How Long to Get There? - Postal History Sunday

Welcome to Postal History Sunday!

For those who might be new to reading my recent Sunday entries, the Postal History Sunday blog is intended to be an opportunity for Farmer Rob to share his postal history hobby with others who might enjoy learning a few things about it.  The Postal History Sunday blogs are initially shared on our farm blog - Genuinely Faux and cross posted here after a few people mentioned that some of these were meaty enough for those who already collected, but were not familiar with a particular aspect of postal history. 

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A couple of weeks ago, I shared a Postal History Sunday blog showing an 1863 letter from India to France that was sent unpaid.  The focus of that blog was on how postal services handled an unpaid letter.  

I had an excellent question after that blog: "How long did these letters typically take to travel from somewhere, like India, to another place, such as France?"

We get to start with a map!  If you love maps - there you are!  Feel free to click on the image to view a larger version.

What you see here are the common routes for mail traveling to South and East Asia in the late 1850s to mid 1860s.  The two major differences you will see here is that one route, in blue, travels by sea from Southampton (United Kingdom) to Malta and the other, in red, travels overland across France - then goes on to Malta.  The other difference is the stop(s) in India.

First, I need to make it clear that transportation in the 1850s to 1870s was rapidly changing.  Rail lines were springing up in Europe, the Suez canal was being built.  Passes were being developed for more rapid transit in the Alps and shipping lines were adjusting as it became clear where the money was in terms of routes and schedules.  Just trust me when I say that transportation companies were not concerned that postal historians in 2020 would have a difficult time piecing things together because they kept changing routes and schedules!

On the other hand, there are all sorts of sources, primary and secondary, that provide opportunities to unearth the most likely schedules and routes that fit items in a postal historian's collection.

Above is a rough schedule that was commonly followed for mails that would have left the United States for destinations in India, Singapore, China and Japan (among others).

So, to answer the direct question from our item that traveled from India to France - it would usually take 19 days - if the letter was mailed at the optimal time.

But, the item in question (shown above) was postmarked in Calcutta on May 22 and arrived in Lyon on June 25.  The red marking appears to be a June 24 marking for the rail line from Marseille.  That's 34 days?  What's up with that?

First, this item had to get to Galle or Bombay from Calcutta, so that would take some time.  Second, it had to wait until a mail ship arrived to carry this letter.  If you look at the schedule above, you can see that bad timing could result in a letter being delayed for a couple of weeks.

Now, before you try to reach conclusions based on the calendar I give above, remember that those are dates for ships heading TO the East.  This letter was coming back the other way.  Those dates would be different, but the spacing would be similar.  All this schedule does is illustrate that a poor arrival time at the port could result in a longer overall transit time.  This letter clearly fits that circumstance as it missed a connection to a ship somewhere along the line (most likely Bombay).

Let me take you a bit deeper into my comfort zone for postal history - the sort of material I have studied the longest - to show you another answer to "how long did it take for mail to travel?"

This item shown above was a business letter sent from New York City, United States to Shanghai, China in 1863.

And here is how it traveled.  Dates in parenthesis are those I can derive from shipping tables (among other things).  Other dates correspond to markings that can be found on this letter.  When these things line up, you have likely identified the correct route!

New York Jul 25
Southampton (Aug 6)
London Aug 7
Dover (Aug 10)
Marseilles (Aug 12)
Malta (Aug 14)
Alexandria (Aug 19)
Suez (Aug 23)
Bombay (Aug 29)
Singapore (Sep 13)
     typhoon Sep 20 - 3 day delay

Hong Kong Sep 23

Shanghai (Sep 30)

Why yes!  They DID have typhoons and hurricanes in the 1800s!  So, even the best laid plans (or schedules) were subject to change.

And now you know a little bit more about how long it took for mail to travel from here to there in the 1860s.

Thank you for joining me - I hope you have a good remainder of the weekend and fine week upcoming.

Here, You Pay For it! - Postal History Sunday

Here we are!  Must be time for some Postal History Sunday on the Genuine Faux Farm blog!  We are now cross-posting our Postal History Sunday posts due to suggestions that our content has sufficient meat that even people who already collect find them interesting.

If you'll recall (and even if you don't), we had a post two Sundays ago that talked about how the clerk or carrier would know whether a letter was fully paid at the point of delivery.  The main reason this was important was because it was a common practice to send mail unpaid or partially paid until the middle of the 19th century.  As we get into the 1860s, the system was moving steadily towards prepaid mail as the normal process.

It should be no surprise, then, that markings were important to indicate whether an item was paid or not.

India to France

Below is a piece of business correspondence that was sent from Calcutta, India to Lyon, France in 1863.

Let me explain quickly some of the markings that are clearly visible here.  The black circular marking (that is upside down) reads "Calcutta India Unpaid," which makes it very clear that this item will have to be paid by the recipient.  The red circular markings is a French transit mark that doesn't really play a part in today's story.

The numerical markings, however, do play a part!  The "27" in black ink tells the clerk in Lyon that they need to collect 27 decimes from the recipient.  And, just as a reminder, 27 decimes is equivalent to 270 centimes.  This is essentially the same as a person in the United States saying 270 cents or 27 dimes.

The other numbers (in blue) read "17/3."  The seventeen indicates how much this letter weighed in grams (17 grams) and that much weight required triple the base rate of postage (3).

The rate of postage from India to France using British sailing ships to Marseille was 90 centimes for every 7.5 grams of weight.  The recipient owed three times that amount or 270 centimes (27 decimes).

Pieces of the Puzzle 

Whether you knew it or not, you have just been exposed to one part of how a postal historian checks out an item for consistency and authenticity.  While it is not unusual for an item to have odd and unexplained markings that might even contradict, the vast majority of items should show a consistent story.  It is really a matter of reading the evidence.

The contents of the letter (click on the picture to see a larger version) clearly show a dateline from Calcutta that is consistent with the marking on the front.  The recipient and their location cited in the letter is also a match with the addressee and the Lyon postal marking on the back.  The number of days between the dates given with the postmarks for Calcutta, Marseilles, and Lyon are consistent with traveling times in 1863.  And, as we showed above, all of the postal rate markings can be explained as being consistent with the rates for mail between these two locations at the time.  We can even identify at least one of the ships that carried this letter if we wished to do so!

Thank you for joining us for our Postal History Sunday post.  We hope you enjoyed at least a little of it and we shall endeavor to keep helping you to learn something new each week!