Worldwide & Great Britain - Mar. 2025, Lot 893

SHIP LETTERS - WHITHORN (SCOTLAND) - NEW DISCOVERY - MANUSCRIPT "Ship Letter" BESIDE BOXED "WHITHORN/413 - D" ON COVER EX DEMARARA STRANDED AT ISLE OF WHITHORN; Remarkable 12 Jan. 1822 EL (fine condition; ref. sugar estates for sale with nos. of slaves, etc.) from "Demerary" (British Guiana) to Belfast endorsed "P. [Ship] Lavinia" charged "1/8½" and then "1/11½" with only one handstruck mark, a mainly fine scarce boxed "WHITHORN/413 - D" (small closed tear at right) on the top flap directly above a clear manuscript "Ship Letter" on the lower flap. The postal rate is 8d Ship Letter + 8d Whithorn to Port Patrick (54 British miles) + ½d Scottish Mail Tax + 4d Packet to Donaghadee [="1/8½"] = 3d on to Belfast (18 Irish miles) = "1/11½". This is the first Ship Letter of any kind from Whithorn that has ever been recorded from this small Wigtownshire Post Office as far as we are aware; neither Robertson nor Tabeart mention anything. Whithorn is only 2 miles from the sea as the crow flies, but the nearest harbour is 4 miles away, at the small harbour of Isle of Whithorn (not in fact an island), which was surprisingly busy in the 1820s. What makes this cover all the more extraordinary is that the ship that carried it the "Lavinia" was bound for Belfast, but came to grief in foul weather on 8 March 1822, when it ran aground at Isle of Whithorn with the loss of the Captain (Lawrence) and 4 crewmen in a small boat as they tried to rescue the Mate who had been washed overboard (Lloyd's List 12 Mar. 1822). Subsequently the mail clearly reached Whithorn and the letters were treated as Ship Letters, hence this extraordinary new British Maritime discovery. The filing notes show that the letter was received in Belfast on 13th March. It is also one of the earliest recorded Maritime Disaster covers; the Lavinia is not recorded in the Hoggarth/Gwynn book, and only a handful of earlier wreck covers from anywhere in the world are recorded by them before 1822. [It was spotted by a Cavendish describer in a mixed group of Scottish prestamp covers, where it had been displayed with the flap folded up to show the mileage mark while the manuscript "Ship Letter" was ignored on the lower flap! It has a pencil price of "7/6"!] Further research has shown that the "Cargo landing [was] under charge of the officers of the Customs" (Sun, 13 Mar. 1822), and the ship was eventually salvaged and finally reached Belfast in April 1822 (Public Ledger, 12 Apr. 1822). A highly Important Scottish Maritime and British Guiana Wreck Mail Exhibition Item. Cross Reference : BRITISH GUIANA/GUYANA, SCOTLAND, CRASH/WRECK MAIL