PRS CAPTAIN, CREW & OTHER SPECIAL COVERS

Introduction
There has been much discussion, not to mention confusion, over the years as to what constitutes a Captain's cover and a Crew cover for a Primary Recovery Ship (PRS). Different authors have used different definitions. Another limiting factor has been the lack of information on the exact circumstances of issue for some covers. Most definitions have also left out interesting and often important covers. I have therefore developed a set of definitions which cover all such covers. While these are based on those already in use, there are some differences. I have also found it necessary to develop definitions for more than one type of each cover.

See PRS Crew Size for information on the size of the crew for these ships.

Captain's Covers - Type 1
These are specially designed covers prepared at the direction of the ship's Captain. They are usually printed aboard the ship and are sometimes signed by the Captain. They were distributed free to various members of the crew and dignitaries. This is largely based on the Space Unit definition.

Captain's Covers - Type 2
These are covers with the Captain's corner card and/or have been signed by the Captain. They may or may not include a ship's cachet or other special cachet. This is largely based on the USCS definition.

Crew Covers - Type 1
These covers are specially designed covers usually prepared at the direction of an appropriate member of the crew (such as the Postal Officer) and distributed or sold to members of the crew. While often printed aboard the ship, some were printed privately ashore.

Crew Covers - Type 2
Most if not all PRSs had their own stationary which was available for purchase by members of the crew. Thus it was possible for a crew member to produce a 'crew cover' by having the ships stationary stamped with the ship's or other cachet and postmarked. Also applies to covers designed by an individual crew member for their own use.

Crew Covers - Type 3
These are covers from a member of the crew using a 'standard' envelope (ie not ship's stationary). It may or may not have a RSC.

Crew Covers - Type B(eck) - A Special Case
A special case of crew covers are those produced by Morris Beck. Morris Beck, who had been designing Naval covers for some years, started designing Recovery Ship covers towards the end of the Mercury program. By the start of Gemini he was producing covers for most of the Recovery Force ships. He started by producing 300-400 covers per ship which increased to 500-600 per ship for Apollo, 800-1000 for Skylab and several thousand for ASTP. These covers were numbered with a Bxxx number between 1 and 999 (they were part of his overall series of Naval covers) with each ship in a mission being assigned covers with a different number (note that occassionally a ship would received covers from more than one group). As a thank you to the each ship's postal officer he produced 25+ covers without a number which he gave to the Postal Officer to distribute as he saw fit. As most of these have been lost over the years or tucked away in someone's attic they are quite rare and worth considerably more than the standard Beck printed covers. As these are identical to the standard Beck printed cover, except for the absence of a number, only one example (for GT-3) will be illustrated.

Special Covers - Type 1
This catagory includes covers produced for or by a dignitary who was aboard the ship. An example is Admiral's covers.

Special Covers - Type 2
This catagory covers all other covers which were especially created aboard a PRS for a recovery mission.

In the following table I will refer to Captain's Covers Type 1 as Captain's Covers for brevity.

Captain's Covers

Mission	Type of Cover	Varieties	Comments
MA-6	Captain	N	Designed for the USS Randolph which was the designated PRS, it used a label cachet which was glued to the cover. Most of these labels have brown gum toning. Many such covers were signed by the Captain.
MA-7	Captain	N	All Captain's covers for this mission were signed by the Captain J. L. Abbot Jr.
MA-8	Captain3	U/K	The Captain's cover for this mission is on official ship's stationary with the addition of a specially designed ship's MA-8 RSC. As such they did not require a stamp or postmark, although some were postmarked with a machine cancel.
MA-8	Captain's Type 24 or Crew Type 1	N	This cover was produced on a plain envelope with the specially designed ship's RSC and the Captain's corner card. All such covers are signed by the Captain above the corner card. Most have a machine cancel, although one has been sited with a hand cancel over a very faint machine cancel1.
MA-9	Captain3a	P	Identical to the MA-8 Captain's cover except that the RSC has been redesigned for MA-9. The RSC is black unlike the maroon version used for general covers. Covers with either the hand cancel3a or machine cancel2 are known.
MA-9	Captain's Type 21,4 or Crew Type 1	E	Identical to the MA-8 other cover except that the RSC has been redesigned for MA-9. The RSC is black unlike the maroon version used for general covers. An unusual version exists with a Cape Canaveral postmark.
GT-4	Captain	N	The Commanding Officer’s autograph, J. W. Conger, is printed and is part of the ship’s cachet.
GTA-6	Captain1	U/K	An extremely rare cover prepared for GT-6 and postmarked on the mission’s scrub date of October 25, 1965.
GT-6A	Captain	E,P	The cover has a printed autograph of the Commanding Officer, U. S. Navy Captain Gordon E. Hartley. Covers with either machine or hand cancel9 are known. It also exists with no stamp.
GT-7	Captain	P	The cover has a printed autograph of the Commanding Officer, U. S. Navy Captain Gordon E. Hartley. Covers with either machine or hand cancel are known.
GTA-9	Captain	E	The cover has a printed autograph of the Commanding Officer, U. S. Navy Captain Gordon E. Hartley. Uses a 5c or 8c stamp. Also printed on larger envelopes.
GTA-9	Captain	N	As above but backdated, it uses a 3c stamp.
GTA-10	Captain	N	A printed cover showing the USS Guadalcanal and a Gemini capsule with the number 10 on it's side. This cover is mentioned, but not illustrated, in Steve Durst's CD book1.
GTA-11	Captain	E	The more common Captain's cover for this mission has printed facsimile astronaut signatures. Most are on a #10 envelope but a few are on a #6 envelope6.
GTA-11	Captain	E	A relatively common variation includes a privately printed RSC showing the NASA emblem plus three lines of text.
GTA-12	Captain	N	The Captain's cover contains a printed signature of the ship’s Commanding Officer, M. R. Etheridge, Captain, USN and with a hand cancel. Uses a 5c or 8c stamp.
GTA-12	Captain6	N	As above but backdated, it has a 3c stamp7.
GTA_12	Captain6		It also exists with no stamp. It is unknown whether these were backdated or not.
Apollo 10	Captain1	P	One of the rarest of the Captain's covers.
Apollo 11	Captain	P	6000 were printed with each crewman receiving two, while the three astronauts, President Nixon and Admiral John McCain each received twenty-five2. Covers exist with a hand cancel and with a machine type 15 and machine type 2 cancels.
Apollo 12	Captain	P	A Captain’s cover was given to each of the 5,000 men aboard the ship as well as press members and dignitaries, but not many of these covers appear to have been mailed off the ship1. Covers exist with hand cancel type 1, hand cancel type 21and with a machine cancel.
Apollo 14	Captain	N	Printed on a Large Envelope.
Apollo 15	Captain	U/K	'Space Achievement' stamps were flown out to the ship for use on the Captain's cover2. It is unknown if they exist with a postmark with the ship's name on the bottom.
Apollo 16	Captain1	N	Only hand cancels are known
Apollo 17	Captain1	P	Captain's covers exist with a hand cancel from the 19th1 and with a machine cancel from the 20th1. It is unknown whether the covers with a 19th cancel were cancelled on board or in Hawaii.

Crew Covers

Others

Unusual and Interesting Captain's Covers

Mission	Type of Cover	Comments
Gemini 6	Captain8	This Captain's cover also has the addition of the ship's cachet making for a very nice cover. It has also been signed by the two Astronauts involved in the mission.
Gemini 6	Captain5a	A possibly unique Captain's cover signed by Tom Stafford, the ship's Commanding Officer, the Recovery helicopter pilot and the Recovery Force Commander. Plus the cover has the Recovery Force Commander's corner card! Not postmarked.
Gemini 9	Captain5b	An interesting Captain's cover has the Commanding Officer's return address on the back and with an enclosed 'With Compliments' card.
Gemini 11	Captain1	A rarer Captain's cover was printed without the facsimile astronaut signatures and is actually signed by the actual astronauts.
Apollo 9	Captain7	This Captain's cover is signed by the three Astronauts involved in the mission. This is the cover shown in Ray Cartier's handbook.
Apollo 12	Captain5a	This Captain's cover is extremely unusual (possibly unique) in being postmarked in Pago Pago the day before recovery.
Apollo 12	Captain5b	An unusual Captain's Cover which includes a rare embossed imprint. The pressure imprint is from the purser's office and reads "DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY USS HORNET CVA 12" It has the Navy emblem in the middle, and measures 1 1/2 inch across. And the story... I served on Hornet during both the Apollo 11 & 12 recoveries. Several of us had Captain's covers processed in the ship's post office. I had a friend in the purser's office who thought it would be interesting to also have the pressure stamp included.

Varieties:
C- Cachet
N - None
P - Postmarks
E - Size or Type of Envelope
U/K - Unknown

Note:
1) From Steve Durst's CD book
1a) From Steve Durst's CD book - from the collection of David Ball
2) 'Primary Recovery Ship Cover Handbook', Ray E. Cartier,1993
3) From the collection of Dennis Dillman. Such covers also included a MA-8 or MA-9 card from the Captain².
3a) From the collection of Dennis Dillman.
4) The status of these covers is uncertain. They were produced in reasonable quantity, are consistent and are signed by the Captain. However, it is unknow who ordered their creation and how they were distributed. As I have an identical cover, except it is signed by the Postal Clerk, it seems likely that they should be classified as Crew Covers Type 1. It could also be argued that it was a Captain's cover Type 2.
5) Sold on eBay during 2010    5a) 2011;   5b) 2012
6) 'US Space Cover Collecting Handbook', Ray E. Cartier et. al., 2011
7) From the collection of David Ball
8) From the collection of Randy Constantin
9) It's interesting to note that this particular Captain's cover has the wrong postage (4c instead of 5c)
10) Correspondence with Sean Marsar
11) These were produced by Dr Reuben A Ramkissoon. See correspondence with him.
 

This page © Dr Ross J Smith
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Last modified on 22 February 2012

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