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EARLY RISER. During the 1830s, officers of the British Army garrison in Bermuda introduced 4 and 6‑oared gigs for rowing matches. At this time, licensed Bermudian pilots were required to have a “good and sufficient decked sailing boat of not less than eighteen feet by the keel”, in which to sail out to meet incoming vessels. Although successive Pilot Acts through to the end of the century continued to require that pilots owned a sailing boat, most of them used 6 and 8‑oared gigs with sails, because of their greater speed in light winds, when the winning of the race to the incoming vessel produced the pilot's fee ‑ the only prize. The EARLY RISER was such a pilot gig and was lost in 1876.
Bermuda Philatelic Bureau.
Bermuda SG508A