It is hard to understand why the history of the New Hebrides has not thrown up many items of wreck mail. In the last century, hundreds of thousands of items of civil mail have been carried by many small craft around the islands, from mission boats to government vessels to private ships from lines such as Burns Philp and Messageries Maritimes. Of those ships, many have been lost in hurricanes, on reefs and through neglect. Aircraft accidents have also been known, including the loss of a civilain flying boat in Vila Harbour in the 1950s, Paul Burton's Dragon Rapide in the late 1960's and the crash of Pierre Suchet's Air Melanesie Britten Norman Islander in 1974, both of these last crashes occuring on Tanna.
Added to this background is the Second World War, with huge amounts of military mail being carried in the hazardous climate of wartime. It is surprising that there has not been a steady flow of damaged covers on the market. Only one other piece, other than the one illustrated here, is recorded.
Perhaps most curious is the absence of damaged mail (or any mail at all) from the famous President Coolidge which struck a friendly mine while entering Segond Channel at Santo on 25 October 1942. Was it all saved intact - and thus bears no special markings? Was it all lost? Stan Jersey records (p 135) that she had 1,500 bags of mail on board, bound for the troops on Santo. It is hard to imagine that all of it could have been unloaded, notwithstanding that the Coolidge was briefly beached before being reversed back out to sea where she sank. But at least some of it should have been offloaded, particularly the registered mail. Do any readers know what happened?
