Dear all,
This is my first post in this forum, so bear with me if I didn't put this in the right category
I am looking for some help with a few letters sent franco from Stockholm to the Hague in August/September 1853. Normally, these would have followed the overland route via Hannover, Minden, Hamm, Emmerich, Arnhem to the Hague, but for some reason (cholera outbreak?) they seem to have been sent by steamship from Hamburg to Amsterdam instead. Two of the letters have "G.F.Egidius" cancels on the back, indicating they were sent with the steamer "Willem de Eerste", which departed Hamburg on 5 September and arrived in Amsterdam on the 6th. The first letter was sent to Lübeck, as noted, with the steamer "Lübeck" on August 29. The second letter dated August 31 has an annotation indicating it should be sent by the steamer from Stockholm to Stettin. However, the letter must have been rerouted to Lübeck with the steamer "Gauthiod" on 1 September, since there were no Stettin departures between 30 August and 6 September from Stockholm. In that way, it seems both letters ended up together on Willem de Eerste, arriving in Amsterdam at the same time on 6 September. So far so good.
However, along the way, they have received postage due annotations in Dutch cents, and this is what I need to understand: The letters were prepaid to the Hague, so why the postage due? Does it have something to do with a steamship surcharge, in addition to the normal postage rate, or were the letters subject to additional Dutch domestic postage since they arrived by steamship and not by land?
The third letter is even more confusing. It arrived in Amsterday on 13 September, so two days too late for the Hamburg-Amsterdam steamer "Stoomvaart" which arrived in Amsterdam on the 11th, and it does not bear the "Egidius" cancel like the two others. On the other hand, it has a Dutch 10 cent stamp affixed and cancelled, overlapping a "franco" annotation underneath.
Does anyone have an idea what could have happened to these letters, and what the different annotations can mean?
Best regards, Kent