posted 09-24-2023 09:54 PM               

Space Cover 720: USS Alstede, Skelley cachet

Above is a cover cancelled aboard the USS Alstede (AF-48) on May 24th, 1962, the date of Scott Carpenter's Mercury-Atlas 7 (MA-7) launch, orbital flight, and recovery. Much has been written about covers associated with Carpenter's flight, however a lingering mystery persisted within my own research regarding the story surrounding this cover: who created this cachet and why?

First some background, the cover is addressed to a W.R. Skelley, Jr. It is known that during his time in U.S. Navy, Skelley served aboard the Alstede. He was active in the Universal Ship Cancellation Society (USCS member #4496). He was the first president of the USCS Hampton Roads Chapter, formed in January 1963.

The most well-known aspect of Skelley's career was his involvement in coordinating recovery covers for collectors. As documented within the USCS Log, he began his efforts officially with Gordon Cooper's MA-9 flight and continued with Project Gemini. The excerpt below from the March 1963 USCS Log gives instructions directly to collectors for the coordinated process of obtaining recovery covers.

Prior to each flight, he received covers from collectors and assisted in the distribution of these covers across the recovery fleet for cancellation at time of capsule recovery. Ross Smith has assembled a wonderful page detailing Skelley's role in recovery covers with numerous examples.

Further research within the USCS Log archive uncovered that Skelly was the author of a philatelic publication called Navphilately. Acting as a supplement to the USCS Log, Skelley provided collectors with naval and recovery related space news, diving deeper into these topics. If you are interested in further reading, I have located and scanned 17 issues of this publication, which can be found here.

And so, within the pages of Navphilately lies the answer to my question. The September 1962 issue contains the following advertisement:

The ad reveals that Skelley's daughter Blanche applied the cachet for Carpenter's flight and also a separate cachet for Glenn's earlier flight, with the proceeds going to her college fund. Her father arranged for the cancellation of 200 covers for each mission abord the Alstede with the cachets being added afterwards.

The Glenn covers are cancelled on February 20th, 1962 and can be found with or without the additional "Project Mercury" rubber stamp next to the cachet as shown below.

I also have a Glenn cachet cover postmarked at Port Canaveral, addressed in W.R. Skelley, Jr.'s hand.

I'll leave you with this, another question, was the USS Alstede involved in any way during the recovery mission?

I have not seen evidence of this, however during my research I came across one cover dealer making that claim. The cover below is identical to the SCOTW but is sealed within a larger window envelope and states that the ship radioed Carpenter during the flight. But is this true?

posted 10-03-2023 07:43 PM               

And February 20, 1962:

No mention on either date of Mercury flight support or radio comms with the astronaut.