- £750.00
1841 KINNEAR. A letter to England with a PAID SHIP LETTER SYDNEY AU 20 1841 dispatch cancel on the front and red ‘3’ (3d paid) and a black ‘8’ (ship letter to pay) The Kinnear, a 369 ton barque, ran into storms in the Mediterranean and limped into Gibraltar for repairs on 1st December. The damage was so severe that the mail was put onto H.M.S. Aucheron which left on December 6th, arriving in London December 12th. Whilst in Gibraltar it was noticed that the red wax seal was from the New South Wales Government, so the postmaster, Cam Creswell, attached a note using his wax seal explaining the delay. The note has been torn off, but a remnant remains. The delay resulted in this letter taking 118 days to reach its’ destination Chertsey on December 14 1841. The only known letter from this incident.
