Ponape Buried Mail Of August 1914

I received an extremely rare one in the mail today, so here's another interesting bit of philatelic history.

Historical Background

During the German colonial period (1880s to WWI), the Imperial German Navy posted squadrons of ships to several stations around the world. These ships served as a means of projecting German military power in and around their colonies.

One of the stations to which ships were posted was the Deutsch Ostasiatische Station (German East Asian Station) in Tsingtau, Kiauchau (modern Qingdao, PRC). This ships assigned to the Ostasiatische Station routinely patrolled from China to the German colonies in the South Pacific -- Marshall-Inseln (Marshall Islands), Marianen (Mariana Islands), Karolinen (Caroline Islands), Samoa, Deutsch-Neuguinea (German New Guinea). During these voyages, the crew's mail would typically be cancelled with the onboard Marine-Schiffspost (MSP, or Navy Ship Post) canceller, then either offloaded at commercial steamship ports of call or given to homeward-bound German naval vessels.

Many large and small ships rotated through the Ostasiatische Station over the years, but cruisers formed the core of the squadron due to their combination of size, firepower, and speed. In early 1914, the cruisers assigned to the East Asia Squadron were the armored cruisers SMS Scharnhorst (flagship) and SMS Gneisenau, and the light cruisers SMS Leipzig, SMS Nürnberg, and SMS Emden. NOTE: Histories sometimes refer to this squadron as Kreuzergeschwader von Spee (Cruiser Squadron von Spee), after its commander at the time, Count Maximilian von Spee.

Five cruisers of the East Asia Squadron at anchor in Kiauchau (SMS Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau at center, SMS Leipzig? at left, SMS Emden and SMS Nürnberg at right)

SMS Scharnhorst (left) and SMS Gneisenau (right)

SMS Nürnberg (left), SMS Leipzig (center), and SMS Emden (right)

The Summer Cruise

On 20 June 1914, SMS Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau departed for a routine cruise throughout the South Seas colonies. At the same time, the SMS Leipzig was off the west coast of the US, the SMS Nürnberg was returning to Tsingtau from the same, and the SMS Emden was in Tsingtau.

On 15 July 1914, while at Truk, Karolinen (modern Chuuk, Federated States of Micronesia), SMS Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau received word that war was imminent. They were ordered to break-off their patrol and make for Ponape, Karolinen (modern Pohnpei, FSM), where they were to await further orders.

On 6 August 1914, the SMS Nürnberg arrived at Ponape, and the three cruisers immediately departed for Pagan, Marianen (modern Pagan, Northern Mariana Islands), where they were to rendezvous with the SMS Emden before heading off to war.

The Mail Drop

Prior to departing Ponape, however, the three cruisers offloaded their accumulated outgoing mail. This mail drop was particularly important, as the men knew it might be their last opportunity to write home before going into combat, and many of the men had included their wills in the correspondence. Earlier-dated items were franked as normal for pre-war German naval mail, while mail from 5-6 August 1914 was unfranked as Feldpost mail.

On 6 August 1914, this mail was put into five mail bags, which were then placed in a tin box and given to the German postal agent at Ponape, Herr Ludwig, who was to send the mail to Germany at the first opportunity. However, the steamer service which Ponape relied upon for mail service was disrupted due to the onset of war. In early October 1914, Herr Ludwig, realizing there would be no mail steamer pickup before Japanese forces arrived to take the island, gave the mail to local Capuchin monks, who buried the tin box under the altar of the Catholic church.

German-built Catholic Church at Ponape

Altar of the Catholic Church at Ponape

Remains of the Catholic Church, which was largely destroyed during WWII while being used as a storage depot by the Japanese

And there the mail stayed...

Aftermath

The cruisers of the East Asia Squadron would not survive much longer. After successfully confusing the British about their location for several months, the cruisers (minus SMS Emden) won a stunning victory over the Royal Navy at the Battle of Coronel off the coast of Chile on 1 November 1914, but were then sunk at the Battle of the Falkland Islands on 8 December 1914. The SMS Emden enjoyed several months of commerce raiding in the Indian Ocean before being defeated at the Battle of Cocos and run aground in the Cocos Islands by the Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney on 9 November 1914.

Recovering the Buried Mail

In early 1923, the German embassy in Tokyo formally requested permission from the Japanese government to return and retrieve the buried mail. The tin box was recovered, and in September 1923, the Marine-Postbureau (Naval Post Office) in Berlin began efforts to deliver the long-overdue items. Two labels were attached to each. One label says, roughly:


The other states, roughly:


Many of the items were damaged by the passage of time in the poor environmental conditions, and discoloration and foxing are common. These buried mail pieces are among the rarest of items in German colonial philately. In all my references, there's no record of how many pieces survived. In 20+ years of collecting German colonies, this is only the second one I've seen available for sale or at auction.

My Copy

I recently acquired this copy, which is a photo postcard depicting the SMS Gneisenau (in fact, the same photo as shown above).

The postcard was cancelled on 5 August 1914, the day before the mail drop, with the MSP No. 22 canceller assigned to the SMS Gneisenau's on-board post office. As was allowed for items posted 5-6 August 1914, it was unfranked as Feldpost mail.

The card was sent by Friedrich "Fritz" Kirchhoff, a Torpedo Machinists Mate assigned to the 1st Company of the II. Torpedo Division on board the S.M.S. Gneisenau, to his father, also named Friedrich, in Oebisfelde, Germany.

The text reads, roughly:


When the S.M.S. Gneisenau sank during the Battle of the Falkland Islands, 187 of her approximately 600-man crew were rescued by the British. Fritz Kirchhoff was not among them. Along with the remaining unaccounted-for crewmembers, he was officially listed as missing in action in the Germany Navy's Casualty List Nr. 28a, dated 20 April 1915.

Great post!!

Fascinating.

These are the things that make philately so interesting. Thanks for sharing this Postmaster.

Very touching piece of postal history..

Thank you Postmaster GS. Very interesting as I am also a WWI buff.

As a history buff I I appreciated your post
I also collect World War 1, American
Nice post. Regards, mark

Thanks for the nice comments. Now I have to figure out how to make an album page for it without access to my printer or my album paper.

I think you should write a short monograph on that card.Have it printed in limited numbers.In the authors copy; include the original card.some things warrant more than an album page....just some thoughts.

Marvelous idea!

Got another nice addition to this collection yesterday.

I mentioned above that the returned items had notes attached explaining the circumstances in order to avoid additional postage fees upon delivery in 1923. There was an exception to this practice.

Also included in the buried mail were several items of official naval mail -- mail from the officers of the ships to offices of the German Navy back in Germany. There wasn't a requirement to attach postage to official mail transported within the German Navy, so there was no need to worry about imposition of additional postage fees in 1923. As a result, these items didn't receive the buried mail notices.

This makes them much harder to ID, and much less desirable/cheaper in the collecting market despite being significantly rarer that buried mail pieces from private senders.

This item was sent from the cruiser S.M.S. Scharnhorst (MSP No. 16) to the Kaiserliche Kommando das 3. Abteiling, I. Matrosen Division (Imperial Command of the 3rd Section, 1st Sailors Division), in Kiel.

It can be IDed as a buried mail item due to the date of the cancel and the "A1" pencil mark on the rear which was applied when the buried mail was being processed in Germany.

Additionally, this item was certified as being a buried mail item by Friedrich Crüsemann, who was the source of most of our current knowledge regarding Marine-Schiffspost up to WWI.

These are wonderful pieces, thank you for sharing them.
I hope you take up Perf12's suggestion and at least do a little illustrated pamphlet. You've practically got it written already.
This is great stuff couched in real-life drama.

This is the frigate Gneisenau, from which the destroyer took its name.
It sank here in Málaga (Spain) about 3 miles in front of my grandmother's house.

Received another of these this week.

This is a private cover sent by Georg Unkelbach, a Torpedo Boatswain's Mate assigned to the 2nd Company, II. Division, aboard S.M.S. Gneisenau, to his sister in Straßburg.

The letter was kept with the cover. It was written in two parts. The first was written when the ship was in Saipan, which would have been late June 1914. The two Kiautschou stamps were presumably attached around this time, as 4 cents would have been the correct pre-war letter rate. The second part was written on 1 August 1914, while in Ponape. The cover was postmarked 5 August 1914 aboard S.M.S. Gneisenau, with "Feldpost" added to indicate that postage was no longer required due to the war.

The letter reads roughly as follows:


Unlike Kirchhoff, Unkelbach survived the sinking of S.M.S. Gneisenau. He was captured by the British, and appears to have survived the war.

By the time delivery of this letter was attempted in 1923, Straßburg was no longer German, having been ceded to France under the Treaty of Versailles at the conclusion of WWI. The French post office in Strasbourg received the letter, but marked it for return to sender. At some point, a note was added indicating that the sender could now be located at the Zollamt (customs office) in Lingen, Germany.

Great post, so very well done. Thank you.

Really good stuff!