- £75.00
Thailand. (Siam Steam Navigation Company - Postmarks). Circa 1915. SG 160, 5s on 6s rose-carmine cancelled by fancy script 'S.S. "Boribat" and cancelled additionally with 'BAMBOO' chop.
Stamps cancelled with the 'S.S.N. CO' marks can sometimes be found additionally obliterated with a Bamboo chop. These Bamboo cancellations appear to have been applied at the Post Office of arrival where the Purser's hand-stamp was regarded as insufficient.
The 'S.S. "Boribat" (563 tones) was built in 1902 and was added to the fleet when the 'Siam Steam Navigation Company' purchased the 'Danish East Asiatic Co.' The Company was formed as the 'Danish East Asiatic Company' in 1897. The Company had a steamer calling port to port from Bangkok down the Malay Peninsula with passengers, goods and had a contract to carry the mail. More vessels were added until the 'Siam Steam Navigation Co.' was founded in 1909. The steamers would carry mail from port to port in the mail bag. Loose letters were cancelled by the Purser's fancy rubber hand-stamp and mail cancelled on board ship is very rare indeed.
The 'S.S. "Boribat" collided with another steamer on 16th March 1923 and broke her stern, for most of 1927 she was stranded on a sandbank near Trengganu by a monsoon.
