Journal of the France & Colonies P S - June 2010

Titanic Covers that Missed the Boat?
David Jennings-Bramly

Cover found by Tom Fortunato in a dealer’s “junk box” in 1986
bearing a PARIS ÉTRANGER backstamp of 4 March 1912
and stated to be one of nine surviving covers with similar markings
intended for the Titanic but carried on other ships[Almost all the covers may be viewed on-line at http://www.wrestlingsbest.com/titanic.pdf]

During 2008 the journal of the Ship Wreck Study Group,
La Catastrophe, reprinted an article entitled “Titanic covers that missed the boat” that had first appeared in The
Titanic Commutator, the journal of the Titanic Historical
Society. This article by Tom Fortunato of Rochester, NewYork, gave details of nine covers with a TITANIC handstamp dated between 3 and 13 March 1912 from various
places in France, some of them bearing a Paris Étranger
postmark of 4, 7 or 14 March and most bearing a Washington DC transit mark of 18 or 27 March, that had apparently been carried by other ships and received by the M A
Winter Company in Washington on 19 or 28 March 1912
[some dates being illegible].

have appeared. In what follows I attempt to correct thesituation.
As a long time collector and student of the Sower issue ofFrance, my eye was immediately drawn to the cover at thehead of Mr. Tom Fortunato’s article which was reprinted,
in 2 parts, in La Catastrophe.
Having checked the 10c Sowers, in the hopes that theymight be postal forgeries and finding them to be genuine, I
turned to the article to attempt to find out why Mr. Fortunato declared the envelope, numbered 267914, a gem.
After reading through the 2 parts of the article and having viewed the 8 covers which come up on the references
he gives and having failed to raise the 9th, which does notreally matter, because it is also stated to be an envelope,franked 25c, to the Winter Co, I can answer the question
which he poses in his first sentence – and my answer is:
NO. I would not give a nickel for any one of the so-called“missed TITANIC covers” listed as 9 by him. Why not?
Read on...

The article begins with the words: “Would you pay $10 for
the cover above (Figure 1)? I did. I ran across this gem ina dealer’s box marked ‘Better Junk’ back in 1986. If you’relike me you’re probably a bit of a history buff and at firstglance are puzzled at this piece of postal history...’I have no knowledge of any comments that Mr Fortunato’s
article may have attracted, but consider it unlikely that any
were adverse because La Catastrophe published the article
without caveat or comment.

Let me deal with the “junk box” cover first: despite Mr.
Fortunato’s assertion, No 267914 has not been registeredby the French State Postes. Nos 267909 & 267925 are, also,
not registered, because the Courriers Convoyeurs (scalloprims) did not offer registration. The other 6 covers are notregistered and none of the 9 was ever tendered for registration. Had any been registered, the fronts would have

One may assume that the editor of The Titanic Commutator wlecomed the article, when received, as being froma philatelist or postal historian and as a result did nothave it checked by a competetent collector; had he doneso, I am certain that the unfortunate article would not

Continued on page 75
69Journal of the France & Colonies P S - June 2010

LONDON GROUP MEETING OF 6 MAY 2010
John West: France, The Red Cross
company had become synonymous with the issue of thismaterial, on his own behalf.

This was the third of a trilogy of displays featuring the subject of France & the Red Cross, and members were treatedto a feast of the vignettes issued, primarily, to raise funds
for the benefit of the organisation.

Fontanille was able – illegally – to import the best paper andinks from Germany and – love him or hate him – he succeeded in producing an avalanche of stunningly designed
and printed vignettes. He used multi-coloured printing
techniques which were far in advance of those used by theGovernment Printing Works and left a legacy of the mostspectacular material. John’s display included a comprehensive display of the issues, from Alexandria to Yunnan,of the non-existent committees, and he also provided an
insight into the printing methods used at the workshop ofÉditions Delandre. The section ended with the very visible
deterioriation in the quality of his issues brought about by
the evaporation of his supply of top quality paper and ink
and, also, his arrest in 1917 for fraud.

The display split quite nicely into three sections, the firstof which featured the issues of the “Société de Secours auxBlessés Militaires”, the “Association des Dames Françaises”
and the “Union des Femmes Françaises”. John took theopportunity to enlarge upon the story of Henri Dunant –which often ends with the signing of the Geneva Convention in 1864 – and provided little known information about
his struggle to survive during the following 25 years. Healso described the formation of the three societies which
comprised the French Red Cross up until the Second
World War. He showed a comprehensive cross-section of
the various issues of these three organisations, even including evidence of missing values and colours etc.

The third section dealt with the vignettes of World War II,
of which there were very few, and those issued shortly
thereafter – generally to coincide with the regular annual
Red Cross exhibitions that were held in France. As a little
bonus, the members were treated to a small display featuring the series “Monuments de Paris”. This included all thebooklets of 10 and the booklets of 20 and illustrated howeach booklet contained combinations of these vignettes
which were unique to the individual booklets.

The second section featured a display of the material
printed by M. Gaston Fontanille, better known as “Éditions Delandre”. John added the extremely colourful
background of this rogue printer – who invented Frenchcommittees of the Red Cross from all parts of the globe
and then printed vignettes purporting to be issued on theirbehalf! He also insidiously permeated the genuine marketof Red Cross vignettes, first of all by printing material at
the request of the genuine societies and, when his printing

Mick Bister gave the vote of thanks.

JCWTitanic Covers that Missed the Boat
Continued from page 69

specially for propaganda; the SS Normandie is an example,
but for anyone to advance such a theory in regard to thePTT and the Titanic is ludicrous.

displayed evidence of it and the franking would have been
50 centimes (25c postage + 25c registration); turning thecovers over should have revealed handling by the registered mail branch of the US Postal Service – they do not;all there is, are markings for ordinary mail.

The choice of vessel, to carry one’s mail, has always been
the prerogative of the sender; governments have tried tocontrol and have spied on mail from the earliest times. The
suggestion that the word TITANIC handstamped on the 8
covers viewed was carried out by the Foreign Branch of thePTT in Paris is completely untenable.

The PARIS R.P. ÉTRANGER marks are made by the 2heads of a cancelling machine working with no bars between
heads. Cover 267942 shows the bars in situ. Using “registration” in a non-postal sense and taking into account theshape of the digits, I am of the opinion that the six-figure
numbers have been applied by a registry in the Winter Co.

Since the RMS Titanic was British, there is no likelihoodthat La Poste would have arranged a special handling for
mail which senders wanted to travel by the Titanic. Should
anyone in France have desired ocean travel for their mailby that White Star liner, they could have arranged for it totake place by posting to the liners’ agency at Cherbourg;that patently was not so done.

By 1912, the UPU had been in existence for over thirty years
and few countries had not joined. The benefits were great,
especially as tariffs were now standardised between member
countries. There were no more varying rates between shipping line and shipping line and even individual ships. The
previous tedious and often fruitless searches for the fastest,
safest and least expensive route and vessel were over. Prepayment reigned and superscription of Line, of Captain’s
favour, of shipping agent or vessel was extinguished.

Mr. Fortunato finds it interesting that after 20 years searching, only 9 covers, all to one firm, have been recorded. I findit suspicious and one more reason why I end up convincedthat these covers had the handstamp TITANIC added tothem with fraudulent intent, at some time shortly before
they started to appear. What I am unable to decide is where
the fraud originated: whether in America or Britain.

The Post Office of a country did not designate or impose aparticular vessel’s name on an item of mail or a bundle of
mail: their remit was to send the mail on the first available
packet. Later, sometimes, arrangements might be made75