Search: TIN CAN (NIUAFO'OU) STAMPS

Niuafo’ou’s volcanic soil produces some of the best coconuts in the world. This cash crop, dried on the island and bagged as copra, helped to immortalize Niuafo’ou’s postal history.
The Australian firm Osterman Dervy & Co. stationed W. Travers, a copra trader, on Niuafo’ou in the early 1880’s. Travers became despondent when he found out there were no arrangements for dispatching and receiving letters. He devised a plan whereby passing vessels on the Samoa-Fiji run would drop his mail (which had been soldered in a tin can) overboard into the pounding sea for a strong Tonga swimmer to collect. Outgoing mail, tied securely in oilcloth, was carried to the ship. A line was dropped from the ship and the mail packet was affixed by the swimmer and drawn up. In a short time the vessel was again under way.
Gradually, ship’s captains began referring to Niuafo’ou as “Tin Can Island” because of the method of mail delivery. At the turn of the century, a few attempts at “modernization” were made involving the use of signaling rockets. Mail was tied to a rocket and then the rocket was launched from the deck of the ship in the general direction of the island. This proved to be an unsatisfactory arrangement when some of the mail burned in flight. Other rocket launchings missed the island entirely, either landing soggily in the sea or being lost in the verdant forest of Niuafo’ou.
In the late 1920’s, a German copra trader named Walter George Quensell began applying simple markings to his letters that read “Tin Can Mail.” It wasn’t long before a few of these covers fell into the hands of stamp collectors, who created a demand for Quensell’s Tin Can Mail covers.
In 1932, the method of Tin Can Mail delivery changed from the early swimmer mails to a delivery and collection by outrigger canoe. This change evolved after a swimmer was eaten by a shark.
Cruise ships plying the South Seas began adding Tin Can Island to their itinerary, generating even more opportunities for collectors and passengers to use the Tin Can Mail service. Luxury liners realized this was a perfect medium to advertise their cruises and so began issuing their own cacheted envelopes for the passengers to send “wish you were here” messages from Niuafo’ou.
Quensell, who by now was calling himself the “Tin Can Mail Man of the South Seas” must’ve believed he was on to something. By the mid-1930’s, he was decorating both the front and back of his covers with a myriad of elaborate cachets. The collectors loved them and the revenue earned from selling his covers helped support Quensell’s large family.
During World War II, the passenger vessels ceased their pleasure cruise operations. Post communications were maintained at Niuafo’ou on an infrequent schedule by Tongan vessels. At the close of the war, Quensell expected to resume the Tin Can Mail when the cruise ships returned to service. Fate, however, intervened.
On September 9, 1946, the island of Niuafo’ou violently erupted in a spectacular volcanic display. The main village of Angaha, including Quensell’s office, store and residence, was destroyed by lava flow, and islanders were evacuated to other islands within the Tonga group, often against their will.
By the late 1950’s, the island was once again habitable and former Niuafo’ou residents successfully petitioned for a return to their home island. In 1962, Matson Line vessels once again added Niuafo’ou to their South Seas cruise itinerary. Outrigger canoes would paddle out to meet the gleaming white ships in the old way, while passengers peered from the decks as the mail transfer was completed.
The post history of Niuafo’ou came full cycle in 1983 when a small airstrip was completed close to the spot where the village of Angaha once stood.

Written by
Janet Klug

This has been reprinted from Global Stamp News – November 1990 – Issue #1

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