Stamp_&_Coin_Mart_2016_01_

58 JANUARY 2016

http://www.stampandcoin.co.uk

In our series looking at the philatelic history of former British colonies, Ed Fletcher sketches the

background of St Lucia and shows some eye-catching covers from this colourful Caribbean island

Collecting the Empire

engaged in the inter-island Caribbean

trade carrying general cargoes. The

captain of each of those vessels would

have accepted private ship letters when

opportunities arose, charging a small

fee to carry a letter to the vessel’s home

port, or to a larger and busier port on

a regular packet route.

As far back as 1711, in the reign

of Queen Anne, it was decreed that

for every letter a ship master brought

into Britain and delivered to the

postmaster at the port of arrival, he

would receive one penny. In 1799,

during George III’s reign, the Ship

Letter Act further decreed that no

ship should make entry into any

British port until all letters and

packets it carried were handed to an

agent of the port’s postmaster.

Some of St Lucia’s population

must have used such lines of

Caribbean colour

European nations building empires

for economic and political reasons.

France and Britain fought over it until

Napoleon’s downfall finally determined

that St Lucia became part of the

British Empire.

When London newspapers

announced in July 1796 that a British

force had captured the island and

accepted the unconditional surrender

of its 2,000-strong French garrison,

the reports included a list of ships

seized in the island’s main port of

Castries: an American merchantman

with a crew of twenty about to load

a cargo of sugar; three French brigs

and five French schooners loaded with

coffee, salt, cotton and molasses; and

a number of smaller vessels flying

Spanish, Dutch and Swedish flags and

S

t Lucia, the second largest

of the Windward Islands in

the Caribbean, lies midway

between Martinique and St

Vincent. With an area of

a little under 400 square miles, and

seventeen miles end-to-end, it has a

tropical climate tempered by cooling

breezes from its mountains. Natural

products of the soil include yams,

cassava, citrus fruits and coconuts;

while its inshore waters and reefs

abound with fish and crustacea; but

when the French arrived from St

Vincent and Grenada in 1763 they

quickly established cotton and sugar

plantations worked with slave labour.

The profitability of those enterprises

inevitably drew the island into the

general Caribbean rivalry between

The killer, A11, of 1858

All are used courtesy

of Grosvenor Philatelic

Auctions, London.

Visit their website to

view more St Lucia lots

in future sales

St Lucia Steam Conveyance Company 1d stamp

of c. 1871

From left: 10 May, 1849 entire to London, bearing a good strike of the Crowned Circle ‘PAID/AT/ST. LUCIA’ in red, with London tombstone alongside and ‘1/-’ rate mark. The reverse has ‘ST.

LUCIA’ double arc dispatch datestamp. The cover sold for £400 in 2008 • 1864-76 Watermark Crown CC, Perf. 12½ (1s.) brown-orange franking 23 November, 1869 mourning wrapper to

London endorsed ‘p W. I. Mail’, cancelled by slighly smudged ‘A 11’ barred oval with ms. ‘11’ accountancy mark (due to GB post offi ce) and arrival datestamps at left, sold for £300 in 2011

From left: an 1882-84 Watermark Crown CA Perf. 14. 1d. black horizontal pair franking an 11 December, 1882 inter-island

envelope to Dominica, cancelled by light ‘A 11’ barred ovals with St Lucia despatch and same day arrival datestamps at top.

Slight staining and fl ap missing, sold for £350 in 2011 • Postal Fiscals: 1882 Perf. 14 ‘TWO PENCE/REVENUE’ pale blue tied by fi ne

‘ST. LUCIA/C/JY25/85’ c.d.s. to neat locally addressed envelope with additional strike alongside, sold for £140 in 2011

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