Yesterday in STAMPS: Romance of Aerophilately, Pt. 10 By an Unknown Author (From STAMPS Magazine, July, 1942, with images added)

For some reason, the author omitted the unsuccess- ful 1919 trans-Atlantic flight attempt of Lieutenant H. G. Hawker, pilot, and Lieutenant Commander K. M. Grieve, navigator. However, as the attempt had significant historic and philatelic significance, I will cover it here, then pick up with the 1942 series. JFD. * * * * *

The Sopwith Atlantic of H. G. Hawker and Lieut-Cdr. K. Mackenzie-Grieve at Glendenning’s Farm, before their take- off on the North Atlantic attempt of 18 May, 1919, from http://flyingmachines.ru/Site2/Crafts/Craft30094.htm

Hawker and Grieve took off in their Sopwith Atlantic from Newfoundland on the morning of May 18, 1919, and almost immediately ran into fog for an estimated 400 miles. They were then confronted by heavy clouds, but were able to climb above them. After nearly six hours their next hazard was a rising engine water temperature. With the radiator shutters not working, Hawker put the plane into a 3,000 foot dive in an effort to cool it and dislodge any obstruction. While this worked, it was only temporary, and as the plane began to climb freezing steam from the radiator started icing the top wing of the biplane. By the morning of the 19th (a Monday) with the radiator problem getting worse, and bad weather ahead, Hawker

Issue 50 - February 6, 2015 - StampNewsOnline.net  If you enjoy this article, and are not already a subscriber, for $12 a year you can enjoy 60+ pages a month. To subscribe, email [email protected] accepted defeat and looked for a good place to ditch the plane and be picked up by a passing ship. The successful landing gave them time to launch their lifeboat before the plane began sinking. Having landed about a mile ahead of the ship they had spotted, they were picked up by the SS Mary of Denmark.

The wreck of Hawker’s Sopwith Atlantic after being pulled from the sea.

Although unsuccessful, the Hawker at- tempt has philatelic significance, as it is the subject of Newfoundland’s first airmail stamp, in the form of the 1919 3¢ Caribou issue, overprinted: First Trans- Atlantic Air Post April, 1919 On page 3 we show a cover that was carried on the Hawker trans-Atlantic flight with the 1919 issue, mailed from St. John’s and addressed to London. The stamp is slightly moved to the right from its original position when it floated off into the sea when the plane was ditched at see. It was replaced by postal authorities. The cover also bears a scarce “Found Open and Officially Secured” label of the British Post Office, and is cancelled “London 30 MY 19”.

Issue 50 - February 6, 2015 - StampNewsOnline.net  We now pick up with the twelfth installment in the 1942 Romance of Aerophilately series. * * * * * The Flight of the Vickers-Vimy Three weeks after Hawker’s rescue, newspapers again appeared with bold headlines: “Vickers-Vimy takes off for Europe! Capt. John Alcock, pilot, and Lieut. Whitten Brown, navigator, Winging their way over the Atlantic!”

Alcock and Brown takeoff from St. John’s, Newfoundland in 1919

Issue 50 - February 6, 2015 - StampNewsOnline.net  For some reason this flight never received the attention it deserved, either at the time or since then. Fighting their way through fog and deceptive wind-currents, they were rarely able to see either the sky, or the water over which they flew. No sooner had they left the coast of Newfoundland than they ran into a thick bank of fog. At 1,000 feet they found clear air, but the fog shut off their view of the water, and a layer of clouds above them prevented their seeing the sky. Gradually, clouds and fog came together, and for seven hours they flew ‘blind,’ but at length they passed beneath a hole in the clouds, and Lieut. Brown was able to check his bearings. In an endeavor to get above the clouds, Alcock started climbing, but at 4,000 feet the plane went into a spin, and he was unable to bring it out until the plane shot out of the fog, scarcely 100 feet above the waves. It was not until the following morning that they suc- ceeded in climbing above the clouds, and a new reckon- ing showed they were north of their course. An hour later two islands were seen below them, and then the coast of Ireland! Alcock and Brown on their landong approach over the coast of Ire- land

Thinking they were landing on solid ground, they came down on what turned out to be a bog, with no injuries and only minor dam- age to the plane.

Issue 50 - February 6, 2015 - StampNewsOnline.net  Alcock and Brown had com- pleted the first non-stop trans- Atlantic flight in history, before many people were aware that they had started. They also carried the first aeroplane mail from the Ameri- can continent to Europe. Another air mail stamp was prepared for Alcock’s flight. This time a 15¢ stamp was overprinted with the words: Transatlantic AIR POST 1919 Alcock and Brown ONE DOLLAR taking on mail

Newfoundland Sc. C2, the 1919, $1.00 on 50¢ Alcock-Brown flight issue. Above, a mint copy; right, on a cover to Derby, England tied by “St. Johns, Nfld. Jun. 9 5-PM 1919” machine cancel, also with a clear strike of “Harbour Grace Newfd. JU 14, 1919” datestamp and typed “Special ‘Air-Post Mail’ by ‘Handley-Page’ or ‘Vickers-Vimy Rolls’ Aeroplane. Posted June 9th/1919.” Ten thousand of these stamps were prepared, so un- used specimens are not excessively rare. Of this number two hundred were used on air mail carried in the trans- Atlantic plane. An Alcock cover is a museum piece if there ever was one. It bears the postal cancellation of St. Johns, dated from June 10th to 13th, and all covers are back- stamped at London, “Apr. 17.” The special “Alcock” stamp is red-orange in color, and is found on all mail carried on Alcock’s plane.

Issue 50 - February 6, 2015 - StampNewsOnline.net  It seems miraculous that under the prevailing condi- tions, Lieut. Brown was able to set an accurate course for the flight. Before the take-off Brown remarked casually, “We’ll head for Galway Bay and when we get there we’ll hang our hats on the wireless towers at Clifton.” The fact is that the first land sighted was the shore of Galway Bay, and the plane landed beside the Clifton wireless station. Immediately after landing, the following cable was sent to the men in Newfoundland, who had spent weeks con- ditioning the Vickers plane and motor: “Congratulations on your wonderful work. We did not let you down.” The original copy of this telegram was pounced upon by collectors, and it eventually changed hands at a London auction for a rather large sum.

Left, The Biplane piloted by Capt. John Alcock with Lieut. Arthur Whitten Brown as seen on Newfoundland Sc. 156; right, Great Britain Sc. 584, for the 50th anniversary of the flight.

A statue of Alcock and Brown at London’s Heathrow Airport

Issue 50 - February 6, 2015 - StampNewsOnline.net  From http://www.danstopicals.com/transatlantic.htm

“On Newfoundland Sc. C11, several 1919 flights are identified. “On May 8, 1919 a U.S. Navy crew took off in Curtiss NC-4 from the Naval Air station on Long Island, New York. They flew non-stop from Trepassey, Newfoundland to the Azores. “Ten days later Harry Hawker and Lieutenant Com- mander Mackenzie-Grieve attempted to fly a Sopwith Atlantic. They were forced to ditch their aircraft and were picked up by a Danish ship. “On June 14-15 Capt. John Alcock of the United States and Lieut. Arthur W. Brown of the United Kingdom made the first non-stop between Newfound- land and Clifden, Ireland in a Vickers Vimy. “The arrangement of the flights on the map is not chronological but is based on the general route across the Atlantic. The design of the stamp is based on a sketch by Alfred Benjamin Perlin. A surprising feature of the stamp are the swastikas in the four corners. When this stamp was issued in 1931 the swastika was still considered a good luck symbol. It was used by Indian cultures through- out the western hemisphere. There is even a small com- munity in Ontario named Swastika.”

Issue 50 - February 6, 2015 - StampNewsOnline.net  If you enjoyed this article, and are not already a subscriber, for $12 a year you can enjoy 60+ pages a month. To subscribe, email [email protected]