COVER N.172 - BRAZIL
Postmark: Cuiabá 16.SET.22
Posted on the 16th September; received on the 20h October 2022
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A second cover speaking my own language arrived at my letterbox. Muito, muito obrigado Léo, not only for the cover but most especially for what was inside the envelope.
On 17 July 1922, a mostly wood and fabric Fairey IIID double winged floatplane named Santa Cruz alighted at the Baía de Guanabara, Rio de Janeiro, then capital of Brazil, which was celebrating the centenary of its independence.
On board two intrepid explorers that had thus concluded the first aerial crossing of the South Atlantic, a feat that earned its place in the book of honour of worldwide aviation with heavier than air aircraft, an exploit which had had its first iteration only 19 years before.
Gago Coutinho, a geographer and cartographer Naval Officer who would later ascend to the rank of Admiral, and Sacadura Cabral, a distinguished military pilot who would be paramount in the development of Military aviation in Portugal as pilot, trainer and Director of the branch, who would rise to the rank of Commander, were the heroes of the feat.
Yes, the Atlantic had already been crossed several times before, first by Commander Read, at the end of an odyssey that started in Newfoundland on the 8th May and terminated on the 31st of the same month in the estuary of the Tagus river, the same river that I often cross when commuting to work.
Just the following month, between 14 and 15 June, John Alcock and Arthur Brown rose to the distinction of being the first to cross the Atlantic on a non-stop flight, that took them again from Newfoundland to a bog in County Galway, Ireland, its Vickers Vimy now residing at the Science Museum in London
But these were flights done in the direction of the prevailing winds and in the case of the Read expedition relying on the support of a line of destroyers placed at 50 mile intervals along the planned route so as to help navigation and rescue, should there be a need for it.
Also these were also flights taking the shortest route possible. Alcock and Brown, for instance, flew for a total of 1,890 miles (3,040 km) from start to finish (an extraordinary feat nonetheless as it is easy to grasp from reading any of the several books dedicated to the history of the atlantic crossing).
Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral's flight span 7,281 Km (4, 527 miles) against the prevailing winds, and with no support other than a navy ship that would meet them at the programmed location for refuelling, the tiny archipelago of S. Pedro and S.Paulo, nothing but some rocks emerging from the Atlantic, so to speak.
The trans-Atlantic portion of the flight was divided into four legs:
Lisbon to the Canary islands; Canary Islands to Cape Verde; Cape Verde to S. Pedro and S. Paulo Rocks; S. Pedro and S. Paulo to Recife... and then onwards to Rio de Janeiro with a few stops on the way.
It was not an easy flight and the aviators saw death coming close not once but twice, both times at the S. Pedro and S. Paulo rocks. First when one of the float gave in upon their alighting, (they were saved by a passing merchant ship, just as things were about to go real bad for them) and later when the engine of the replacement aircraft they were flying to S. Pedro and S. Paulo, to restart the leg towards Recife, panned and they again lost it to the ocean and the sharks that were plentiful and eager to try human flesh..
A third and last (Portugal only had three Fairey III-Ds on the inventory), was sent from Lisbon and on the 5th July they took off from the rocks towards Recife, from where they would progress to Rio de Janeiro, where they alighted to a memorable reception on the 17th June 1922.
Of note is also the fact that the flight in the way it was planned, was only made possible because Gago Coutinho had modified the nautical sextant by adding spirit levels to it so as to be able to use it aboard an aircraft, an idea that was latter patented. Gago Coutinho also developed what he called a "Course corrector", an instrument that could be used to calculate and compensate for wind drift. The value of these two instruments is easy to ascertain if one puts into perspective the scale of the task of trying to find a couple of rocks in the middle of the ocean without any other means than the help of the celestial bodies...and yet, they did it!
One century has gone by and to celebrate this great feat both the Portuguese and the Brazilian post issued commemorative stamps.
Having of course acquired the Portuguese issue, I badly wanted to have the Brazilian counterpart. and that's where Léo came to the rescue. I couldn't be more thankful.
The Portuguese Issue, is composed of a souvenir sheet with a 3,00€ stamp illustrated with a well known photograph of both aviators ready to depart from Lisbon inside the cockpit of their Fairey IIID Lusitânia plus three I20g (International, up to 20g) tariff stamps with the image of each of the 3 aircraft used, one departing from Belém, the second alighting at night at the S.Pedro and S. Paulo Rocks and the third, alighting at Baía da Guanabara, Rio de Janeiro. The logo of the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the first South-Atlantic aerial crossing is also present on all the stamps.
Leo used stamps from two different issues to mail me his letter:
The two1,55 Reais stamps with images of cats are part of a stampsheet integrating 30 1,55 R$ stamps dedicated to pets, issued on 06NOV2018.
Between 2005 and 2011, Correios do Brasil issued a definitive series dedicated to Professions. The shoemaker, (two 0,20 R$ stamps on my letter) was part of the first set of three stamps issued on 30DEC2005, while the Manicurist, (1 RS) belonged to the second set, comprising two stamps, issued on 06NOV2006.
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