APOLLO RECOVERY SHIP COVER & POSTMARK VARIETIES

Apollo 13 - 17 April 1970

General Notes:
i) The USS Bordelon was in Port Louis, Mauritius and was put on standby when the emergency occurred. The USS America left Puerto Rico earlier than scheduled enroute to Rio de Janeiro in case an Atlantic splashdown was required. The USS Granville was dispatched to the primary recovery area to support the USS Iwo Jima. The position of the USS Forest Royal and the USS William C. Lawe are unknown.
ii) 'Wilhelm - Katalog Apollo', Peter K. Wilhelm, 2003, p73-74
iii) From the NASA Mission Report 'Because of the emergency which resulted in premature termination of the mission, additional support was provided by the Department of Defense and offers of assistance were made by many foreign nations, including England, France, Greece, Spain, Germany, Uruguay, Brazil, Kenya, the Netherlands, Nationalist China, and the Soviet Union. As a result of this voluntary support, a total of 21 ships and 17 aircraft were available for supporting an Indian Ocean landing, and 51 ships and 21 aircraft for an Atlantic Ocean landing. In the Pacific Ocean, there were 13 ships and 17 aircraft known to be available over and above the forces designated for primary recovery support.'
iv) A full list of additional ships called in due to the emergency is not known. Therefore, some of these ships may have been placed on standby for the recovery effort.
v) Newspaper article documenting that only US Stamps should be used on Recovery ship covers and that collectors are limited to two covers.
vi) Rubber stamp cachets from the USS Kawishiwi vary greatly in colour from maroon to a more redish colour.
vii) This cover was mailed by William "Bill" Schertle to his wife. Bill was a CBS photographer assigned to cover the Apollo 13,14,15 and 16 recovery missions. Cover also came with a great letter talking about the mission and being aboard the USS Iwo Jima.
viii) This is a late date cover. The USS Bordelon was not initially part of the recovery effort. The planned reentry would have brought Apollo 13 down into the Indian Ocean where NASA had never stationed a ship before. The USS Bordelon was the closest ship and was off the coast of Mauritius and was thus called into action. However, first it had to return to port in Mauritius to pick up a recovery crane which would have had to have been flown to Mauritius from Norfolk, Virginia. Before this actually happened the reentry path changed and the USS Bordelon was stood down. See https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1972/11/11/i-an-accident-in-space
ix) Another late date cover. Both this and the USS Bordelon covers were obtained by Sam Stein, a long time Space collector. See an article on collectSPACE by Tom Steiner for more details on all the ships involved in the Recovery.

Other Notes:
1) Scan from 'Wilhelm - Katalog Apollo', Peter K. Wilhelm, 2003, p72
2) From the collection of Randy Constantin
3) From the collection of Tom Steiner
4) Sold on eBay in 2010 a) 2011 b) 2013 c) 2014 d) 2022
5) From the collection of Antoni Rigo
6) From the collection of Martin Schwebs Rasmussen
7) From the collection of Joseph Volutza
8) From the collection of Tim Preston

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Last modified on 6 September 2023

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