GBLA Stamps by Václav Kňourek
Peter Valdner (2024)
In the 1960s, radio operators on ships provided a direct connection to home. While the ship was sailing, the captain's right hand was the deck officers, but on the Lednice, stranded for eight years on the Great Bitter Lake, it was the radio operators who held this role. R/O Václav Kňourek was Captain Benda’s right hand during his first stay on the GBL in 1968.
The year 1968 was one of abundance and stamp production on the GBL. The first stamps were created in 1967 by Captain Kudrna, and R/O Kňourek continued this production on the Lednice.
The sailors gathered for many sports and cultural events organized by the GBLA. Every Sunday, they met in the so-called church on the MS Nordwind, which was not for religious services but for crew meetups over beer. Each crew brought a few cases of beer, a tradition they called "Bottle Traffic."
R/O Kňourek issued a single print sheet with a run of 100 copies, dedicated to life on the GBL. This sheet can be seen in Captain Hill’s book and, of course, in the GBLA Stamp Catalogue. It names all 14 GBLA ships, notes the Lednice’s position as number 13 in the detained convoy, and highlights Bottle Traffic.
The prominent role of Engineer Kňourek in the history of the GBLA is underscored by the fact that he was the only representative from the Lednice at the sailors' gathering in Hamburg, where the film Gefangen im Bittersee ("Imprisoned in the Bitter Lake") was being filmed. If you're interested in the GBLA, I highly recommend watching it.
I'm not sure if it was intentional on the director's part, but other prominent GBLA stamp creators also attended the gathering – Captain Marian Kasprzyk from the Polish MS Djakarta, Captain Uwe Karstens and Josef Gattermayr (now residing in Austria), from the German MS Nordwind. Stamps were certainly a topic of conversation, and Captain Kasprzyk even gifted attendees his wonderful prints.
Unfortunately, the stamps didn’t make it into the final cut of the film. What a pity.
Sources: GBLA Encyclopaedia and Stamp Catalogue, archives of the author
Contact: valdpete@yahoo.com