China, Large Dragon (Cover) : 1882 (4 Dec.) envelope to Waverly, Bremer County, Iowa (12.1.83) bearing on reverse Large Dragons 1878 thin paper 1ca. green horizontal pair and 1882 wide margins 5ca. yellow-ochre vertical pair, cancelled by Tientsin large type seals, matching “Customs/Tientsin” double-ring origin d.s., “Customs/Shanghai” double-ring transit d.s. (8.12) in red, “San Francisco Cal./Pd. All” transit c.d.s. (7.1) in magenta and “Waverly/Ioa.” arrival c.d.s. adjacent, and on front U.S. Taylor 5c. blue pair cancelled by cork type, with matching “U.S. Postal Agcy/Shanghai” c.d.s. (13.12) alongside, because of the bulky and oversized contents of the enclosure (12 page letter), there is chipping at edges of the envelope resulting in damage to the U.S. adhesives and separation of front and back of cover, so, therefore, for preservation purposes the envelope has been mended along the join and opened out for display. An attractive and very rare Large Dragons combination usage through the United States Postal Agency in Shanghai. Chan 1, 6. Estimate 120,000 - 150,000 ONLY ELEVEN LARGE DRAGONS-UNITED STATES COMBINATION COVERS ARE RECORDED. OF THESE, NINE ARE OUTGOING AND TWO ARE INCOMING. The fascinating twelve page letter was written between 24 November and 3 December 1882. The letter begins “On Board Steamer ‘Hae-ting’” and concludes “Sunday evening Dec 3 1882, Tientsin China”. It was written by Floyd Cole, an officer in the U.S. Navy and sent while on board the U.S.S. “Palos” at its winter quarters in Tientsin “frozen in the ice”. He recounts his time in Yokohama where he was awaiting transport on the Mitsu Bishi Mail Steamship Co. steamer “Hiroshima Maru” to Shanghai. “About 7 am. a 24 pound howitzer from our deck announces to the people of Yokohama that the 'City of Peking’, from San Francisco has just anchored off the city amid ships of all nations kinds, shapes and sizes. On our left lies the U.S.S. 'Richmond’ the Flagship of the Asiatic squadron, and a short distance ahead lies the U.S.S. 'Monocacy’. The stars and stripes, the grand old banner that always sends a thrill of pride through my veins whenever I see it in these foreign lands, was proudly floating from their mast heads; these they gracefully dipped to salute us as we came in the harbor.” The letter details in a highly descriptive manner his observations about everyday scenes and life in Japan and a number of cities through which he passed on his voyage. Then, the steamer passes into the China Sea out of sight of land for thirty-six hours, and, after reaching the China coast, “up the Yangtsckinag to its junction with the Wusung river and up that to Shanghai”. Finally, he boards the “Haeting” for the onward trip to Tientsin via Chefoo. “At 6 am. Friday we came to anchor off the mouth of the Pei-Ho river to await the tide as there is a bar across the channel which is very shallow, called the Tiko bar….The Pei-ho is a very narrow and crooked stream, but we succeeded in getting to Tientsin at 9 oclock am. After running into the ground bank three times… we drew up to the wharf and he [the Captain] pointed out the 'Palos’ a little further up the stream. She doesn’t look very ferocious now as her spar deck is all housed in for the winter”. The letter concludes from Tientsin with details of the handling of the mails. Also accompanying the lot is an 1883 (24 July) “United States Navy” corner card envelope (damaged) from Hong Kong to Iowa bearing 30c. (3) cancelled by “B62”, with another lengthy highly descriptive and opinionated letter : “The world is a farce, so is the U.S. Navy….The 'Palos’ as she now is makes quite a respectable looking wreck…The officers have been compelled 'to give up the ship’…The contractors have two months in which to effect the repairs…”.
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