D. Seeger: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, n.d., ca 1920. Real photo postcard showing the SS Yarmouth with an inset portrait of her captain, Joshua Cockburn, at upper right. Passengers and crewmen dot both the upper and lower decks, with several figures posed inside the lifeboats. Captioned and credited in the negative, reading in part, "Yarmouth Owned and Manned by Colored Men." Initially constructed as a Canadian ferryboat in 1887, the Yarmouth was purchased later by the Black Star Line, a shipping line established by Jamaican-born black nationalist Marcus Garvey (1887-1940) and active 1919-1922. Prior to his maritime endeavors, Garvey notably founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in Jamaica in 1914 and widely promulgated his "Back to Africa" movement throughout the United States. The Black Star Line was intended to facilitate this transportation of black emigrants back across the Atlantic Ocean. In addition to the Yarmouth, Garvey purchased two other ships and hired an exclusively black crew, including Joshua Cockburn, a Bahamanian master mariner who had trained with Royal Navy. After three relatively successful voyages, the Yarmouth was involved in a collision while anchored in New York, and the Black Star Line was unable to fund the repairs, selling the ship at public auction in 1921. Condition: Postally unused; toning and surface soil.
D. Seeger: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, n.d., ca 1920. Real photo postcard showing the SS Yarmouth with an inset portrait of her captain, Joshua Cockburn, at upper right. Passengers and crewmen dot both the upper and lower decks, with several figures posed inside the lifeboats. Captioned and credited in the negative, reading in part, "Yarmouth Owned and Manned by Colored Men." Initially constructed as a Canadian ferryboat in 1887, the Yarmouth was purchased later by the Black Star Line, a shipping line established by Jamaican-born black nationalist Marcus Garvey (1887-1940) and active 1919-1922. Prior to his maritime endeavors, Garvey notably founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in Jamaica in 1914 and widely promulgated his "Back to Africa" movement throughout the United States. The Black Star Line was intended to facilitate this transportation of black emigrants back across the Atlantic Ocean. In addition to the Yarmouth, Garvey purchased two other ships and hired an exclusively black crew, including Joshua Cockburn, a Bahamanian master mariner who had trained with Royal Navy. After three relatively successful voyages, the Yarmouth was involved in a collision while anchored in New York, and the Black Star Line was unable to fund the repairs, selling the ship at public auction in 1921. Condition: Postally unused; toning and surface soil.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
