Tongan Islands Canoe Mail Tin Can Mail Lot of two tin can-canoe mail covers from the Tongan Islands, c1940. Includes cachet covers, featuring cachets by Walt Geo Quensell, T.C.C.M.M. (Tin Can Canoe Mail Man), Tongan stamps and an array of postmarks, with some from Melbourne, Australia and the Tongan island of Niuafoou. A description of the letter delivery system, including latitude and longitude, is printed on one cover. According to Betty Billingham[x=#8217/]s history of the tin can mail, in 1882 the Tongan island of Niuafoou's sole white inhabitant, plantation manager William Travers, desperate to communicate with the outside world, petitioned the Tongan postal authorities to seal his mail in empty biscuit tins and have it dropped overboard by passing ships. The letters were to be sent on the TSS Maunganui, dropped overboard in tin cans off the island and returned by the next available ship. When the captain sounded the ship's siren, Travers would send a swimmer out to collect the tin and exchange it for outgoing mail. In 1921, Swimming Mailman CS Ramsay carried mail 112 times by himself till 1931. After 1927, German trader W. G. Quensell started to use his own cachet for Tin Can Mail. Est. $50-100 (Image)

Est. $50-100