70 FEBRUARY 2016 http://www.stampandcoin.co.uk‘Faith in Australia’
T
he commercial airline world we know today was slowly
built up and developed over more than two decades,
and in fact it was not until after the Second World War
that worldwide travel really became available to all.
Longer journeys were possible within one day, whereas
before, flights with nightly stop-overs were often necessary. The airmen
and women who pioneered those early flights over long distances,
without modern navigation aids, were truly brave.
The journey from England to Australia was one of the long,
dangerous, and momentous routes, and one of these early flight pioneers
was Charles Ulm, born in 1898. After lying about his name and age to
be able to join the army aged just fifteen, and fighting at Gallipoli in
1915 and the Western Front in 1918, Charles Ulm settled into a life
of being a pioneer Australian aviator. Best known for his partnership
with Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, he flew as his co-pilot on many
famous flights, Ulm being the business brains of the two. Together they
established Australian National Airways, and after the failure of this
venture, Ulm purchased one of the airline’s Avro 618 Ten for himself,
registered as VH-UXX and named Faith in Australia by him, and used
for his long distance flights. In 1933 Ulm in Faith set the speed record
from England to Australia in just under seventeen days.
His big flight year was 1934, but sadly, it was also his last. The cover
shown was prepared for the flight from Australia to New Zealand in
April 1934, carrying the first official airmail. The addressee and sender,
who was probably a stamp dealer, added the words ‘AND RETURN’
for the full round-trip flights, plus the usual blue ‘BY AIR MAIL’ label.
The postage fee was seven-pence, paid with two postage stamps, one of
which, the sixpenny (6d) chestnut was perforated ‘O S’ for official use.
These two stamps received a black handstamp ‘SHIP MAIL ROOM /
MELBOURNE’ dated 4 April, 1934 before the flight. Perhaps at this
time there would not have been an equivalent mail room for air flights.After the addition of an oblong purple handstamp inscribed ‘FIRST
OFFICIAL AIR MAIL / APR 1934 / AUSTRALIA-NEW ZEALAND’,
the cover was loaded with many others onto Faith in Australia. How
many others is always a matter of conjecture, as has recently been shown
by an article in The London Philatelist which contends that the numbers
quoted in the philatelic world are often less than actually occurred.
Arrival was apparently uneventful, the next handstamp being on the
reverse in Auckland, New Zealand dated 12 April, 1934. For the return
flight, another seven-pence worth of postage was paid, as shown by the
six New Zealand stamps, and the two round handstamps ‘KAITAIA
/ 14 AP 34’, a town in the Far North District. Additionally, a further
purple handstamp for the return journey was added to the front, saying
‘TRANS-TASMAN AIR MAIL / NEW ZEALAND / APL.1934 /
AUSTRALIA’. In Sydney, the mail received its final postmark, being a
mechanised oval and oblong alongside ‘SYDNEY / N.S.W.’ with date
and ‘AIR MAIL / SECTION / G.P.O.’ What Mr. Rosenblum did with
it upon delivery is not known, nor how many others he sent on the
return flight. However, it does serve as an interesting reminder of those
early flights and the risks taken.
Charles Ulm’s last journey was just before Christmas 1934, when
he flew a test flight in advance of a proposed San Francisco to Sydney
air service. Flying in bad weather in an Australian registered Airspeed
Envoy aircraft from Oakland, California, to Hawaii, he missed the
islands and ditched in the sea, and was lost along with the co-pilot
and navigator. Faith in Australia survived somewhat longer, but
little better, as the aircraft was eventually left to rot outdoors in all
weathers behind a hangar at Townsville, Queensland. Much better
if it had been preserved as a memory of those aviators and their
pioneering flights. Instead, we have a number of flight covers, all
clearly marked to show the dates and the journeys taken. Gone, but
philatelically not forgotten.Cover explained
Postal historian Dane Garrod examines and explains the background to an early first flight
illustrated by the postal markings on a 1934 coverFaith in Australia in 1934 and Charles Ulm with the plane in 1934p70 Cover Explained.indd 70 21/12/2015 10:14