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- Postal money order from USS Kanawha
Postal money order from USS Kanawha
Object Details
- Description
- The postmaster of New York, New York, issued this United States postal money order serial number 9803 to office number 20480, USS Kanawha AO-1, on approximately January 1, 1943. Decades later, divers recovered the unused money order from a waterproof safe amongst the sunken remains of the USS Kanawha in Ironbottom Sound, Solomon Islands. The water-soaked and damaged money order underwent extensive conservation treatment at the National Postal Museum.
- The oil tanker USS Kanawha preformed refueling duties, as well as mail services, in the Atlantic during World War I and in the Pacific during World War II. On April 7, 1943, the tanker sustained heavy fire from Japanese aircraft in Tulagi Harbor. All but 19 crew members survived; it seemed as if the fire damaged tanker might be salvaged, but the USS Kanawha slipped off the bank, where she had been beached, and sunk into the Sound.
- Reference:
- Maynard L. Hamilton, letter to National Postal Museum Director James Bruns, April 24, 1993.
- Data Source
- National Postal Museum
- Date
- 1943
- Object number
- 2000.2006.1
- Associated Person
- Oscar M. Holm
- Type
- Postal Money
- Medium
- paper; ink
- Dimensions
- Height x Width: 3 x 10 3/4 in. (7.6 x 27.3 cm)
- Place
- United States of America
- See more items in
- National Postal Museum Collection
- Topic
- World War II (1939-1945)
- Customers & Commerce
- Record ID
- npm_2000.2006.1
- Usage
- Usage conditions apply
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