Hindenburg Crash Mail
- Col J Dutta &
Dr Anjali Dutta
Crashes of flights carrying airmail were a regular occurrence from the earliest days of mail transport by air. In many cases of aircraft crashes, train wrecks and shipwrecks, it was possible to recover some or even all of the mail being carried, with perhaps some charring around the edges of some pieces if there had been a fire, or water damage from flying crashes or shipwrecks. In such cases, the authorities typically apply a postal marking (cachet), label, or mimeograph that gets affixed to the cover explaining the delay and damage to the recipient, and possibly enclose the letter in an "ambulance cover" or "body bag" if it was badly damaged and then send it to its intended destination.
Aviation related crash covers are a specialized collecting area of aerophilately and are much-prized items of postal history, because they are generally rare; but as tangible artifacts of often-tragic accidents they have a story to tell.
LZ 129 Hindenburg (Luftschiff Zeppelin #129; Registration: D-LZ 129) was a large German commercial passenger-carrying rigid airship, the lead ship of the Hindenburg class, the longest class of flying machines and the largest airship by envelope volume. Designed and built by the Zeppelin Company (Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH) on the shores of the Bodensee (Lake Constance) in Friedrichshafen, the airship flew from March 1936. The German zeppelin Hindenburg made sixty-three flights, including ten roundtrips to the United States in 1936.
The Hindenburg disaster took place on Thursday, May 6, 1937. The German passenger airship caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station, which was located adjacent to the borough of Lakehurst, New Jersey. Of the 97 people on board (36 passengers, 61 crew), there were 35 fatalities, as well as one death among the ground crew. The disaster was the subject of spectacular newsreel coverage, photographs, and Herbert Morrison's recorded radio eyewitness report from the landing field, which was broadcast the next day. The actual cause of the fire remains unknown. Although a variety of hypotheses have been put forward for the cause of ignition of the fuel that resulted in the fire, the prevailing theory is that a discharge of electricity from the storm that evening ignited some leaking hydrogen. The incident shattered public confidence in the giant, passenger-carrying rigid airship and marked the end of the airship era.
Largely intact cover with scorched edges, bearing four singles of Germany 75pf Air Post stamps, cancelled on board and tied by bold purple "Deutsche Luftpost Europa-Nordamerika Luftschiff Hindenburg 5.5.1937" double-circle date stamp and addressed to Mexico. Sold for $15,000 at Robert A Siegel Action 2007.
All Covers : 1937 Hindenburg Crash Covers
Postal officials salvaged approximately 367 pieces from the 17,609 estimated pieces of mail on the flight. Of these, 176 salvaged items were unburned (with a few exceptions) because they were stored in a protective, sealed pouch awaiting postal service on the return flight, and they later received a paquebot postmark. Several other varieties of Hindenburg crash mail exist from the final flight, including mail dropped over the city of Cologne in Germany, mail posted onboard (two cancel types) by passengers and crew, mail transmitted from other countries (Danzig, Netherlands, Austria, and Switzerland), mail found in the wreckage after the postal inspectors left, and mail intended for the return flight.
Forgeries exist. There has been a number of fake/counterfeit Hindenburg crash covers on the market recently. A recent one was listed on eBay. It was pointed out to the seller that the cover is a fake, for the following reasons. The burning/singing is across the front and back of the cover, which is the same for most fakes. Genuine covers are normally burned only around the edges as the covers were tied in bundles, thus only the edges were burned. The cover is addressed to Mrs. J.C. Dolan, 734 Kenesaw Terrace, Chicago, Illinois. The address on the fake cover is typed. Mr. Dolan was a passenger onboard the ill-fated airship, and there is a genuine card he sent to his wife. Dolan normally hand wrote the addresses, and he used cards - not envelopes. The name Curtis Dolan is seen in the upper left corner of the fake. cover. His name was actually Burtis Dolan, which the forger wasn't aware of.
Salvaged paquebot cover from the Hindenburg crash without any burning traces
