Built as a cargo vessel by Scheepswerf Gebr. Van Diepen, at Waterhuizen near Groningen, Netherlands, for the Diego Agalega Shipping Company Ltd., Port Louis, Mauritius.
Launched under the name SIR JULES.
Tonnage 711 grt, 427 net, 525 dwt., dim. 185.5 x 28.3 x 16.1ft., draught 9.6ft.
Powered by one Bolnes 2SA 6-cyl. diesel engine, 450 bhp., speed 8 knots.
Two decks, two holds and two hatches.
Accommodation for 12 passengers.
January 1950 completed.
The stamp depicts the SIR JULES in the waters off Agalega.
She was special built for the trade between the Chagos Archipelago and Agalega for the copra trade, and she plied also between Mauritius, Reunion and Rodrigues. She was built when loaded, that she had only a draught of 9.5ft, to work the shallow anchorages and ports between Chagos Archipelago and Agalega.
1962 Sold to Southern Line of Mombassa, renamed SOUTHERN SKIES, still under Mauritius flag, with a crew of around 25.
Used in the trade between Mombassa, Tanzania and the southern Somali port Kismayu and Mogadiscio. Most of the trade was with bagged cement or sugar from Mombassa for Tanga, Zanzibar or Dar es Salaam. In the Tanzanian ports steel bars were loaded, sawn timber, drummed lubrication oil, motorcars, cement, gas bottles, tea and generals for Somalia. Return cargo from Somalia were rare, only empty gas bottles for refill.
1970 Sold to Farmart Navigation Co. Ltd., Lagos, Nigeria, renamed FARMART I.
1972 Sold to Bareep World Commerce (Nigeria) Ltd., renamed BAREEP.
27 December 1972, while at anchor at the Bonny River, Nigeria, an explosion and fire occurred which completely destroyed the accommodation.
07 January 197, she subsequently sank off Dawes Island in lat. 04 40N 05 24E.
(I have been many moths at anchor on the same spot waiting for a berth for discharging in Port Harcourt, in the 1980s, at that time there were still a few shipwrecks laying alongside the riverbanks, complete empty hulls everything moveable stolen. So most probably the empty hull of the BAREEP was amongst them, and slowly rusting away.)
On Mauritius 1996 5r sg 949, scott 830.
Source: Watercraft Philately Vol. 43 page 30. Mr Bartlett of the World Ship Society. Sea Breeze Vol 71 page 855. Modern Shipping Disasters 1963-1987 by Norman Hooke.
http://ncb.intnet.mu/mitt/postal/stamps/ships.htm Info received from Mr. John D. Stevenson.