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900-951   952-1000 ASTP

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Morris W. Beck Naval Covers
 

Copyright ©1999-2024 Owen R Murray.  All Rights Reserved.      Revised: 03/01/2024

Due to the increasing interest in the Apollo Space Program and for efficiency, collector's covers sent to the Navy for the prime recovery ship for Apollo 16, 17, and Skylab flights were postmarked in Hawaii.  With a few exceptions the post office aboard the prime recovery ships was closed on the day of the recovery.

Starting with Apollo 16, the US Navy postmarked the covers sent by collectors and dealers (including Beck) in Hawaii. 

The covers Mr. Beck and collector's sent to the Navy for postmarking on the PRIME RECOVERY ships actually did NOT go to the Prime Recovery Ship.

Apollo 16-Beck covers 880, 881 USS Ticonderoga.
The hand cancel for USS Ticonderoga for Beck covers and other covers sent to the Navy for this flight were postmarked in Hawaii.

The post office on board the Ticonderoga was closed on the recovery day to the public.  There have been some covers observed with the machine cancel on the recovery day.  This collector is not aware of any Beck covers with the machine cancel for April 27, 1972.

Beck CREW Cover.  Beck cover without the printed cachet design number produced for the crew and VIP.










Beck CREW Cover.  Beck cover without the printed cachet design number produced for the crew and VIP.

USS New Orleans LPH-11 Prime Recovery Ship, Apollo Souyz, July 24, 1975

The ASTP covers sent to the US NAVY for postmarking actually did NOT go to the USS New Orleans, EXCEPT for the one shown below, postmarked on July 25, 1975.  This is the first day the post office on the ship was open.  See below. 

The significance of the Beck cover shown here is that it WAS on board the USS New Orleans during the recovery to receive this specific postmark.  Beck printed a few extra envelopes for the Navy and a couple of dealers.  A few of those covers found their way to the ship, instead of Hawaii.  They were either hand carried by someone in the media or a member of the Navy crew.  They also could have been mailed directly to a crew member of the ship for postmarking as reported by Dr. Ramkissoon. 

Please refer to Ray Cartier’s excellent book on recovery ships for more information on the other covers for this event.  The cover shown here is a Morris W. Beck cover and this cover is a very important cover for Beck collectors.  We have only seen a few examples of this cover and estimate the value of this cover to be $150 or more.  It could easily sell for more on eBay once space collectors realize what its significance is.

Also see the examples of the cachet design used by the Navy as a single color rubber stamp cachet that was postmarked on the USS New Orleans each day of the flight.