cover of the day April 18, 2020

[Howard Weinert]

Suitable for a pandemic:

A cover sent from Vladivostok to Smithville, New York by Floyd Edward Hubbard [1881-1918], a sailor on the United States Flagship New York. Postmarked in Vladivostok on 29 and 30 August 1902 (11 and 12 September new style), in Nagasaki on 23 September, in Boston on 20 October, and then in Smithville. With "Sailors Mail" written on the front and "U.S.F.S. New York" printed on the backflap. The armored cruiser New York was the flagship of the Asiatic Squadron. It sailed from Yokohama to Vladivostok on 1 September (new style). According to a report in the New York Times, the Russians held a grand reception for the American ship. Among the festivities was a race in the harbor in which over 70 ships' boats, including competitors from the New York and Russian warships, took part. In the evening there was a ball at the Marine Club in honor of the Americans. Hubbard enlisted in the US Navy in 1897 (saying he was born in 1876 in order to meet the age requirement) and served in the Spanish-American War. He was discharged as disabled in 1903, moved to Wyoming, and died there in November 1918 of Spanish influenza.