WW1 mail delayed by Germany

[Tony Walker]

I have a cover - see attachments for which I'd be grateful for some feedback.  It is purported to have come from the Paddle Steamer Koningen Regentes which was intercepted by the German submarine UB-19 and escorted into Zeebrugge on 10 November 1918

Firstly the cover :

It shows two cachets :

PART OF MAIL CAPTURED / BY GERMANS AND DELAYED and
PORTVRIS / ??ANC DE PORT / Militaires estrangers / ? dans Pays-Bas

On arrival in England the cover was censored and resealed with tape, and a label mostly obscured by the OPENED BY / CENSOR. / P.W.103 label asking the recipient to 'Please return this letter to the Post Office as part of an official enquiry.'

I have carefully lifted part of the CENSOR label on the front of the cover to reveal the cancellation GRONINGEN 7 NOV 18, this ties in with what appears to be an offset cancellation on the reverse of the same date.

The information on the internet is confusing, particularly that the Koningen Regentes was a hospital ship, torpedoed and sunk on 6 June 1918.

I realise some of this is outside the likely scope of FPHS members, but I'd be grateful if someone could :

a) scan me a complete copy of the Post Office 'Please return....' label
b) Provide any info on the CENSOR label
c) In hope rather than expectation, clarification of the ship involved

[attach id=6551]4585 dutch ship held up by Germany (2).jpg[/attach] Cheers
Tony
walker369@btinternet.com

[Chris Grimshaw]

Hello Tony

Looking at www.uboatnet I find the following,

U-boat attacks on Passenger steamer Koningin Regentes

Date U-boat Loss type Position Location Route Cargo Casualties
1 10 Nov 1916 UB 19 (Erich Noodt) prize Hoofden, brought into Zeebrugge

Vlissingen - Gravesend (Route)

0

Vessel later released by a prize court.

2 6 Jun 1918 UB 107 (Eberhard von Prittwitz und Gaffron) Sunk Torpedoed and sunk 21 miles E of the Leman LV

Boston, Lincs. - Rotterdam

Wounded prisoner-of-war exchange service, 'Would this qualify as a Hospital ship, As Dutch registered and flagged she was classed as a neutral.'

As shown the date is 1916 not 1918 as you quote.

Still researching the labels. Looking at the scans are there two or three labels?

Chris

[Tony Walker]

Hello Chris

Thanks for info.

There appear to be three labels :

The Opened by Censor label on top
Beneath which is the Post Office label requesting return of the letter to them
and beneath this what appears to be a blank piece of paper resealing the opened letter

Tony

[Tony Walker]

Here's an update on this cover

Date is 1916 not 1918, which clears up the main query, the 6 and 8 are very similar.
The ship was intercepted by the Germans on 6 November 1916 and taken into Zeebrugge where the mail was inspected, as well as the cargo presumably.  It is not clear whether any passengers were taken off and taken into custody.  The ship was released on 17 December 1916 and continued voyage to Boston, England.

On 6 June 1918 the ship was torpedoed and sunk by SM UB-107 with the loss of 7 lives.

As Chris mentioned, the ship was registered in a neutral country, Netherlands and was classified as a Hospital Ship. She was used to transport PoW's repatriated between England and Germany throughout most of the war.  She was carrying German PoW's back to Germany when she was sunk.  Poetic justice I suppose.

Still interested in any info on censor label, and a copy of the PO notice this has largely covered

Tony

[Chris Grimshaw]

Hello Tony

You quote 6 November as date seized, uboatnet gives 10 November, whats your reference for the 6th Nov please?

One clarification, uboatnet shows the UK destination port as Gravesend for the 1916 sailing not Boston which was the departure port for the 1918 sailing. See my original post. Note  Vlissingen (known as Flushing is 350 Km from GRONINGEN which is located at the north end of Holland.

Secondly if we're correct that the cancel and offset back mark is GRONINGEN 7 Nov 1916 this appears to show that the cover was opened and resealed with what looks like a blank label by the Dutch authorities. It was then cancelled by the Dutch PO. This ties in with the subsequent departure timescale of sailing. I.e. mails for the UK from Holland were sent from Vlissingen, Does this apply to all mails?

There is no sign of any postage being removed its possible there may be some sort of endorsement underneath the original blank label.  We could be looking at internee mail here.

Chris

Chris

[Chris Grimshaw]

Having 'located' my copy of British Censorship of Civil Mails During WWI 1914-19 by Graham Mark, I can now add a little more to the story.

On page 82 Graham writes, " Koningen Regenteswas stopped on 10 Nov 1916 and some 500 sacks of mail were removed by the Germans. Some of these mails were returned by Germany to Netherlands and more was released in January 1917 (The Times 21 Nov 1916 & 24 Jan 1917) but some were held until the end of the war. Mail released and forwarded to Britain was censored on arrival. "

On page 83 Graham writes, "Examples of mail censored in Netherlands can be found. These originate from, or were destined to areas under military control, close to the Belgium or German frontiers."

GRONINGEN from where this cover originated is close to the German border with the German state of Lower Saxony to the East. 

He also illustrates a cover with the PART OF A MAIL CAPTURED BY GERMANS AND DELAYED. cachet. 

On page 82 Graham also writes, " The Times, 14 March 1919 (while censorship was still in operation) reported that mails captured by the Germans were then being delivered in this country."

Chris

[Chris Grimshaw]

Now to look at the sealing labels.

"Graham Mark" same publication as previous post,

Pages 182/3 Special Labels

The OPENED BY CENSOR. P.W. 103 is listed as Type 15. One of three similar labels , Types 14 to 16

"These labels first appeared in mid 1916 and continued in use until the end of censorship in 1919." The 'numbering on these P.W. labels is recorded as between 4 and 1643. These P W labels were used on POW and Internees mails.

"The PW branch was wound down in late 1918, and early 1919, some PW censors moved to other duties so their labels, with PW deleted, continued in use during 1919. A small number of items have been recorded in 1919 with the PW Number not deleted. These were on internee mail and items from North Russia."

In light of the earlier statement that mails were released in 1919 it's not possible I feel to determine when this item was released. It could be the earlier 1916 /17 releases or the 1919 final release. Graham Mark may have records of the number in question.

The GPO label under the Censor label is interesting, One would expect that handling by the Post Office was the final stage after the censorship. It looks like there may be some sort of cancel or ink marking on the face of the label just to the left of the P.W. 103.

There may be a printing code on this GPO label but it would mean removal of the censor label to see. 

The addressee.

If as I think likely, its Internee related mail there may be a clue in the addressee, One for our Family History researchers here.  Alan??? 

Chris

[Nick Colley]

Yes, I would think there's a high probability it's from a member of the interned elements of the Royal Naval Division - see, for example, https://www.royalnavaldivision.info/groningen.htm

The 'P.W.' on one of labels is quite compelling evidence, wouldn't you say?

rgds
N

[Tony Walker]

Thanks Chris and Nick - that's moved me on enough to write it up, probably have to revise it in due course

tony