The following article appears in the September 2021 issue of the Cresthaven Stamp Club Newsletter and was written by Robert Burr. For more information about the Cresthaven Stamp Club, visit their website.
In acquiring some covers in the past, I collected a batch of USS Macon cachet envelopes and set them aside for future research. Now you get to read some of that research.
Christened on March 11, 1933, It was stationed to Moffett Field, Sunnyvale, California later that year. Macon participated in numerous fleet exercises over the Pacific and in the Caribbean. In April 1934, in rough air over Texas, Macon’s tail was damaged in the area where the fins attached to the framework. Repairs were performed on three of the fins, but the Navy delayed repairs on the upper fin.
The USS Macon visited Miami, Florida on April 22, 1934, as part of Caribbean fleet maneuvers and the visit was commemorated with cachet covers as shown in FIgurel. R.W. Speakman was the cachet director and John Williams was the cachet designer, as the covers are signed. David Rosenthal, 112 Ocean Drive, Miami is on the reverse as the sender.
Some history about Caribbean fleet maneuvers is needed. In August 1933, political turmoil was occurring in the Republic of Cuba. President Roosevelt sent 30 warships to protect US interests in Cuba. The USCS bulletin #26 (October 20, 1933) lists four destroyers: the Badger, Babbitt, Tattnal, and Tillman, enroute to Cuban waters from the Naval Operating Base, Norfolk, Va.
A notice in Universal Ship Cancellation Society (USCS) Bulletin #27 (November 15, 1933) states that David Rosenthal, president and cachet director of the Miami Philatelic Society, will handle covers for collectors from naval vessels during the Cuban troubled The USS Tillman was in Guantanamo Bay on January 3, 1934. Figure 2 shows the USS Tillman at anchor in 1932. Built in July 1918, she was transferred to the British Navy in 1940. After the Cuban problem, the USS Tillman made a port of call at Miami in May 1934.
David Rosenthal used this visit to mail some of his cachet covers to his designer John Williams, his philatelic society, and a couple of local addresses.
The cachet shows the USS Macon in clouds over the ocean with the words USS MACON DEPARTS FOR GUANTANAMO BAY & FLEET MANEUVERS. The cachet on four covers is applied in red with PIONEER DAY, MIAMI, FL in the May 5, 1934, USS Tillman cancellation slug. A fifth cover has the airship in silver above the blue ocean with a similar cancel. A couple of covers are shown in Figures 3 and 4 on the next page.
Figure 5 below, shows the Macon cachet used for the May 11, 1934 last day of USS Tillman’s visit to Miami. Signed by Rosenthal and Williams the cancellation slug says BON VOYAGE/MIAMI, FLA. A similar cover discovered on E-Bay was asking $28.00.
The USS Macon crashed at sea off the coast of California during a storm February 12, 1935, after her unrepaired upper fin suffered in-flight structural failure. Macon was equipped with life jackets and rafts, and all but two of the 83 officers and men were rescued. Rosenthal and the Miami Philatelic Society made cachet covers for this event as well. Two covers are shown as Figure 6 on the next page commemorating this airship loss.
Rosenthal and Williams used the Macon cachet again, but with some modifications/ IN MEMORIAM has been added to the top of the cachet, with the lower text now reading SHENANDOAH/AKRON/MACON / DIRIGIBLE DISASTERS /MEMORIAL DAY 1936. Both were cancelled in Opa-Locka, Florida on May 30, 1936.
SOURCES:
1. Internet; ; Young, John, US Warships in Cuban Waters. US Ship Cancellation Society. 2003 www.uscs.org
2. Internet: American First Day Cover Society; www.afdcs.org/auctions91/lot0676/
3. All cover’s in author’s collection