underwater bermuda photosphere google maps

However, there is an interesting twist to the story. By then people all over the world had far more urgent matters to attend to. The Sea Floor post office faded into oblivion in the early 1940’s. Why and how this cover ended up on a dealer’s table in far away Sweden is anyone’s guess but stamps and covers do tend to get around.

Villard at the Department of State in Washington, DC. The cover was mailed by Grace Williamson at the US consulate in Nassau to Henry S. The cachet depicts the Williamson Photosphere.The cover also has a straight-line cachet indicating that it was “Posted in the Williamson Photosphere”. All are neatly cancelled by the Sea Floor Bahamas dated postmark. Now returning to my cover it is probably overpaid as it has a complete set of the 1937 Coronation issue along with the above-mentioned 4d Sea Garden stamp. The same pictures were used again in 1966 and in 1967 on new definitive stamps in connection with the change to decimal currency. Williamson’s photosphere and the 1939 Sea Floor post office are depicted on the five-shilling denomination. The 1 shilling value once again depicted the sea garden. In 1965, the Bahamas issued a long set of definitives. After abdicating from the British throne to marry the woman he loved, the ex-king served as governor of the Bahamas for a few years. It is known that the Duke of Windsor paid a visit to the photosphere. Williamson had quite a few famous visitors to his underwater chamber. It really must have increased the volume of mail from the Bahamas. The philatelic press of the day wrote about the Sea Floor post office and collectors all over the world ordered covers. This undoubtedly was an excellent way of creating publicity for the expedition. This was basically a scientific expedition but it also marked to creation of the Sea Floor post office. In 1939, the Bahamas-Williamson Undersea Expedition to film underwater was started. This very same stamp was then used to frank many of the covers posted at the Sea Floor post office. The design was based on a photograph by Williamson. It is a delightful design featuring tropical fishes in a coral landscape. On Jthe Bahamas issued a 4-penny stamp depicting the Sea Garden at Nassau. Much of the film material has now been donated to scientific institutions in the USA. They were shown during highly successful (and profitable) lecture tours throughout the United States. His wife and daughter also helped him produce underwater films. This was the first of numerous expeditions many of which were scientific in nature. In 1914, he shot his first under water motion picture in the Bahamas. The crystal clear water of the Bahamas allows the sunlight to penetrate deep down and it was an ideal location for Williamson’s Photosphere. He called his invention the “Williamson Photosphere”. From this vantage point Williamson was able to observe the undersea creatures and to take photographs. In 1912, Williamson designed a kind of chamber with a thick glass window which was attached to the tube and then lowered to the sea floor. Williamson’s father had invented a kind of tube which could be used to facilitate communication and the flow of air down to depths of more than 200 feet. He is remembered today as a pioneer in undersea photography and he was also deeply involved in the production of a number of motion pictures including one based on Jules Verne’s Twenty-Thousand Leagues under the Sea. The undersea post office was created by US photographer John Ernest Williamson (1881-1966). On eBay they sell for prices ranging from $30 to as much as $200. Today there is a considerable interest in the Sea Floor covers.

It must have been an interesting novelty for the collectors of the day. Some covers had pictorial cachets others just had different varieties of cancels indicating the unusual place of posting. Large numbers of covers were postmarked at the undersea Po st office and mailed to collectors all over the world. My research indicates that the Sea Floor post office in the Bahamas opened on August 16,1939 and closed some time in 1941. The world’s very first adhesive postage stamp went on sale in England on and the Bahamian cover was produced to commemorate the centenary of the Penny Black. It was obvious that this cover had an interesting story to tell. The 1940 cover had a May 6th Sea Floor, Bahamas postmark. After some negotiations I was able to purchase the cover for the equivalent of some four Australian dollars. At one of the dealer tables a colourful cover caught my attention. Earlier this year, I visited a stamp show in a small town in south Sweden.

Underwater bermuda photosphere google maps