To welcome us, Albert had put up a display of material relating to the Swedish America Line between 1915 and 1946.  This was part of the larger invited display Albert had given to the Vikings meeting in Perth at the start of the month.
Prior to World War I, passengers and mail from northern Scandinavia for North America had crossed by ferry from Trelleborg to Sassnitz and then either boarded a ship in Hamburg or travelled on by rail to Cherbourg to embark with one of the British or French transatlantic lines sailing from that port.  With those routes now inaccessible the Svenka Amerika Linje was founded in 1915 to convey passengers and mails from Gothenburg across the Atlantic.  This was illustrated with a cover carried on the SS Stockholm’s first return voyage in December 1915 complete with an appropriate cachet applied by the Gothenburg post office.  Early picture postcards of the SS Stockholm were also shown.
Early ppcs depicting the line’s second vessel SS Drottningsholm were also displayed together with a cover carried in 1934 from New York to Sweden.  The line’s third vessel was SS Gripsholm and a fourth vessel, the SS Kungsholm, was built by the John Brown yard in Glasgow.  Prior to the latter’s maiden voyage at the end of 1928 the Swedish America Line had obtained permission to open post offices on all its vessels.  A registered postcard from the Kungsholm’s maiden voyage was shown (although someone pointed out that you cannot register a postcard as technically you are registering the contents).
During the 1930s the company also developed the cruise market and covers from various voyages were shown together with examples of “sucker” sheets.  With the entry of the USA, after Pearl Harbor, into the war the Kungsholm was sold to the US Government and the other three vessels leased to them and used, amongst other things, for repatriating POWs and internees.

Olga Ellis:

As usual Olga showed Norway but ventured well offshore on this occasion with a display of Spitzbergen etiquettes, mail and ppcs.  Olga remarked that this section of her collection had been founded around a quantity of polar cards she had acquired from a Swedish auction.  An example of the Advent Bay post office cancel from 1897 was shown.  The first of Capt. W. Bade’s etiquettes was shown used on a card sent in August 1897 from Spitzbergen to Hannover and the second one used in 1903 to Austria.  Also from 1897 the etiquette produced by Consul Giæver in Tromsø for the Norddeutscher Lloyd Line.  Cachets of various cruise ships including Auguste Victoria, Prinzessin Victoria Luise and the Blücher (all Hamburg-Amerika Linie).  The first true Spitzbergen stamp was produced in 1896 as it was recognised by the Norwegian Post Office.  However it was invalidated only one year later following protests from the German postal authorities.  Thereafter any usage was as an etiquette and this was illustrated with a cover cancelled Advent Bay in 1906.

Mike Tuttle:

Recent Icelandic acquisitions grouped in three sections:
Material relating to the French fishing fleet operating in Icelandic waters off the coasts in the Northeast (centred on Fáskraðsfjörður) and the Northwest (centred on Patreksfjörður).  In 1904 the French Government paid for the construction of an on-shore hospital and its centenary was marked by an Icelandic stamp issue in 2004.  A hospital ship, Sainte Francoise d’ Assise, also operated and a postcard showing it off the Newfoundland coast (where it also operated) was shown.  La Societé des Oeuvres de la Mer built an onshore rest and convalescent home which proved very popular with the French fishermen – despite being a teetotal establishment.  Mail from the La Voisier, one of two French cruisers that regularly patrolled the fishing grounds, was shown.
Five sheets showing material from World War I with an Icelandic connection.  A very early example of mail from Iceland being censored by the British dated from September 1914.  A rectangular boxed cachet “Released by British Authorities”, previously unknown.
Paquebot cancels on mail from Iceland including a 1926 Paquebot strike from Newcastle that was in use for one year only and a 1912 example of the Grangemouth Paquebot cancel.  The latter had been on Mike’s wants-list for some time!

Derek Thompson:

Early Danish ppcs.  Starting with examples of undivided cards, the earliest of which had been used in 1895.  A group of early town scenes from Århus and Odense.  Glamour cards – the ones that Derek had selected his wider collection were I must add in the best possible taste by today’s standards!  A set of Greetings cards.  Cards depicting country churches.  Derek remarked that often there was much of interest to be found in what the correspondent had written.  The writer of a card showing Assens church had remarked that the King had attended that morning’s service “on his own”.

Brian Hague:

Faroes once again, but for a change some stamps (supplemented with picture postcards).  Various issues since postal independence featuring Faroese churches, several of the stamps being engraved by the master, Czeslaw Slania.  With one exception the churches featured belonged to the Lutheran denomination to which some 84% of the population belong.  The sole Roman Catholic church in the islands had featured in a 1995 stamp issue; its congregation has recently been boosted by Polish immigrants now working in the ship-repair yards.  The Plymouth Brethren are the second largest denomination amongst the islanders.  Although their meeting halls have never as yet featured on a Postverk Føroya issue this lack was compensated for by two ppcs with Brethren connections.

Bill Ross:

In the first half of his display Bill dealt with airmails from Åland.  A service operated briefly in the summer of 1928 from 2 July to 4 August. Throughout the 1930s a regular summer airmail service operated.  A first flight cover from Mariehamn to Stockholm on 1 July 1930 was shown.  A cover addressed to Santiago, Chile was flown to Stockholm on the first leg of its journey and then onward to Rotterdam and Paris. It would then have been routed via either Toulouse or Marseille to Dakar; it would then have crossed the Atlantic via ship to Natal in Brazil.  From there flown on via Rio and Buenos Aires to Chile.  A 1937 postcard illustrated the air terminal buildings in Mariehamn together with a flying boat offshore.
An air service was resumed after the end of World War II with proving flights in the summer of 1945.  A regular service was operating by the end of 1945 and throughout 1946, illustrated by a 1946 cover addressed to England flown from Mariehamn to Åbo.  On 1 January 1947 an all-up service was introduced by Aero O/Y – a forerunner of Finnair.
In the second part of his display Bill showed recent issues marking the 150th anniversary of the Crimean War.

Richard Blakey:

Norwegian issues during World War II.  During the German occupation many of the stamps issued had charity surcharges.  Richard suggested that these were easier to find unused than used and that perhaps the general Norwegian population felt that the charity surcharges were not always being put to the usage stated.  The Officials incorporating the sun cross and eagle were displayed.  The London issue for the Norwegian forces in Britain were also shown.
Richard explained that his interest in Norwegian philately was triggered by being present in Hammerfest when the town’s bi-centenary was celebrated on 20 April 1989 and was marked by a stamp issue.  Alongside the appropriate FDC a certificate signed by the mayor of Hammerfest confirmed that Richard was in the city that day.

David Blore:

A guest, David Blore, had been following the 50th Gordon Bennett Balloon Race that had been held earlier in the month.  As Peter remarked coverage in the UK press or on television had been very limited, so most people were unaware that this had occurred however he had downloaded information from the internet for our education.  The departure point for the finalists was in Belgium this year but most of the finalists had landed in Scandinavia, including the Swiss team who were disqualified for not notifying Finnish authorities that they were entering their airspace.  A cover associated with the preliminary heats in Poland was also shown.

Charles Usher:

Charles displayed a selection of Swedish picture postcards mainly bought at his local postcard fair held in Kendal.  As Charles remarked postcard fairs can be happy hunting grounds for the philatelist with prices reflecting the picture side of the card rather than the possible philatelic interest to be found on the address side.

John Smith:

A Faroes miscellany including mailsack labels, FDCs issued by private publishers and that month’s stamp issues from the Bureau depicting the church in Sandur and village scenes on Sandoy.

Peter Hinitt:

Icelandic airmails.  In 1928 Flugfélag Islands chartered two Junkers F13s, and their pilots, from Lufthansa to provide an internal air service.  All did not go to plan initially.  The first flight from Reykjavík to Akureyri was delayed for two days, and the return flight never took place, the plane having to be towed back to Reykjavík by a fishing boat.  Two covers flown to Akureyri and Saudarkrok  in 1929 were shown.
In 1930 the millennium of the Icelandic Parliament was marked by the issue of five airmail stamps, shown on FDC to England.  Christian X definitives were overprinted the next year for the only Zeppelin flight from Iceland; two covers addressed to Belgium were shown.  Three countries issued stamps to mark the Balboa mass flight in 1933 when 24 seaplanes departed from Rome to fly to attend the World Fair in Chicago.  These were Italy (naturally), Iceland and on the return leg Newfoundland; stamps from Italy and Iceland were shown.  Other famous flights represented in Peter’s display included a cover carried by Solberg from Reykjavík to Bergen in 1935.
More unusual modes of air transportation included mail carried on a glider flight from Sandskeid airfield to Reykjavík in 1939, mail carried in June 1957 on a balloon flight made by two visiting Dutch balloonists and helicopter mail carried from Keflavík to Prestwick.
Wartime covers included US V mail and a cover from RAF Post Office 2 with a canceller date of 20 April 1943, the earliest known.

Phil Hyde:

A charming display of modern Finnish shipsmail covers with numerous ships’ cachets.  Of particular interest was a Finnish “smiler” or personalised stamp.  To date over 15,000 different images supplied by individuals or organisations had appeared since the service was introduced in 2003.  This example was on a cover from Finland’s Pilot Service and depicted one of their launches at sea – see illustration.

Eric Keefe:

Finland: aspects of the Continuation War.  Finland declared war on Russia at the end of July 1941.  As in the Winter War all forces mail initially was carried free of charge.  However this policy had already given rise to problems during the Winter War with both the postal and rail systems coming close to breakdown at Christmas due to the volume of mail being sent — not to mention the loss of revenue to the postal authority.  Later in 1941 Fieldpost labels were introduced officially for use on parcel cards but these were also used to frank envelopes.  Various printings were shown and examples on parcel cards and envelopes.  A rare Fieldpost postal stationery card issued in 1943 was shown used from Hamina on 8.11.44.

Arthur Jennion:

A varied run of very colourful Danish Cinderella labels including several from the Magasin du Nord department store in Copenhagen.
Earlier Arthur had “filled a gap” by putting up the Drift Cards he had shown previously at Devizes, including a card still in its plastic wrapping complete with cork float.