ScottV Stamps

From a collection of covers from the far north of Canada, here is one from 1971: Fort Providence NWT, visit by ship M.V.Norweta.  No marks on backside.  Signed by the captain at bottom left and someone else at top left.   Again, there is nothing fancy about the cover and the stamp is common.  It's not super old, but it clearly has a story.  It has a fine cachet of a ship working in a very remote part of the world.  You should check out this ship on nauticapedia : a great set of personal stories have been collected there. The ship was launched in 1971 and the cover is from that first year.  The ship's name came from a nationwide contest among school children.  There is a quote from the winning student, who apparently got to ride the ship.  There are notes from crewmembers later in the ship's life, describing alterations for different types of service in different areas of northern Canada. Check out this very detailed trip log from 2007 : "NORT...

I bought a stack of covers from the far north of Canada at the San Diego Stamp Show a few weeks ago. Here is one from 1988: Fort Smith NWT, this commemorated one of the members of the Soviet-Canadian Ski Trek, which was a big deal at the time.  Signed by the expedition member Laurie Dexter, the one being commemorated here. It is not especially pretty, though the polar bear cachet with signature does stand out.  The stamp is common, and the postmarks are not small town rarities.  But it felt like there was a story here. I'm always curious about the details of some of the events and places shown on covers.  I have an eye for picking out some point of interest among the thousands of covers I flip through.  In this case, it turned out that this Ski Trek was a major event, with position updates, satellites tracking their location, announcements to school students in many countries, and even words of encouragement along the way by Gorbahev and the Prime Minister of Ca...