China to Germany
July 4, 1902
Today in Postal History
This picture postcard was datelined Shanghai
4 Juli 1902.
It is franked with the 1901 10pf carmine Germania overprinted China
(Scott 26).
The postmark is a “Deutsch Seepost-Ost Asiatische Linie b.”
The postcard was posted aboard a ship
operating route b rather than ashore.
The destination was Frankfurt.
There are no transit or receiver markings.
The Nord-deutscher
Lloyd of Bremen began service to Singapore and
China
via Aden, Colombo, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Shanghai.
By 1900 the service was extended to Japan.
This line operated German mail ships which plied routes
in the Far East
and to Europe via the Suez Canal.
The card has illustrations on both sides.
The embossed soldier on the front illustrates the uniform of the German
soldier in the Chinese Expeditionary Force at the time of the Boxer
Rebellion.
The illustration on the message side is of what appears to
be a naval monument in Shanghai.
Helmut Karlbach from Lübeck has kindly provided a
translation of this card.
He starts by saying that the script is Sütterlin,
one of several varieties of German script.*
He provided this guide
to the various German scripts.
| German
Text |
English
Translation |
| Frl.
Elise Jäger |
Miss
Elise Jäger (Frl., an abbreviation for Fraülein, meaning miss, unmarried lady, a use which is no longer politically correct) |
| wohlgeboren |
(this
is an old German word without an English equivalent - part of the
formal salutation of Miss Jäger. It suggests
that she was respected, venerated, revered, honored, and admired.) |
| in
Frankfurt a/M |
in
Frankfurt on Main |
| Weilburgerstraße
24 |
(not
sure if this is correct) |
| Germany |
Germany |
| Shanghai
den 4.Juli 1902 |
Shanghai
on 4 July 1902 |
| Meine
liebe Elise! |
My dear
Elise! |
| Gegenwärtig
befinde ich
mich im Hafen von Shanghai und fahren morgen weiter. |
I am in the port of Shanghai and drive on tomorrow. |
| Am 19. August treffen wir in Bremerhafen ein. | On 19 August we arrive in Bremerhaven. (He wrote Bremerhaven wrong, perhaps because he was not a Northern German or he means Bremen Hafen, but written in one word is nonsense) |
| Komme
mit dem Schiff Prinz
Heinrich |
Come
with the ship Prince
Heinrich (a Nord-deutcher Lloyd steamship of 6,263 tons built in
1895) |
| ?.?.?.?.?.?.?
|
(sorry,
I cannot read) |
| Verbleibe
mit herzl. Gruß |
Remain
with cordial greeting |
Clearly, the writer was touring aboard the Prinz Heinrich and the card was
mailed aboard.
Helmut also notes that it is unusual that
there is no receiving mark from the card's arrival in Germany.
*Helmut Karlbach earns a special thank you for this
translation.
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