Hindenburg Crash Mail
- the Scout Covers

Introduction

The 1937 World Scout Jamboree The Fifth World Scout Jamboree took place in the Netherlands in the summer of 1937. On April 1, 1937, the Netherlands issued a series of commemorative postage stamps on the occasion of the event, designed by Pijke Koch. The set consisted of three stamps: 1½ cents (domestic printed matter rate), 6 cents (domestic letter rate) and 12½ cents (foreign letters). The designs for the 1½ cents and 6 cents values need no further explanation: the 1½ cents value shows the Boy Scout badge, and the 6 cents value shows the close-up of a Boy Scout drumming, with flags in the background. Less obvious is why the artist selected Hermes for the 12½ cents stamp. Hermes was the messenger god of the ancient Greece, and "as a pathfinder to unknown places, he was ready to help others", the symbolic intention becomes clear. The Hermes statue, by the artist Praxiteles, dates from the 4th century B.C., and is now housed in the Archaeological Museum at Olympia, Greece. The Jamboree stamps saw many different usages from the First Day of Issue on April 1, until they were withdrawn from sale on September 1, 1937. Probably the most famous of all the Jamboree connected postal items is the use of the Jamboree stamps in May before the Jamboree opened on mail carried on the last flight of the zeppelin Hindenburg.

The disaster flight

To most of the onlookers, the first sign that there was anything wrong came when a burst of flame appeared just forward of the upper fin. In seconds the flame engulfed the tail and began moving forward. The ground crew shrank back as the fire roared toward the bow and the tail began to fall. Through the flames figures could be seen dropping to the ground. The tail hit first then the rest of the ship came crashing down. Men and women, some with their clothes on fire, emerged from the inferno. Some crawled. Some ran. Some stumbled and fell. Between the first flash of fire and the crash, only thirty-four seconds had elapsed.

In that unbelievable half minute, broadcaster Herb Morrison suddenly found himself reporting the biggest story of his life -- and it was almost too much for him. His smooth delivery became a jumble of impressions as the emotions of the unfolding disaster took hold. “It’s burst into flames...get this, Charlie, get this, Charlie... Get out of the way, please, oh, my, this is terrible, oh, my, get out of the way, please! It is burning, burst into flames and is falling on the mooring mast and all the folks we...this is one of the worst catastrophes in the world!...Oh, it’s four or five hundred feet into the sky, it’s a terrific crash ladies and gentlemen...oh, the humanity and all the passengers!”

For a period of 60 years, the cause of the disaster was blamed on burning hydrogen. One commonly accepted theory was a broken wire cutting one of the gas cells, which resulted in hydrogen escaping and mingling with air under the outer cover. The burning hydrogen theory prevailed, even though Max Pruss, the captain of the doomed ship, insisted there was no indication of gas loss on the bridge, riggers reported all gas cells were evenly inflated, and no one reported smelling garlic, the scent of which had been added to the lifting gas to help detect a leak. So what had set the outer cover afire? It is possible that the actual cause of the fire was the extreme flammability of the covering material brought about by discharges of an electrostatic nature. This interesting theory is discussed by Van Treuren [2] and by Duggan [3]. The static spark theory and other possible causes are thoroughly discussed in Cause of the Hindenburg Disaster [4].

Very little mail was salvaged

The 'Thoolen' covers

Falk's Hindenburg Crash Mail - The search Goes on, 1976 [5] lists 17 items mailed from the Netherlands. These are the 'Thoolen' covers mentioned above. Further research by Ganz in Netherlands Hindenburg Crash Mail, 1985-86 [6] and How Many of the Dutch Dispatches Survived?, 1987 [7] increased the number to 26, that is nine covers in addition to the 17 'Thoolen' covers. Seven of these additional nine covers are franked with Jamboree stamps.

The Dutch airmail catalogue Luchtpostcatalogus van Nederland en Overzeese Rijksdelen, 1998 [8] and the two leading zeppelin mail catalogues, Sieger [9] and Michel [10], all state only 23 salvaged covers with Dutch franking. Michel [10] mentions specifically that 18 covers to Thoolen at Wooster, OH are recorded (i.e. one cover more than the other sources), and five covers to other addressees. The transmittal letter from Albert Goldman, Postmaster in New York, to the Postmaster in Wooster, Ohio, dated May 19, 1937 states: Enclosure addressed to: (2 packages) 17 letters Mr. G. Thoolen, Care Mr. Donald E. Dickason, Wooster, Ohio. A letter from the First Assistant Postmaster General Office in Washington DC dated August 13, 1938 to Charles W. Mihle says: the records of this Department indicate that . . . 17 for Mr. Thoolen. It was therefore believed that the number of 'Thoolen' covers presented in the Michel catalogue is incorrect, and for a long time 17 'Thoolen' covers were recorded. However, additional covers have been reported, thus increasing the known number of 'Thoolen' covers to 20.

In this writer's opinion, cover #10 in the lists below is questionable since no postmark is readable. It may be a genuine 1937 cover, or a forged 1936 cover.

Thoolen himself says only 13 covers!

In addition to the 'Thoolen' covers, there are nine more covers recorded with Dutch franking which are sent to other addressees. To summarize, a total of 29 examples of Hindenburg crash mail from the Netherlands are recorded, of which 26 or 27 were Scout franked.
And, clearly, further research is required regarding the number of 'Thoolen' covers.

Sieger [9], Michel [10] and Leder [12] warn about forged Hindenburg crash mail items. The recorded forgeries are covers with genuine German postage stamps and forged or altered postmarks. Mr. Leder informs this writer that to date forgeries have not been detected of the Dutch crash covers.

Postage rates

		Recorded Hindenburg Crash Mail Items from the Netherlands:
No.		Addressee		Postmarked
1-17, 27-29		Mr. G. Thoolen, c/o Mr. Donald E. Dickason, Wooster, Ohio		Rotterdam-Waalhaven, May 1.
18-20		Donald C. Rose, 1104 Henry Street, St. Joseph, Missouri		Amsterdam Watergraafsmeer, April 30.
21-22		R.F. Lutz, Philadelphia, Pa.		's Hertogenbosch, May 1.
23		Mrs. Benn Lewis, Ocean Ave., Brooklyn, NY		Amsterdam Centraal Station, May 1.
24		Eva List, 1143 Forest Avenue, Ann Arbor, Mich.		Amsterdam Centraal Station, May 2.
25		Mr. P. Mak, Hillside Avenue, Nutley, NJ		Schiedam, May 1.
26		Mrs. E. Le Mee, 6802 Ridge Blvd, Brooklyn, NY		Haarlem, May 1 or 2.

Acknowledgements:

Thanks to John 'Ben' Adams, Zvi Aloni, Koos Biesheuvel, Panayotis D. Cangelaris, Josef Doert, Oded Eliashar, Cheryl R. Ganz, Randall S. Frank, John Ineson FRPSL, Robert F. Kan, Dr. Frederick P. Lawrence FRPSL, Dieter Leder and Bjørn Schøyen for their valuable contributions to this article.

References:

1. Uzakewicz, Douglas, Lighter than Air, SOSSI Journal (Scouts On Stamps Society International), May/June 1995, pp7-16, with supplement in SOSSI Journal, May/June 1996, pp12-13.
2. Van Treuren, Richard G., Odorless, Colorless, Blameless, Air & Space Smithsonian magazine, May 1997, pp14-16.
3. Duggan, John, LZ 129 Hindenburg - The Complete Story, 2002.
4. aerospaceweb.org Cause of the Hindenburg Disaster http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/investigations/q0277.shtml
5. Falk, Arthur, Hindenburg Crash Mail - The search Goes on, 1976.
6. Ganz, Cheryl, Netherlands Hindenburg Crash Mail, The Zeppelin Collector, published in The Jack Knight Air Log & AFA News, July-September 1985, pp30-33, with updates in January-March 1986 p51, July-September 1986 p47, October 1986 p40.
7. Ganz, Cheryl, How Many of the Dutch Dispatches Survived?, The American Philatelist, May 1987, pp458-460.
8. De Vliegende Hollander, Luchtpost-catalogus van Nederland en Overzeese Rijksdelen, 1998.
9. Sieger, Zeppelinpost Spezial-katalog, 22nd edition, 2001.
10. Michel, Zeppelin Specialized Catalogue, 2003.
11. Verschuur, W.F., Zeppelin en Zeppelinpost, Jubileumtentoonstellingsgids Alphilia '96, 1996.
12. Leder, Dieter, The Forgeries of the Lakehurst Mail, The Airpost Journal, June 1998, pp217-220.

Other resources:

• SOSSI website, http://www.sossi.org :
  • 1937 World Jamboree Zeppelin Scout Mail
  • Scouting Postal History of the 1930's
  • Stamp Collecting Merit Badge
• The Cangelaris Philatelic Collection, http://www.cangelaris.com/exsco.htm
• Scoutpost-Information, Journal of ArGe Pfadfinder e.V., http://www.arge-pfadfinder.org
• Hindenburg Crash Mail (National Postal Museum, Washington D.C., USA), http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/museum/1d_Hindenburg.html
• The Wreck and Crash Mail Society, http://wreckandcrash.org/
• eZEP.de, web portal for zeppelin mail and airship memorabilia

Please inform the author at hallvard@slettebo.no, should you have further information on Hindenburg crash covers with Dutch franking. In particular, new or improved illustrations of such covers are appreciated.