Paquebot. mail

I'm not sure if the kind readers of this blog know that I work in the Merchant navy. Well the fact is that I do. Out at sea, under international conventions (UNCLOS), Every vessel needs to be registered to a country. And the deck of the ship is actually considered part of the territory of the flag state.

Now under the rules framed under the Universal Postal Union, a letter posted on the high seas, when posted at the first port of arrival of the ship to a country, may be posted using the stamps of the registry of the vessel.

So if tomorrow I join an Indian vessel, I could post an envelope with Indian Stamps at any port from Singapore to New York. This mail is called a Paquebot mail and is valued very highly among people who collect these. (I find that eventually you find that everything is collected by someone!) .There are special marks used by different port post-offices to specially mark the Paquebot mail. & these are the classic's that are highly valued.

When you think about it, I've been on merchant ships for the last decade and half and sending mails through the normal means when the abnormal means was normally available to me. :)