Mauritania 1938 - Camels

The Sahara Desert constitutes almost 90% of its landmass. Camels are a typical mode of transport. And camel milk is offered to household guests. So where does one go for a camel ride in the desert or partake of some tasty of camel milk? The answer is Mauritania, more formerly known as Islamic Republic of Mauritania. Mauritania is located in West Africa. It is bordered by five other African countries as well as the Atlantic Ocean.

As I mentioned above, camels play an important role in Mauritanian daily life. The species of camel found in Mauritania, and indeed other areas of Africa, is the one-humped dromedary (C. dromedarius). Of the three known species of camel in the world, the dromedary is the most common. In Mauritania, camels are used for transport and they provide all important calcium in the diets of the locals in the form of milk and cheese. And even camel milk chocolate is now being produced!

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Between 1938-1940, the Institut de Gravure issued a set of 34 definitive stamps for use in Mauritania. The set consisted four design types, one of which was engraved by Albert Decaris. This particular design features Mauritanian locals and their camels, and it was issued in seven different values. If you're a regular to my blogs, you will know that I like to collect and feature all values issued. I very much enjoy studying the effects different colours have on a design. Anywho, enough talk! Let's get to the images of this great design.

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It is worth noting that the 40c & 45c values were issued in 1940. Which value colour is your favourite? For me it is the 50c purple stamp.

Until next time...

Monaco 1978 - 150th Anniversary of the Birth of Jules Verne (Part 2)

"A man of merit owes himself to the homage of the rest of mankind who recognize his worth."
—Jules Verne

Strange lights spotted in the night sky the world over. Haunting trumpet sounds that accompany these sightings. Add to this the mysterious appearance of black flags worked with golden suns atop many of the world's most famous monuments, including The Great Pyramid, The Effiel Tower, and The Statue of Liberty. What could all this weirdness be? Aliens with a twisted sense of humour? Not this time. This quirky behaviour is the work of none other than Robur, a brilliant inventor and the main character in Jules Verne's 1886 novel, Robur the Conqueror. 

This blog is the second part in a series focusing on the 150th Anniversary of the Birth of Jules Verne stamp set, issued by Monaco on 2 May 1978. To check out Part 1, click HERE. This beautiful set of eight stamps was designed and engraved by Pierre Forget. One of the stamps in this set features a key scene from the novel Robur the Conqueror.

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The story-line of this novel is rather intriguing considering its year of publication. The central theme of the novel is the argument over the feasibility of heavier-than-air versus lighter-than-air flying craft. But before we go any further with the description of the novel, let's have a look at a bit of history. Since the invention of the hot air balloon in 1783 by Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier in France, inventors had been wracking their brains trying to find a way to successfully propel and steer these craft contrary to wind conditions. In other words, wrest the steering wheel from Mother Nature. For nearly 100 years this seemed an impossible task (Mother Nature had a tight grip on the wheel!). Then in 1886 Gottlieb Daimler created a light-weight gasoline engine suitable for lighter than-air-craft. This engine led Count Zeppelin of Germany to develop a solid-frame craft covered in fabric, powered by two 16 hp Daimler engines. This craft was 416 feet long. This craft, known as the LZ 1, flew successfully for a full 18 minutes in July 1900. It was the first ever airship or "blimp" as we now call such a craft. 

So it was in this early environment of inventors pulling their hair out, searching for controllable lighter-than-air flying craft that Jules Verne's novel is set. In the story, the main character, Robur, is trying to convince the movers and shakers of the Weldon Institute, a flight enthusiasts group in Philadelphia, that lighter-than-air flight is a thing of the past. Robur argues with them that heavier-than-air flying craft is the way of the future - and he has proof! Robur boasts that the strange lights are his new aircraft and that it was he who placed the black flags the the famous monuments. The Weldon guys basically consider him a crackpot and laugh at him.

The arrogant Robur then decides, perhaps rashly, to kidnap the Weldon Institute's secretary, president, and the president's valet, and takes them aboard his new flying machine. Robur calls this machine the Albatross. He explains that it is a multi-rotor gyrodyne with many horizontally-set airscrews to provide lift and two vertically-set airscrews to drive the vessel forward and to provide control. Oh, and the whole apparatus is battery powered! Like a lot of early sci-fi writers, Jules Verne had a rather scarily accurate insight into future technology.

To cut a long story short, the Weldon guys didn't particularly like being kidnapped. Surprise, surprise! And they are ridiculously jealous of this new technology. It far surpasses anything they have designed. In order to exact some Victorian gentlemanly revenge and remove the competition, they decide to blow the ship up and make their escape. Believing this flying craft destroyed, the Weldon Institute wait a few months, then unveil their own new lighter-than-air craft, which is basically a hot air balloon with a small motor (a forerunner to the Zeppelin). They call it Go-Ahead. They launch it and start wowing the crowds with its capabilities.

Unbeknownst to the Weldon guys, Robur has secretly built a second Albatross using parts recovered from the wreck. He appears out of nowhere with his new ship and starts showing the crowds just how much better his craft is by literally running rings around the Go-Ahead. During the competition the two flying craft go higher and higher. Then disaster struck for the Go-Ahead. Its gas bags, unable to handle the altitude, rumble, quiver, and... EXPLODE!  Robur rescues the crew of Go-Ahead.

In one final display of arrogance, Robur then tells the crowds that the world is not ready for his technology yet. And he promptly flies his vessel off into the sunset.

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Now let's look at Pierre Forget's artist impression of the battle in the sky between the two vastly different flying craft. It is stunning work, in my humble opinion. I love Forget's depiction of the moving airscrews. And the great use of red to represent the sense of height and the imminent mortal danger faced by those in the hot air balloon.

Until next time...

France 1956 - Battle of Verdun

Human history has been witness to some of the most brutal acts of violence. Violence on a scale incomprehensible to imagine. Perhaps one of the most blood-soaked periods of our history was World War I, a war that claimed over 41 million souls. Staggering! And the worst of the battles in this time of mass slaughter was the Battle of Verdun.

World War I was the embodiment of a new age of warfare. New weapons of war such as the howitzer, the mightiest of these being Big Bertha, which could reign destruction on a enemy target up to 9 km away. It was also the dawn of the flying aces of aerial warfare. Who hasn't heard of the legendary Red Baron? Destruction also now came from underwater in the form of submarines, such as the classic German U-boats. And although chemical warfare had been around for a very long time, World War I saw the first mass use of such diabolical weaponry. Chemical agents such as tear gas, and more lethal agents like phosgene, chlorine, and mustard gas were being employed in an attempt to smoke enemies from entrenched areas.

Which leads us to the birth of an horrendous age, the age of Trench Warfare. The most famous arena for Trench Warfare in World War I was the Western Front, a vast area of land riddled with complex networks of trenches, an area where millions of French and Germany soldiers died for little or no gain in territory. Soldiers lived in appalling conditions, before, like lambs to the slaughter, they went 'over the top' of the trench to be mowed down by enemy artillery. It was a ludicrous method of warfare where soldiers died seemingly at the whim of their commanding officers, who, for want of anything better to do, ordered charge after charge. The British public referred to their soldiers as "lions led by donkeys". Indeed, on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the British lost 60,000 men - a death toll difficult to comprehend.

The longest battle in the trenches was the Battle of Verdun from 21 February to 18 December 1916. I shall not belittle the sheer horror and complexity of this battle by trying to summarise it here. Instead, I will throw a few statistics your way. The Battle of Verdun was fought between French and German soldiers. It raged for 303 brutal days, and is considered one of the most costly battles in human history. It is currently believed that the total number of casualties in the battle amounted to 714,231. 377,231 of these were French and 337,000 German. Averaging out these staggering numbers we get roughly 70,000 casualties a month or over 2,300 a day! I can't even begin to imagine! For an in-depth analysis of the battle click HERE

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On 5 March 1956 France issued a stamp commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the Battle of Verdun. Albert Decaris was given the honour of designing and engraving this important stamp. I think he did a beautiful job with this difficult task.

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Over time, quite naturally, French Post have issued stamps commemorating this battle, all of which have been beautifully rendered. In fact, I believe there to be an interesting blog on that subject on the horizon. But for now, take a look at this page to peruse more Battle of Verdun stamps, click HERE

Until next time...

Monaco 1978 - 150th Anniversary of the Birth of Jules Verne (Part 1)

 "It is certain that the inanimate objects by which you are surrounded have a direct action on the brain."

—Jules Verne

The inanimate objects currently surrounding me just happen to be stamps, stamps celebrating the sesquicentennial of the French sci-fi novelist, Jules Verne (for more on M. Verne click HERE). And I have to say these wonderful engraved stamps are definitely having a direct action on my brain - a very positive one. This set was issued on 2 May 1978 in Monaco, 150 years after the birth of Jules Verne on 8 February 1828 in Nantes, France. This set is quite a large one, consisting 8 stamps, all of which were designed and engraved by Pierre Forget. For the sake of brevity, I will study the first three stamps in the set in this blog. These three stamps focus on the novel, L'Île mystérieuse (The Mysterious Island). 

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The Mysterious Island is a novel set during the Siege of Richmond at the end of the American Civil War in 1865. Five Union soldiers, who are being held as prisoners of war, decide to escape their confinement by hijacking a balloon. Stealthy! Unfortunately for the escapees, the weather is in rather a bad mood. After travelling for some distance over the Pacific Ocean, a storm grabs the balloon and tosses it to ground on a strange uncharted island in the South Pacific. This balloon crash is the subject of the first stamp.

Lucky to be alive, the survivors call their savior 'Lincoln Island' in honour of President Lincoln. Thankfully for the castaways, one of their number happens to be a brilliant engineer (shades of the Professor in Gilligan's Island here!). The engineer, called Smith, managed to produce fire, pottery, bricks, nitroglycerin, iron, a simple electric telegraph. And if that wasn't enough, he designed for them a home on one of the island's cliffs. They called it 'Granite House'. Taking this ridiculous fantasy world even further, they built a seaworthy ship!

As the castaways settle into life on the island - which is starting to sound pretty luxurious to me - a series of strange mysteries begin to unfold. It seems the men have an anonymous benefactor who helps them along with gifts such as weapons and ammunition. And their dog 'Top' is rscued in the water from a dugong by an unseen hand. Just who or what is this deus ex machina (god from the machine)?

Then one day they find a message in a bottle directing them to rescue a castaway on nearby Tabor Island. The group rescue the man, who turns out to be Tom Ayrton, a character from another Verne story In Search of the Castaways. This man was once a crew member on a pirate ship! On their way home they are struggling to find their island in a sudden storm when the mysterious benefactor strikes again. A signal fire has been lit to guide them home.

Things then go rather crazy when the pirate ship also finds the island. After the pirates unsuccessfully attempt to take Granite House their ship suddenly blows up! This brings us to the next stamp. Note the strange silhouette in the water beneath the ship. This is a clue as to the identity of the benefactor.

Rather annoyed with the destruction of their ship, the surviving pirates kidnap Tom Ayrton. Our castaways try to get Aryton back, but one of them,. Harber, is shot, seriously wounding him. He survives, but he's so weak that he contracts malaria. Enter the benefactor again. He leaves a box of quinine sulphate, which saves Haber.

After Harbert recovers, they set out again to rescue Ayrton and destroy the pirates once and for all. When they discover Ayrton he is alive and well, and the pirates are all dead, without any visible wounds. Suddenly, a figure emerges in a strange helmet...

The figure is the mysteriois benefactor in the flesh. He removes his helmet, revealing himself to be none other than... Captain Nemo! After his adventures in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Nemo has sailed his Nautilus (the strange silhouette under the water in the last two stamps) to the island to live in isolation (an idea that didn't work out all that well).

Until next time...