Maryland on Stamps & Covers
First Flight Baltimore/Bermuda
Richard D. L. Fulton
A special cover was issued to commemorate the first transatlantic airmail flight from Baltimore, Maryland to Bermuda on March 16, 1938.
United States stamps used on these covers were variable. On the example provided with this article, the sender posted an eight-cent, winged globe airmail stamp with a two-cent stamp, part of a set of stamps issued in 1937, commemorating Army and Navy heroes, featuring depictions of the commodores’ Maryland-born. Stephen Decatur, (commander of the U.S.S. United States) and Thomas Macdonough (commander of the U.S.S. Saratoga), both having served in the War of 1812, along with a depiction of the U.S.S. Saratoga.
Covers of the flight were canceled in both Baltimore, and on the reverse side of the envelope, in Hamilton, Bermuda.
This first flight occurred on a route referred to as “FAM 17.” FAM is the USPS acronym for Foreign Air Mail. FAM 17 was established as an international route that connected Baltimore to Hamilton, Bermuda, and was inaugurated on March 16, 1938, the date of the commemorative cover.
The inaugural covers, such as the one depicted with this article, were carried aboard a Sikorsky S-42 four-engine airplane, equipped with pontoons in order to both take off and land on water. The Sikorsky S-42, and other similar aircraft, were often referred to as seaplanes and flying boats.
The USPS began to “job out” flights to commercial enterprises (which no doubt relieved the USPS from having to acquire and maintain their own fleets of mail planes). The Sikorsky S-42 flying the first airmails from Baltimore to Bermuda was flown under a contract with Pan American World Airways and piloted by First Officer Robert Oliver Daniel (“Rod”) Sullivan, according to Aerodacious’ website (aerodacious.com).
Pan American World Airways air mail flights from Baltimore to Bermuda were initiated at a seaplane facility developed by Pan American in 1932, at a site being developed at the Baltimore Municipal Airport on an artificial peninsula created, employing from dredged harbor silt. (The area involved is now referred to as the Dundalk Marine Terminal facility).
In 1937, the result of a compact agreement between Pan American and Imperial Airlines (a consolidation approved by the USPS), consisted of Imperial also beginning to use the Baltimore seaplane facility.
Some websites claim that Imperial Airlines began flights to Bermuda out of Baltimore in 1937, but two pieces of evidence suggest otherwise. The agreement between Pan American and Imperial involved Imperial only delivering mail from New York to Baltimore, after which Pan American would then deliver the mail from Baltimore to Bermuda. The only Imperial first flight covers dated 1937 found by this writer had been commemorated an Imperial first flight that occurred FROM Bermuda to Baltimore and New York on June 15, 1937.
The Hamilton Harbour in Bermuda became a destination of transatlantic airmail seaplanes in the 1930s for planes heading to more-northernly flights as a layover point during the winter months, while they waited for northern harbors that had become frozen-over to thaw.
The USPS established the airmail service in 1918, utilizing mostly retired bi-wing World War I combat aircraft, such as Curtis JN (“Jenny”) trainers and fighters, and modified DeHavilland DH-4 dive bombers. As a result, many of the first airmail pilots had served as fighter pilots in World War I.
The planes were inherently dangerous to fly, resulting in 31 of the first 40 pilots employed having been killed in crashes. By 1936, 35 pilots had died while flying the mail. During 1927, the number had risen to an estimated 55, resulting in the pilots of the nineteen-teens and 1920s as having been dubbed “the suicide club,” according to the United States Postal Museum.
The USPS issued its first airmail stamps in 1918, with the last airmail stamp having been issued in 1977, for domestic airmail—since most first-class mail was, by then, being flown anyway—and in 2012, for all other airmail services.
First Baltimore-Bermuda Airmail Flight cover. Source: Collection of Richard D. L. Fulton
