D. Allen

Philatelic articles by David Allen

David Allen is a Vancouver philatelist specialized in the study of stamps from Saint-Pierre et Miquelon. Mr Allen contributes regularly to the Saint-Pierre et Miquelon journal. You can write to him at: dallen@axionet.com.

Stamps and Fisheries Protection

For centuries the major economic reason for French settlement on the coasts of North America was the wealth of the fisheries. From the early fifteenth century until the collapse of the Atlantic fisheries in the late 1980s, the harvest of the sea was of paramount importance. This economic potential was a source of continual friction between the British and their colony of Newfoundland and the French presence, which had been gradually squeezed out of mainland North America ,was finally limited to these small islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon on the edge of the Grand Banks. As a result of the Treaties of Paris and Vienna in 1816,the sovereignty of France over the islands would never be further challenged.

The assurance of stability meant that the fishing industry could expand without fear of hinderance. Furthermore certain rights had been reserved to island fishermen on the coasts of Newfoundland , although these rights were the cause of much contention between the Newfoundland fishermen and islanders. They were subsequently abrogated in 1935. France needed to protect its fishing fleet from foreign harassment, there were other issues too. The health, welfare and living conditions of a seasonal work force and the need for revictualling and postal communications for the fishing fleet over the season
had to be attended to. To this end the government set up a system of fisheries protection vessels, whose job was to create a French presence in the fishing grounds.

In 1971 the Post Office issued a series of superb stamps dedicated to the ships that had served as Fisheries Protection vessels during the 20th century. This series of 4 stamps shows respectively , the vessel óSt. Francis of Assisiâ from 1900 , the óSainte-Jehanneâ from 1920, óL´Aventureâ from 1950 and the then current vessel óCommandant Bourdaisâfrom 1970. The series was not very well publicized when it was first issued and with the cessation of issues in 1976, they tended to be overlooked by collectors. When stamps were reissued in 1986 , the value of this series surged as collectors scrambled to complete their collections. Today a mint never hinged set catalogues at 1,400fr. in Yvert and Tellier, but to my mind the hardest way to collect this series is in used condition, few were used commercially and if you can find a Miquelon postmark on them, you have an even rarer find.