Finland - Suomen Joutsen

Suomen Joutsen (Swan of Finland in English) (former names are Laënnec, Oldenburg) is a three-mast, steel hull, full rigged ship. She was built in 1902 in St. Nazaire, France to serve in the trade between Atlantic and Pacific ports. In 1930 she was bought by the Government of Finland to serve as Finnish Navy training ship. Before World War II she made eight long ocean voyages. From 1956 she was a stationary Seamen's School for the Finnish Merchant Navy. Since 1991, she has been a museum ship owned by City of Turku, Finland. This nice maxi card was sent to me by Sointu.

Waiting for One's Ship

That's Your's Truly waiting for his Ship to come home !!! Thank you Ella.

Lithuania – Light Houses at Uostadvaris and Pervalka

Uostadvaris village is situated 5 kilometers from Rusnė, on the left riverbank of Atmata River, in the island of Rusnė. It is a part of Nemunas estuary Regional Park. In 1907 the water-lifting station was built here. It is a steam turbine, which absorbs the water excess from grasslands and pours it to Nemunas River. There are a lighthouse (shown on the Left of the display) and a polder museum in Uostadvaris. Lighthouse is no longer used for navigation, but now it is the best place to view the panorama of Uostadvaris. 

The Lighthouse at Pervalka is also known as the Lighthouse of  horses. It was built in 1900, in the Curonian Gulf near Pervalka. The lighthouse has bee rebuilt twice. Now, it operates automatically, and hence the lighthouse keepers come to check it only occasionally. This is the only lighthouse in the Curonian Lagoon that is not built on land, but, on an artificial island.

These two maxi cards were sent to me by good friend Raimonda. The stamps on the cover in which she sent me these cards is also displayed. Aren’t they lovely, these stamps?

Finland - Tammio

This is a painting of a model of a fishing vessel from Tammio off the South Coast of Finland. The artist Erkki Sandberg is an old friend of My friend Merja who sent me this card.

Australia - Wollongong Head Lighthouses

Wollongong Harbour is the only point on the eastern coast of Australia which has two lighthouses at a lovely seaside town called Shell harbour, which is about an hour and a half’s drive South of Sydney on the East coast of Australia Located on Flagstaff Point the newer lighthouse on Wollongong Head assists the passage of vessels into Port Kembla.  Completed in 1936, by the Department of Shipping and Transport, it was the first new lighthouse in New South Wales since 1903. The tower is constructed of reinforced concrete and replaced several earlier lights.  It was built to service as a coastal light and Port Kembla, to the south of Flagstaff Point. Up until now the only aid had been the old Wollongong Breakwater Lighthouse situated on the Belmore Basin to the north. The lighthouse was built in 1871, is situated in the Belmore Basin on the southern breakwater The Breakwater light was discontinued in 1974. This card was sent to me by Emma.

Greenland

A train of huskies across the icy wastes of Greenland. This excellent maxicard was sent to me Ella.

Åland – Lighthouse at Market

Märket is a small 3.3 hectares (8.2 acres) uninhabited skerry in the Baltic Sea between Sweden and FinlandÅland Islands), (in the area of the autonomous which has been divided between two sovereignties since the Treaty of Fredrikshamn of 1809, and is in urgent need of maintenance, and a Finnish interest group is trying to raise funds for its preservation. The lighthouse has been automatic since 1979 and the surrounding buildings are no longer used. The increasing general availability of GPS has made its primary function redundant. Russia and then Finland operated the lighthouse in Swedish territory. In 1981, Sweden and Finland signed a treaty in which the ground under the lighthouse was transferred to Finland in return for an equal area of land in the Finnish half. As a result, the border now snakes across the tiny island in an intricate inverted-S curve, and the lighthouse is finally in Finland. defined the border between Sweden and Russian Empire as going through the middle of the island. The westernmost land point of Finland is on Märket. The Finnish side of the island is part of the Municipality of Hammarland. The Swedish part of island is itself divided by two counties of Sweden - Uppsala County (Östhammar Municipality) and Stockholm County (Norrtälje Municipality).The lighthouse on the card shown in the picture was sent to me by Merja