Polka, anyone?
A postcard sent from Aleksandrovsk De Kastri to Kiel, Germany by an officer on the German armored cruiser SMS Deutschland. Postmarked in De Kastri on 13 and 31 August 1898 (25 August and 12 September new style), and in Kiel on 21 November. The message was written on 12 August (new style) while the ship was at Korsakovsk on Sakhalin Island, but the card was not posted until 25 August when the ship was at De Kastri. The message reads, "Please copy the text of the French polka Geisterfunken composed by Waldteufel and send it to me as soon as possible. A letter is on its way to you." The officer wrote the first part of the score on the back of the card. The SMS Deutschland was part of the German East Asia Squadron from 1898 to 1900.