Brunel's SS Great Britain

SS Great Britain is a museum ship and former passenger steamship, advanced for her time. She was the longest passenger ship in the world from 1845 to 1854. She was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the Great Western Steamship Company's transatlantic service between Bristol and New York. While other ships had been built of iron or equipped with a screw propeller, Great Britain was the first to combine these features in a large ocean-going ship. She was the first iron steamer to cross the Atlantic, which she did in 1845, in the time of 14 days.

When launched in 1843, Great Britain was by far the largest vessel afloat. However, her protracted construction and high cost had left her owners in a difficult financial position, and they were forced out of business in 1846 after the ship was stranded by a navigational error.

Sold for salvage and repaired, Great Britain carried thousands of immigrants to Australia until converted to sail in 1881. Three years later, she was retired to the Falkland Islands where she was used as a warehouse, quarantine ship and coal hulk until scuttled in 1937. A sad end indeed for a wonderful ship.

In 1970, Great Britain was returned to the Bristol dry dock where she was built. Now listed as part of the National Historic Fleet, she is an award-winning visitor attraction (my friend Rachel can vouch for that) and museum ship in Bristol Harbour, with 150,000–170,000 visitors annually.

Thank you Rachel for these two lovely cards.

Golden Age of Aland Music

The Aland Postal Service has issued three nice cards named "Golden Age of Aland Music" on the 25th of August 2014. These cards featured three of the most popular Aland bands during the 1960s. They were the Anacondas, the Hitch Hikers and the Stockdoves. 

During some groovy years in the middle of the 1960s, dances were arranged in the Åland

community centres on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays and, sometimes, even on Sundays.

The bands Anacondas, Hitch Hikers and Stockdoves took pop music of the world to Åland and Finland. 

The 1960s was the decade when pop music took Åland by storm. The range of music in the early 1960s had more or less consisted of music performed on accordion, upright bass and guitar for the traditional dances hambo, schottische and foxtrot. But the winds changed and, inspired by bands such as The Shadows, The Spotnicks and The Violents, the Åland barbed-wire band The Anacondas was formed in 1962.
“We played in community centres up to four times a week,” Karl-Erik “Kille” Williams, clarinet and guitar player in Anacondas, accounts.

The Åland music was even exported, performing on Finnish as well as on Swedish television. Perhaps the Hitch Hikers was the band that ventured most and the band members succeeded in earning their living as band members for a few years. “At least, we made a serious attempt.  If we succeeded is another question,” organ player Håkan Rikberg laughs.
They toured in Turku and Helsinki, making detours to Ostrobothnia. Once, they performed on the same television program as Sonny & Cher. Håkan Rikberg remembers the Hitch Hikers’ tour bus, a rickety minibus, which the police did not like. It had messages and expressions of affections from loyal fans from around the country scribbled all over it. The turnover of band members was considerable. Håkan Rikberg and Kille Williams both appeared in various line-upps with the majority of Åland bands. And they did become well known.  “In an Åland perspective, we were rather popular, I do believe. Where we played, everybody wanted to be,” Kille Williams says.

Thank you Ella.

The Royal Netherlands Marechaussee (RNLM)

The ship shown on this card belongs to the Royal Military Police of Netherlands. This nice card was sent to me by Stella.

The Royal Netherlands Marechaussee (RNLM) is a gendarmerie corps, i.e. a police corps with military status. Marechaussee personnel are both military and police personnel. The Royal Netherlands Marechaussee is deployable in all situations at home and abroad in the interests of security, especially when the going gets tough. The RNLM is deployed to areas of strategic importance, from palaces and airports in the Netherlands to Europe’s external borders, as well as to conflict areas and theatres of war anywhere in the world. Within the Netherlands Defence organisation, the RNLM also functions as a military police force.

Famous Russians

Julia sent me this card with photos of famous Russians.

Braslau Lakes

Braslau Lakes is one of the four national parks in Belarus. The National Park was set up in September 1995. It is a unique ecosystem with a number of lakes and a large area of pine forests. It has a total area of about 700 km² (270 square miles). This includes 30 lakes. Three largest lakes are Dryvyaty (fifth largest in the country),  Snudy (ninth largest in the country) and Strusta (sixteenth largest in the country).

The territory of the National Park is separate and is in the Braslaw Raion in the northwest of Belarus, near the border with Lithuania. In the north it is adjacent to Belarusian-Latvian border. The park is elongated from southwest to northeast. In this direction it is 55 km (34 miles) long and between 5 km and 29 km (3 to 18 miles) wide. The total area of the park is 69,100 hectares or about 270 square miles. The southern part of the park consists of lowlands covered with forests. Much of the area is occupied by different types of bogs. There are several beautiful forest lakes, including Boginskoye - considered to be one of the most beautiful in the Braslav area. The forests here belong to coniferous-deciduous group, and occupy 31,000 hectares (120 square miles). One can distinguish the following woodlands: Borunsky, Belmont,  Boguinsky,  Druiskaya Dacha. Pine woods and fir woods are widespread.

There is a network of 30 connected large and small lakes, spread over an area of 114 km² (44 square miles). The biggest lakes are Drivyaty, Snudy, Strusto, Voiso, Volosovo, Nedrovo, Nespish, and Berezhe. This group of lakes makes up the core of the Braslav Lakes National Park.

Of the rare species listed in the Belarusian Red Book, the area is the home of the badger, lynx, brown bear, and swan. The swan was almost extinct in this area but now inhabits the Braslav lakes. Other native species include the black stork, common crane, silver seagull, willow grouse, and dunlin. The lakes of Braslav are rich with different kinds of fish. Pike perch, bream, whitebait, tench, whitefish are widespread. Eel is of special value. Also widespread are boar, roe deer, squirrel, brown and white hare, fox, raccoon, wolf, marten, otter, and mink.

Thank you Dear Oksana for this lovely card.

Pineapples in Ciskei

The Pineapple, ananas comosus, was introduced in Southern Africa from Java in about 1660. It is a delicious fruit with a distinctive flavour and a decorative appearance. The cultivation of the plant requires a sub-tropical climate, well-drained sub-soil, regular fertilising and efficient weed control. The Peddie area is Ciskei’s most important pineapple producing region.

The postmark is very appropriately from Peddie a major pineapple producing district. The 8c stamp depicts Spraying of the pineapple fields. Mobile boom sprayers were used for the application of herbicides, fungicides and insecticides, as well as fertilisers and growth regulators.

The pineapple fruit consists of more than 100 small coalescent berry like fruit on a central axis. It is cone shaped and owes its name to its superficial resemblance to a pine-cone. Pineapple production in Ciskei is mainly concentrated on the large, juicy Cayenne variety, which were then sent to the canneries and juice factories in the Eastern Cape. Pineapples are packed in cartons for the local fresh fruit market. They are much in demand for their flavour, as well for the valuable vitamins, minerals and fruit-sugar they contain.

Thank you Maria.

Powerlifter Kenneth ”Kenta” Sandvik

One of Åland’s largest export items, physically speaking, powerlifter Kenta Sandvik, now adorns an Åland stamp for the first time. Photographer Daniel Eriksson tagged along to the gym, Kenta’s home turf. 

About 20 years ago, Kenneth ”Kenta” Sandvik first slunk into the gym behind a friend who was more comfortable in the gym. Today, he competes in 8 to 10 competitions every year. He has seven world and six European championship medals on his shelf and has a place in the International Powerlifting Federations Hall of Fame. 

“I began to compete to stay motivated. And I aimed at not always ending up last,” Kenta Sandvik says. 

He has now been competing since 2001. At close to 40, he sees no reason to scale down or put down his barbells.

“I still find it stimulating and I enjoy the strong sense of fellowship in our club. The only thing that could make me want to quit is if I hurt myself or lose the incentive.” 

For the sake of the anecdote, we should let you know that Kenta Sandvik works for Åland Post. Therefore, we are likely to have the strongest mail carrier in the world working for us. 

Thank you Ella.