Philadelphia "Full-Rigged Ship" Marking

September 7, 1835

Folded letter, outer sheet without contents, marked in pencil on the reverse that it originated in Peru in 1835. It was marked in the upper right corner with the circular forwarder’s marking of Juan Baptiste Feraud, the US Consul in Panama (June 1833-August 1838), and placed on a sailing vessel going to Philadelphia. The ship arrived at Philadelphia on September 7 and the letter entered the US mail system as a ship letter. A Philadelphia clerk marked the scarce, full-rigged ship marking to show it was a ship letter and the octagon date stamp, rating the letter in red ink, upper right corner for 20.75 cents postage due at Boston. This amount was for the 2 cents ship fee and 18.75 cents inland fee from Philadelphia to Boston. Another letter on the same voyage, with the same markings and forwarded by Feraud, was in the DeVoss collection of Panama forwarders.