SS Princess Anastasia

USS Lexington - The Blue Ghost

USS Lexington (CV/CVA/CVS/CVT/AVT-16), nicknamed "The Blue Ghost", is an Essex-class aircraft carrier built during World War II for the United States Navy. Originally intended to be named Cabot, word arrived during construction that the USS Lexington (CV-2) had been lost in the Battle of the Coral Sea. She was renamed while under construction to commemorate the earlier ship. This ship was the fifth US Navy ship to bear the name in honour of the Revolutionary War Battle of Lexington.

Lexington was commissioned in February 1943 and saw extensive service through the Pacific War. For much of her service she acted as the flagship for Admiral Marc Mitscher, and led the Fast Carrier Task Force through their battles across the Pacific. She was the recipient of 11 battle stars and the Presidential Unit Citation. Following the war Lexington was decommissioned, but was modernized and reactivated in the early 1950s, being reclassified as an attack carrier (CVA). Later she was reclassified as an antisubmarine carrier (CVS). In her second career, she operated both in the Atlantic/Mediterranean and the Pacific, but spent most of her time, nearly 30 years, on the east coast as a training carrier (CVT).

Lexington was decommissioned in 1991, with an active service life longer than any other Essex-class ship. Following her decommissioning she was donated for use as a museum ship in Corpus Christi, Texas. In 2003, Lexington was designated a National Historic Landmark. Though her surviving sisterships Yorktown, Intrepid, and Hornet carry lower hull numbers, Lexington was laid down and commissioned earlier, making Lexington the oldest remaining aircraft carrier in the world.

Thank you my friend Barbara for this fine card.

JAMES BOND POSTCARD 007 Dr. No (1962) French Poster

On introducing James Bond in Dr. No, producers Broccoli & Saltzman could not have foreseen the phenomenon that the series of films would soon become. But the material already had a certain glamour. Here was an anti-hero who was terribly British, who killed in cold blood and yet was able to charm numerous beautiful women and solve the deadliest of crimes, all in a day's work. This adaptation from the novel by Ian Fleming was one of the films most faithful to the original story.

 James Bond is sent to Jamaica with a mission: to investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of fellow agent John Strangways. The trail leads him to the island of Crab Key, the base of the SPECTRE headquarters of corrupt scientist Dr. No, whom Bond believes to be the murderer. Dr. No informs Bond of his aim of world domination and the destruction of the US space programme. Battle commences between Bond & Dr. No, until the villain finally falls into his own trap and dies. Mitchell Hooks painted the iconic image of Sean Connery as Bond, with a smoking pistol in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

This image was used internationally at the time, as well as in later poster campaigns. The posters featured Bond surrounded by several glamorous women, a visual shorthand that was to make the secret agent immediately recognizable to cinema audiences worldwide. Joseph Caroff designed the 007 logo, which, with a few variations, has been used throughout the series.

A word about his female partner in Dr. No, namely Ursula AUrsula Andress (born 19 March 1936) is a Swiss-American actress and sex symbol of the 1960s. She is known for her role as Bond girl Honey Rider in the first James Bond film, Dr. No (1962), for which she won a Golden Globe.

This card was sent to me by Barbara from Corpus Christie.  

The Taj Mahal

Surprise of surprises this card of the Taj Mahal wasn’t sent to me by someone in India. It was Marja in Finland who sent it to me.

The Taj Mahal is a white marble mausoleum located in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The Taj Mahal is widely recognized as "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage".

Taj Mahal is regarded by many as the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Persian and Indian architectural styles.

The Taj Mahal has been considered one of the Wonders of the World for a Iong time now.  1983, the Taj Mahal became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. While the white domed marble mausoleum is the most familiar component of the Taj Mahal, it is actually an integrated complex of structures. The construction began around 1632 and was completed around 1653, employing thousands of artisans and craftsmen. The construction of the Taj Mahal was entrusted to a board of architects under imperial supervision, including Abd ul-Karim Ma'mur Khan, Makramat Khan, and Ustad Ahmad Lahauri. Lahauri is generally considered to be the principal designer.

The Taj looks its best on a full Moon night, and luckily, that’s when the photograph on this card was taken. 

Weapons of Victory 1945

Sevastopol was the first ship completed of the Gangut-class battleships of the Imperial Russian Navy, built before World War I. The Ganguts were the first class of Russian dreadnoughts. She was named after the Siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War. She was completed during the winter of 1914–15, but was not ready for combat until mid-1915. Her role was to defend the mouth of the Gulf of Finland against the Germans, who never tried to enter, so she spent her time training and providing cover for minelaying operations. Her crew joined the general mutiny of the Baltic Fleet after the February Revolution and joined the Bolsheviks later that year. She was laid up in 1918 for lack of manpower, but her crew joined the Kronstadt Rebellion of 1921. She was renamed Parizhskaya Kommuna after the rebellion was crushed to commemorate the Paris Commune and to erase the ship's 'betrayal' of the Communist Party.

She was recommissioned in 1925, and refitted in 1928 in preparation for her transfer to the Black Sea the following year. Parizhskaya Kommuna and the cruiser Profintern ran into a severe storm in the Bay of Biscay that severely damaged Parizhskaya Kommuna's false bow. They had to put into Brest for repairs, but reached Sevastopol in January 1930. Parizhskaya Kommuna was comprehensively reconstructed in two stages during the 1930s that replaced her boilers, upgraded her guns, augmented her anti-aircraft armament, modernized her fire-control systems and gave her anti-torpedo bulges. During World War II she provided gunfire support during the Siege of Sevastopol and related operations until she was withdrawn from combat in April 1942 when the risk from German aerial attack became too great. She was retained on active duty after the war until she became a training ship in 1954. She was broken up in 1956–57.

Thank you Anna for this nice card.

1982 EUROPA - Visit Portugal

Maxi Card with EUROPA stamp issued at Madeira on Europa 2012 theme - "Visit...", postmarked at Funchal - Capital of Madeira, Portugal on May 09, 2012. Thank you Ana for this nice maxi card.

Paquete Santa Maria was Built between 1952 - 1953 in the shipyards of the Societe Anonyme John Cockerill, in Belgium. Its maiden voyage took place in November 1953, linking Portugal to Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. It was the only Portuguese liner with regular connections to ports of the United States. In 1973, though still relatively new, she was sold to be dismantled in the Republic of China.

On January 23, 1961, a group of Portuguese and Spanish opposition movement members seized control of the Santa Maria, a 609-foot-long (186 m), 20,900-ton Portuguese luxury cruise liner. Also known as Operation Dulcinea, the code name given it by its chief architect and "leader" Henrique Galvão, it was a rebel terrorist operation against the Government of Portugal. The action has also been referred to as piracy, although it does not fit the international definition of piracy involving an attack of one vessel on another for private ends.

On January 23, 1961, the ship had 600 passengers and 300 crew members. Among the passengers were men, women, children, and 24 Iberian leftists led by Portuguese military officer and politician Henrique Galvão.

Henrique Galvão was a Portuguese military officer and political foe of Portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar, the head of the Estado Novo regime. Galvão had carefully planned the hijacking with the intention of waging war until Salazar was overthrown in Portugal and the overseas territories were subsequently offered independence. He planned on using the hijacking as a way to bring attention to the Estado Novo in Portugal and the related fascist regime in Francoist Spain.

The rebels boarded the ship in La Guaira harbour (Venezuela) and in Curaçao, disguised as passengers, bringing aboard suitcases. The suitcases had secret compartments to hide their weapons. The rebels, along with Henrique Galvao, seized the ship, ceased all communication, and killed one officer (3rd Pilot Nascimento Costa) and wounded several others in the process of taking complete command over the ship. The rebels forced crew members, along with the captain of the ship, Mário Simões Maia, to take the ship on a different course.

The whereabouts of the ship remained unknown for several days, until a massive United States search effort by air and sea uncovered and communicated with it in Mid-Atlantic. Thereafter, a fleet of United States naval vessels, including not less than four destroyers (some of which contained USMC infantry belonging to "G" Company, 2nd Battalion of the 6th Marine Regiment out of Camp Lejeune, NC) under the command of Rear Admiral Allen E. Smith short-circuited Galvão's plans, when his forces surrounded the "Santa Maria" some fifty miles offshore of Recife, Brazil. The following day, Admiral Smith left his flag ship the USS Gearing and proceeded via launch to the "Santa Maria" to engage in negotiations with Galvão.

Because of an anticipated change of Presidencies in Brazil (the incoming President being more sympathetic to Galvão's political interests), it was not until the very next day that the Santa Maria, surrounded by United States naval vessels, entered the harbor of Recife. There, Galvão and his 24 leftist terrorists surrendered the Santa Maria, 600 passengers and crew of 300 to Brazilian authorities in exchange for political asylum.

Galvão later announced that his intentions were to sail to Angola, to set up a renegade Portuguese government in opposition to Salazar. Galvão's stories of these accounts were translated into English and into a book as Santa Maria: my crusade for Portugal (New York, 1961).

The Kama Bridge

This card sent to me by Elena shows a View of Kama river and bridge in Perm, Russia. Perm is a city and the administrative centre of Perm Krai, Russia, located on the banks of the Kama River in the European part of Russia near the Ural Mountains. From 1940 to 1957 it was named Molotov.

The Kama Bridge, is a bridge on the highway R239 near Soroch'i Gory settlement in Tatarstan, Russia. It is a part of the longest bridge structure in Russia if measured by the total length of elevated roadway. The structure with a total length of 13,967 m incorporates three bridges: over the Kama River(1,608 m), over the Arkharovka River (549.9 m) and over the Kurlyanka River (69.8 m).

The construction of the bridge structure began in 1992 and was completed on 18 October 2002, when it was officially opened by the President of Tatarstan. The bridge is a very important one, since it is a part of a major Kazan - Chistopol - Bugulma - Orenburg highway. The second stage of the structure is planned to be built at a later date.