Description
Cover from Burr Oak, Iowa, franked 5c to “Captain Gordon, Royal Marines, Port Hamilton, care of Senior British Naval Officer, Nagasaki, Japan”, backstamped at San Francisco, Yokohama and Nagasaki. In April 1885 a Royal Marines Detachment occupied the uninhabited Observatory Island in the Korean Straits, considered to be an advantageous naval base which might have been occupied by the Russians; the island and anchorage were renamed Port Hamilton. The island was evacuated in February 1887 after Japanese protests and assurances no foreign power would occupy it. Very rare, just the outgoing cover and eight ingoing covers (all from USA to Capt Gordon) recorded from the British Occupation.