GERMAN FOREIGN POST OFFICES
MOROCCO
SEEPOST
SEEPOST FORERUNNERS
Seepost forerunners are mail items that were delivered through a Moroccan port by a German mail ship with German stamps and a German cancellation. The steamers of the Woermann Line were widely recognised as postal steamers since 10th Aug 1882 but they did not have a service to Morocco. On 26th Oct 1889 the company announced that a steamer would be sent to Morocco and would start a regular service in the spring of 1890. This service would see the steamers stopping at Tangier, Casablanca, Mazagan and Mogador. In 1897 Saffi joined the route .Initially the Oberpostdirection in Hamburg only sanctioned the use of German Empire Issue (1879/1880) 5, 10 and 20Pf stamps and a 10Pf postcard but it is known that 50Pf stamps were also carried unofficially aboard these steamers. The 3Pf and 2 Mark German Empire stamps were not used during this period. Larger items had to be paid for in cash with a note recorded on the parcel to i ndicate that payment had been made.
Mail carried by the Woermann Line had a rectangular 3-line cancel inscribed 'Aus West-Africa | mit | Hamburg Dampfer' applied from 1884.
'Aus West-Africa | mit | Hamburg Dampfer' Cancel
Mail arriving in Hamburg was given a 2-line box stamp inscribed 'AUS | WESTAFRIKA'.
'AUS | WESTAFRIKA' Cancel
Mail carried by the Woermann Line is not very common due to the fact that the transit time for a steamer from Tangier to Hamburg was around 9 days and only operated once a month, whereas overland mail provided by the British, French and Spanish only took 6 days.
In Mogador the Woermann agents only sold 160 stamps at 20Pf in the last 3 months of 1894 and those in Casablanca only sold fifty seven 20Pf and fifty 10Pf stamps in the second half of the same year.
There is another single line cancel inscribed 'Schiffsbrief' (ships letter) that appears on seepost from morocco, however this is not a cancellation stamp, rather it was used at the Hamburg Post Office to identify items that had uncertified stamps from Morocco. These items would then be cancelled with the Hamburg cancel regardless of whether the item had German or foreign stamps (some items were carried by British and Scandinavian steamers that did not have their own cancels so the mail item would be received in Hamburg uncancelled).
An additional 4-line box stamp is also found on some mail items. The inscription reads 'Aus West-Africa | mittels Woermann-Dampfer | über Vlissingen und | Oberhausen (Rheinland)'. The orign of this mark is not clear however it is found as a secondary stamp on some items from Morocco.
'Schiffsbrief' Cancel
'Aus West-Africa | mittels Woermann-Dampfer | über Vlissingen und | Oberhausen (Rheinland)' Cancel
SEEPOST CANCELS
(1)
'DEUTSCHE SEEPOST | LINIE | HAMBURG-WESTAFRIKA'
1894 to 1914
'DEUTSCHE SEEPOST | LINIE | HAMBURG-WESTAFRIKA'
1894 to 1914
(2)
'DEUTSCHE SEEPOST | OST- | AFRIKANISCHE | HAUPTLINIE'
'DEUTSCHE SEEPOST | OST- | AFRIKANISCHE | HAUPTLINIE'
(3)
'DEUTSCHE SEEPOST | OST= | AFRIKA- | LINIE'
'DEUTSCHE SEEPOST | OST= | AFRIKA- | LINIE'
(1) There are quite a number of different identifiers found on this cancel such as II, III, IV, V, VI, VIII, IX, X, XI, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XX, XXI from 1894 to 19th Dec 1899. Counter identifiers IV, V, VIII, IX, XV, XX and XXX were used from 20th Dec 1899 to 1914.
(2) This cancel also has numerous identifiers such as a, b, d, e, f, g, h, i, k, l, m, n and o.
(3) Much the same as (1) and (2) above this cancel has a number of different identifiers such as b, p, q, r and s.