The weekly Pan American USA - Philippines (Manila) route (FAM 14) was extended to Hong Kong via Macau in April 1937.
The Martin M130 flying boat China Clipper left San Francisco on 21 April 1937. The trans-Pacific route to Manila was via Hawaii, Midway Island, Wake Island and Guam.
To Macau
At Manila, mail was transferred to the Sikorsky S42B flying boat Hong Kong Clipper and flown to Macau on 28 April.
This cover was flown from Manila where it was postmarked at 1am on 28 April.
The same Manila - Macao - Hong Kong cachet was applied in Manila to both Macau and Hong Kong mail. Mail was backstamped on arrival at Macau after the clipper landed at 10.25am on 28 April. The clipper spent only an hour in Macau before taking off for Hong Kong.
From Macau
From Macau, the S42B flew to Hong Kong where it arrived at noon.
As there was no stop at Macau on the return journey,
this cover from Macau was flown first to Hong Kong on 28 April
and then on to Manila on 29 April.
There are two blue airmail handstamps as described by Weeden [2].
There are two cachets; one was applied in Macau while a Pan Am
receiving cachet was applied in Manila.
The cover was also backstamped in Manila on 29 April.
To Hong Kong
The next cover was flown from San Francisco, first to Manila and then via Macau to Hong Kong where it arrived on 28 April.
The cover has a San Francisco to Hong Kong first flight cachet. As it is registered, there is a San Francisco registration backstamp on 21 April as well as a GPO Hong Kong backstamp on 28 April.
Ordinary mail was backstamped at Victoria, Hong Kong
at 2.30pm on 28 April.
This cover was flown from Manila to Hong Kong
and has the same cachet as that on the Manila - Macau cover.
From Hong Kong
The return flight of the Hong Clipper to the Philippines
left Hong Kong on 29 April.
No cachets were applied in Hong Kong, but Pan Am receiving cachets
were applied at the different arrival points.
This cover has a Manila cachet.
There are two backstamps, one at Manila on 29 April and the
second at Baruio Mountain on 30 April.
Background
The first flight of the China Clipper from San Francisco to Manila had been in November 1935 with Ed Musick as chief pilot. He flew the first airmail to the United States from Auckland in January 1938 in the Samoan Clipper. That plane was in fact the Hong Kong Clipper with a new name.
From December 1937, the complete San Francisco to Hong Kong route was flown by Martin M130 clippers and from February 1939, Boeing B134s were also used on the route [1]. From May 1941, the route from Manila went to Hong Kong and Singapore on alternate weeks and from September 1941 there was a weekly service from Manila to both destinations. Services ceased in December 1941 due to the attack on Pearl Harbor and America entering World War II.
back
All scans were made by the author.
Information on this page is taken from:
Airmails of New Zealand, volume 2 (1986) compiled by
Douglas A Walker, and
The New Zealand Airmail Catalogue, (2nd Edition, 1994)
by James Stapleton.
Both are published by the
Air Mail Society of New Zealand
[1] Pan American Airways CAB Docket 851, Air Mail News, vol 46,
p 87, August 2003 published by The British Aerophilatelic
Federation.
[2] The Airmail Instructional Marks of Macau, Air Mail News,
vol 29, pp 12-13, Jul-Sep 1986 published by The British
Aerophilatelic Federation.