COVER N. 398 - SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS

Postmark: Basseterre St. Kitts; Date illegible

Posted on ?; received on the 23rd January 2024 

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The Flying Dutchman does it again, once more from the Caribbean. Fantastic! Hartelijk dank, Eric!

Saint Kitts and Nevis is another of those places that entered Western European history through the journeys of Columbus to the Americas, him and his men being the first Europeans to have set the eyes on the Islands inhabitants in the distant year of 1493.

Reading the potted historical notes on Wikipedia, I learned that the two Islands became a base for the colonial expansion of both the French and English empires, Spain having yielded its claim to St. Kitts to the English in return for help in the fight against piracy....

As sadly usual, the original inhabitants were largely decimated by the Europeans who would also later promote the importation of large contingents of salves from Africa, to work in the sugar plantations, the mainstay of the Islands economy.

With France abandoning its claim to the Islands in 1713, by the treaty of Utrecht, the British crown would rule on both Islands from then on, with a brief one year interval in Saint Kitts, in 1782, when the French temporarily got hold of it, while His Majesty's subjects were busy with the American independentist, but in 1783, full sovereignty on the Islands was again reclaimed by the British Crown.

St. Kitts, Nevis and Anguilla would federate in 1882 and, to cut a long story short, after the secession of Anguilla, in 1967, St. Kits and Nevis became a fully independent state in 1983, although remaining part of the British Commonwealth, a status that remains unaltered to this day.

In  this age of immersive experiences designed to appeal to all our senses, it is not a mater of wonder that a cover embellished with lovely stamps of fish on a sea coloured envelope should also exhibit signs of  it having been totally immersed in water, sometime during its transit to Portugal 😀.

This unfortunate fact notwithstanding, I am very happy to have the opportunity of adding another country to my list and also extremely grateful to Eric for his constant support to this humble blog of mine.

The stamps in position 1, 3 and 4, clockwise from the left, from the upper row, are part of a mini-sheet of  eight 50 Cent stamps dedicated to “Fish of Nevis”, issued on 25JUL1994. The fish therein depicted are (in the same order)  the Flameback Angelfish (Centropyge aurantonotus), the Saddle squirrelfish (Sargocentron poco) and the Honey gregory (Pomacentrus diencaeus), all reef dwellers which can be found locally.

The stamp on position 2 was also issued on the same date as the other three, as part of a four stamp companion set to the mini-sheet, equally illustrated with images of local reef fish and with face values of 10 cent (the one on the cover) 1; 1.6 and 3 dollars.

The fish that illustrates this particular stamp is  the Striped burrfish (Chilomycterus schoepfi), a member of the porcupine fish family, so named because  when disturbed, they inflate their body, what causes the spines on it to erect and point outwards, making it look rather menacing to its enemies.

Although rather washed (literally) off, the postmark seems to indicate that the letter was mailed from Basseterre, the Capital of Saint Kits and Nevis.