German Mailboat Services Hamburg to East Africa 1890-1914

Plot

FORWARD
As is not unusual, publication of an article in the LONDON PHILATELIST has been followed by acquisition of additional material, and by correspondence from an interested persons. In consequences this reprint contains more information than the original article: and the opportunity has been taken to add three extra illustrations. The position now is that up to mid-1907 the picture seems pretty complete as to ships and allocation od cancellations, subject to provisos as to error and emission. Check data are still lacking for some of the period, particularlu to 1.1.1897. There are various shipping reports still missing from the set accumulated from the Zanzibar Gazette, although a few more may turn up. Consequently some charter vessels may have been omittes. Thereafdter, although the picture is reasonably complete, it is by no means certain that for 1911 there has been a satisfactory separation of immediate sailings into mailboats and cargo boats: only the former carrying cancellers.There is still not quite enough material recorded for the period 1907-14, so there are still gaps in the Hauptlinie cancellers allocation for that period. Curiously the Ost Afrika Linie cancellers seem to be covered quite well. The trouble is that some ships made very few journeys and the authorities seem to have moved a few cancellers about for no obvious reason. These are (all Haupt Linie) a, d, e, g, k..
Achknowledgements appear at the end of the reprint.