ISBN 978-1-913015-33-6

In the fourth and fifth decades of the 19^th century, the Austrian-based Danube Steam Navigation Company (D.D.S.G.) embarked on the ambitious venture to expand the range of the company beyond the Danube River into the Black Sea and the eastern Mediterranean. The D.D.S.G. was soon joined on many routes by the Austrian Lloyd. The rivalry of these two Austrian companies on the high seas lasted 10 years and ended only when the Austrian Lloyd purchased the maritime assets of the D.D.S.G. This book follows the rivalry of the two companies amid important historical events of the period, and provides an abundance of newly discovered information for the analysis of postal history of both companies.

Christopher C. Smith has been a philatelist and postal historian for nearly six decades. His collecting interests include Austrian offices abroad, the consular post offices of Egypt, the Bordeaux issue of France, the local posts of Sweden and Denmark, and classic United States from 1847 to 1868. He lives in Rosemount, Minnesota in the United States. When he is not busy conducting postal history and philatelic research, Christopher is busy with his grandson, to whom he hopes someday to introduce the collecting of stamps and postal history, and with volunteering to support a children’s home in southern Tanzania.

Dedication
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
Figures
Maps
Tables
Introduction
Chapter 1 Agenzia Del Lloyd Austriaco / Alessandria – A Survey of the Austrian Lloyd Agency Handstamp and the Early History of Austrian Postal Activity at Alexandria, Egypt
Introduction
1.1 The Austrian Lloyd Agency at Alexandria
1.2 The Handstamp of the Austrian Lloyd at Alexandria
1.3 The Rarity of the Alexandria Handstamp
The Austrian Lloyd Handstamp of Alexandria on Passenger Tickets
1.4 Census of Covers
1.5 Cover 1.1 and Cover 1.2
1.6 Cover 1.3 and Cover 1.4
Hezekiah Clark of Calcutta
1.7 Intermediate Conclusions
1.8 Cover 1.5
An American Surgeon in the Court of Sultan Mahmud II
1.9 Recap: Prior Conclusions
1.10 The Beginning of Austrian Lloyd Steamship Service to Alexandria
1.11 Austrian Lloyd Steamship Service between Trieste and Alexandria 1837-1845
1.12 The Opening Dates of the Austrian Lloyd Agency and Post Office at Alexandria
1.13 The Authenticity of Cover 1.5
1.14 The Reopening the Trieste – Syra – Alexandria Line

Chapter 2 Maritime Steamship Service of the Danube Steam Navigation Company to the Syrian Coast and Alexandria, Egypt – The Voyages of the Seri-Pervas 1839-1840
Overview
2.1 Review of Prior Publications
2.2 Austrian Maritime Rivals
2.3 The Steamship Seri-Pervas
2.4 Development of the Line to Beirut and Alexandria
2.5 Initial Runs to the Syrian Coast
2.6 The Seri-Pervas Runs to Alexandria
2.7 The Egyptian – Ottoman War
2.8 The Wreck of the Seri-Pervas
2.9 Why Did the D. D. S. G. Halt Steamship Service to Egypt?
2.10 Analysis
2.11 Conclusions

Chapter 3 The History of the Maritime Lines of the Danube Steam Navigation Company 1834-1845
Background
Giornale del Lloyd Austriaco di Notizie Marittime e Commerciali
3.1 Setting the Stage
3.2 Preparing the Waterway for Maritime Operations
3.3 The Journey to the Sea
3.4 The Maritime Steamships of the D. D. S. G.
The Manoeuvres of Voznesensk
The (Almost) Eighth Maritime Steamship of the D. D. S. G.
3.5 Maritime Agencies of the D. D. S. G
Haggi Baba of Cape Baba
Shortcut to the Black Sea
3.6 The Maritime Lines of the D. D. S. G.
The Danube Maritime Ports and the Sulina Mouth of the Danube River.
3.7 The Postal Service of the D. D. S. G. Maritime Lines
The Director of the D. D. S. G. Maritime Postal Service
3.8 The Sale of the D. D. S. G. Maritime Lines to the Austrian Lloyd
Chapter 4 Steamship Runs of the Maritime Lines of the Danube Steam Navigation Company 1834-1845
Introduction
4.1 D. D. S. G. Steamship Runs between Constantinople and Smyrna 1834 to 1845
4.2 D. D. S. G. Steamship Runs between Constantinople and Galatz 1836 to 1845
4.3 D. D. S. G. Steamship Runs between Constantinople and Trebizond 1836 to 1845
4.4 D. D. S. G. Steamship Runs between Constantinople and Salonica 1838 to 1845
4.5 D. D. S. G. Steamship Runs between Smyrna, Syria, and Egypt 1839 to 1840
4.6 D. D. S. G. Steamship Runs between Constantinople and Kustundje 1840 to 1844
4.7 D. D. S. G. Steamship Runs between Constantinople and Ghemlek 1843
Chapter 5 Analysis of Selected Mail Conveyed by the Maritime Steamships of the D. D. S. G.
Introduction
Postmarks
Letters Despatched from Constantinople
5.1 Constantinople to Ghemlek – May 1844
5.2 Constantinople to Ghemlek – January 1843
5.3 Constantinople to Ghemlek – March 1843.
Letters Despatched from Smyrna to Giorgio Giudici at Constantinople
5.4 Smyrna to Constantinople – June 1842.
5.5 Smyrna to Constantinople – August 1842.
Letters Despatched from the Danube Maritime Ports to Constantinople
5.6 Ibraila to Constantinople – July 1844.
5.7 Ibraila to Constantinople – September 1844.
5.8 Galatz to Constantinople – October 1844.
Two Letters with the Unconventional Postmark of Varna
5.9 Varna to Constantinople – July 1844.
5.10 Varna to Constantinople – September 1844.
An Early Letter Despatched from Trebizond to Constantinople
5.11 Trebizond to Constantinople – November 1838
A Letter Despatched from the D. D. S. G. Agency at Beirut to Aleppo
5.12 Beirut to Aleppo – September 1839
A Letter Despatched from the D. D. S. G. Agency at Beirut to Smyrna
5.13 Beirut to Smyrna – July 1841

Appendix
Ottoman Military Use of Maritime Steamships of the Danube Steam Navigation Company
Introduction
Steamship Movements
Bibliography
Index
 

This book is about to two separate but interrelated topics. The first is a narrower topic: the development and activity of the maritime lines of the steam navigation company of the Austrian Lloyd in the eastern Mediterranean, particularly, to and from the port of Alexandria, Egypt. This topic is the subject of chapter 1, which includes an account not only of the movement of steamships on the Trieste – Syra – Alexandria line, but also the opening and operation of the agency of the Austrian Lloyd and the post office of the Austrian Postal Administration at Alexandria from 1837 to 1849.

     The second topic is broad and comprehensive: the founding, development, operation, and eventual sale of the maritime lines of the Danube Steam Navigation Company (abbreviated as D. D. S. G., based on the German name of the company), all of which took place from 1834 to 1845. This topic is the focus of chapters 2, 3, 4, and 5, and grows naturally from the first topic. The Austrian Lloyd and the D. D. S. G. were both Austrian steam navigation companies and operated as competitors on several maritime lines. In particular, both established maritime lines to Alexandria, Egypt.

     The Austrian Lloyd’s initial attempt at an Egypt line between Trieste, the Greek island Syra, and Alexandria, Egypt, began in late 1837 and lasted 10 months. The D. D. S. G. followed the Austrian Lloyd’s attempt with its own line between Smyrna and Egypt via the Syrian coast in 1839, but that line endured for just five months. Concurrently with the D. D. S. G.’s Egypt line, the Austrian Lloyd ran another line, this time between Constantinople and Alexandria. In April 1840, that line, too, shut down, 19 months after it had opened. Five years later, as a requirement imposed by the Austrian Postal Administration, in July 1845, the Austrian Lloyd finally reopened and successfully continued its Trieste – Syra – Alexandria line, but only after the Austrian Lloyd had purchased the maritime lines of the D. D. S. G. in January of that year.

     The purpose of addressing both topics is to establish a firm foundation for postal historical research of the Egypt line of the Austrian Lloyd, its agency at Alexandria, the Austrian Post Office at Alexandria, and the maritime steamship lines and agencies of the D. D. S G., which operated in the region of the Black Sea and eastern Mediterranean. Chapter 1 uses the process of evaluating five extant covers posted at the agency of the Austrian Lloyd at Alexandria as a means of assessing and correcting current conclusions about the Austrian Lloyd’s Egypt line and the Austrian Post Office and Austrian Lloyd Agency at Alexandria. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 gather and synthesise information in order to develop a definitive historical account of the D. D. S. G.’s line to Alexandria Egypt (chapter 2), to produce a comprehensive history of all maritime lines of the D. D. S. G. (chapter 3), and to create a series of annotated tables that record the runs of all D. D. S. G. steamships on the company’s maritime lines (chapter 4). In turn, chapters 2, 3, and 4 form the basis of chapter 5, the analysis of 13 selected items of D. D. S. G. maritime postal history.