speed of 14 knots. She carried 90 first-class and 60 third-class passengers. Built in 1898 at Henry Koch's shipyard in Lubeck for the Helsingfors Angfartygs Aktiebolag, the Baltic was bought in 1920 by the F.A.A. She was built for the Finland Lubeck trade but after the First World War also saw service between Finland, Hull and Antwerp. Nowadays she is on the Finland-Denmark route. She is a vessel of 1,104 gross tons with a net tonnage of 550, on dimensions 209.7ft.x 32.6ft.x 23ft., and her engines of 850 i.h.p. give her a speed of 10'/2-11 knots.
SG370 Sea Breezes 11/53