Guide
Ship Letter Markings of India
Before regular steamer services were established, most mail between India and Britain travelled by private sailing ship. The port offices at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras applied distinctive Ship Letter markings to these letters — stamps that record the maritime postal history of the subcontinent.
Ship Despatch and Ship Receipt
In the Giles catalogue, Ship Letter markings are divided into two categories:
- Ship Despatch (SD) — applied to letters being sent outward by ship from an Indian port. These marks were struck at the port of departure.
- Ship Receipt (SR) — applied to letters arriving by ship at an Indian port. These marks were struck at the port of arrival.
Each port office had its own SD and SR handstamps, numbered in sequence in the Giles catalogue (e.g. Madras SD 1, Bombay SR 2).
The three great ports
- Calcutta — the principal port for mail to and from Britain via the Cape of Good Hope. Calcutta Ship Letter stamps are among the earliest Indian maritime postal markings.
- Bombay — the embarkation point for the faster overland route via Suez and the Red Sea, pioneered by the forwarding agent Thomas Fletcher Waghorn. Bombay’s Ship Letter markings became increasingly important as the overland route overtook the Cape route in the 1830s and 1840s.
- Madras — handling mail for the Coromandel Coast and trans-Bay shipping to Southeast Asia.
Forwarding agents and private ships
Before official mail packets were established, much of the overseas correspondence was carried privately by ship captains or entrusted to forwarding agents — commercial firms that arranged the onward transmission of letters. These agents applied their own handstamps, which are catalogued separately from the post office Ship Letter marks.