Great Bitter Lake Association in a Nutshell
Peter Valdner (2024)
As Egypt closed the Strait of Tiran to Israeli ships, Israel responded by conquering the Sinai Peninsula during the Six-Day War in June 1967. Israeli troops reached the east bank of the Suez Canal. To prevent Israeli ships from using the Canal, Egypt blocked both ends by sinking ships and placing other obstacles.
In the middle of the Canal, on the Great Bitter Lake, fourteen ships from eight nations, with about eight hundred crew members and passengers, were trapped. Eleven of these were ocean-going merchant ships, returning loaded from Australia or Asia. Four were from the UK, two each from West Germany, Poland, and Sweden, and one from France. Two other ships, USS African Glen and MS Vasil Levski from Bulgaria, were returning empty from war-torn Vietnam. A small Slovak ship, MS Lednice, was returning from the Red Sea. Slovakia was that time part of Czechoslovakia.
These ships were expected to reach European ports in a few days, so they had no provisions to sustain the trapped people for an extended period. Fortunately, ship owners allowed access to the cargo holds to use the transported foodstuffs. British ships provided fruit, tea, wine, and beer. The German ships carried fruit, meat, and eggs. The French had tons of prawns, while the Swedes even had shark fins. To organize the distribution of goods and social life, the crews formed the Great Bitter Lake Association (GBLA).
With plenty of free time, the crew members took a great interest in writing letters home. Since the ships were caught between warring parties in international waters, known as the open sea, they were entitled to use Paquebot postal services. However, they were short on covers and stamps.
Captain Kudrna, the
Master of the Lednice, began producing covers and stamps on behalf of the GBLA
using a hectograph duplicator. The maximum quantity that could be printed in
good quality was about two hundred sheets. His stationery covers and stamps
were used as postage.
Unfortunately, since the sailors were not allowed ashore, all mail had to be carried to post offices by Egyptian shipping agents. The agencies usually applied their advertising meter stamps to the covers.
Relief crews, seeking to avoid meter stamping, brought Egyptian stamps to the Lake. Thousands more of Egyptian stamps were received from collectors who asked for covers and GBLA stamps. As a result, most covers also bear Egyptian postage.
However, dozens of
covers are known to have passed through the Egyptian postal system with only
GBLA stamps, without being charged any additional postage. Robert Hornby alone
sent 60 such covers. None of them were charged with postage due.
Over the eight years on the GBLA, the ship crews gradually diminished from around eight hundred people to about thirty crew by 1973 when the Yom Kippur War occurred, and the empty SS African Glen was hit and sunk.
As the crew numbers dwindled, fewer GBLA stamps were needed for postage. However, thousands of collectors continued to request stamps, which gradually became more like souvenirs, leading to continued production. Notably, some German masters turned this into a highly profitable business.
Many GBLA members were talented artists. Polish Mate Marian Kasprzyk carved linocuts and created a set of beautiful prints.
Czechoslovak Captain Benda, who served five tours of duty, produced stamps reflecting the changing political situation.
Most of the stamps were related to GBLA's daily life, with many depicting sports and games. In 1968, the ships held the GBLA Olympic Games.
To economize on personnel, most ships were gradually grouped together. MS Lednice, Melampus and Agapenor became Ledmelaga. MS Munsterland, Nordwind, Killara, Nippon, and Essayons (Norwegian, formerly French Sindh) became Muwinikies. MS Djakarta, Boleslaw Bierut, Port Invercargill, and Scottish Star became Djabiporst.
The British Agapenor had hidden 400 tons of ammunition from Singapore and Aden. During a storm in 1972, Ledmelaga was torn from her anchors and drifted towards Muwinikies. A collision could have been catastrophic. Fortunately, the Slovaks managed to start engines that had been idle for years and maneuvered the ship until the Germans could tow Ledmelaga away. Naturally, this event is also commemorated on GBLA stamps.
The ships finally left the lake in May 1975, after almost eight years. Most seamen created at least small GBLA collections. Collectors from around the world compiled thousands of GBLA collections more. Some were even exhibited at stamp exhibitions. Today, GBLA items remain in high demand.
More than two thousand stamps are shown and valued in the Catalogue. GBLA stamps were produced in extremely limited quantities, averaging fewer than 100 pieces each. Listed are also imitations, printed in thousands of pieces, which were produced by the Italian collector Dr. Zappala.
The imitations are usually named European Ships Great Bitter Lake and were printed as miniature sheets or as greetings. The ones, produced after 1971, have nothing to do with the GBLA.
Since the stamps are valued individually between 0.10 and 100 GBP, interested collectors are advised to consult the Catalogue.
The book is actually three books in one (GBLA Encyclopedia, MS Lednice, and the Catalogue). It contains several thousand pictures across 336 large pages.
I wrote the GBLA Encyclopedia and MS Lednice, gathering information and documents from many GBLA members and archives in several countries. At the request of stamp collectors, who provided scans of their collections, I compiled the Catalogue. Market values of stamps, as well as sheets, covers, linocuts, and various ephemera, were derived from public auction results, and were consulted with advanced GBLA collectors.
I am the exclusive distributor of the book. If you need it, contact me, please.
Sources: GBLA Encyclopaedia and files of the author
Contact: valdpete@yahoo.com, www.valdpete.blogspot.com
