Lot 46049 - The Unique Drogheda Ship Letter Handstamp 1842 Entire Letter – Drogheda to the U.S. War Department, Washington: Remarkable entire letter concerning an enquiry into John Ward of the 1st U.S. Dragoons, discharged at Fort

The Unique Drogheda Ship Letter Handstamp

1842 Entire Letter – Drogheda to the U.S. War Department, Washington: Remarkable entire letter concerning an enquiry into John Ward of the 1st U.S. Dragoons, discharged at Fort Leavenworth, sent from Drogheda to the War Department, Washington, D.C. Bearing DROGHEDA/PENNY POST and framed Nº 2 receiver, prepaid as an outgoing Ship Letter with red manuscript “8”, and displaying on the face a superb strike of the previously unrecorded ornamental scroll SHIP LETTER of Drogheda in red. Reverse with SHIP LETTER/LIVERPOOL datestamp; on arrival in the United States the American charge was cancelled and the letter allowed to pass FREE from New York to Washington. Vertical filing fold.

An extraordinary Irish transatlantic postal-history rarity, being the first recorded example of any Drogheda Ship Letter handstamp, and an exceptionally rare example of an outgoing prepaid Irish Ship Letter to the United States.