Stamp collectors logically collect stamps. Philatelists, in addition to stamps, also collect postal stationery, postmarks... basically anything related to postal operations. Analogously, some people collect not just ASFE but also postal territories — that is, also items related to stationery, postmarks, and similar.
The English have it simple. Both a stamp and a postmark are called "stamp." For Slovaks, "stamp" usually only means a postage stamp,
On the Great Bitter Lake, for eight years there were 14 ships, many of which were eventually joined into groups and given new names. From 1968, they began using uniform round cancellers reading "MAILED ON BOARD" with corresponding names. In total, there were 21 names of ships and groups — in other words, 21 postmark territories. The latest edition of the GBLA Encyclopedia lists 80 names that appear on stamps and cancellers from the GBL. If you collect postal history, more than a quarter of it can be documented through these uniform cancellers.
It was common practice for collectors to send pre-stamped and addressed envelopes to the ships.
They did this because many sailors did not understand the needs of collectors, and the result could turn out like the following shipment ordered by Dr. Zappala for his postcard. Note its serial number. That was commercial mass production, including imitation of GBLA stamps. Details can be found in the GBLA encyclopedia.
Before the ships received standardized round postmarks, they used their own, commonly employed during their operation. Each ship had several types of them.
Interestingly, some sailors tried to get a postmark from every ship on their documents. That meant traveling tens of kilometers by boat between ships. Among the pioneers were Captain Benda
and Marian Kasprzyk, who used them to decorate his already impressive linoprints.
Later, when a "post office" was established on one of the ships, it was no longer necessary to travel for the postmarks. On the contrary — the postmarks traveled, and documents stamped this way are now more affordable.
The practice changed after the ships were combined into groups, but that is beyond the scope of this article.
In the aforementioned GBLA Encyclopaedia, all the postmarks are illustrated.
Sources: GBLA Encyclopaedia & Stamp Catalogue and author's archive
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