The 12¢ stamp again issued on March 19, 1869, but its earliest known use is April 1, 1869. The largest known unused multiple is a block of 12 and the largest known used multiple is a block of 37. Many used blocks of four or larger exist as well. The 12¢ stamp was often used to pay the 12¢ rate to Great Britain prior to 1870. This would include covers to any destination in the British Isles, including Ireland and Scotland. 12¢ 1869 covers are recorded for many destinations making up part of the postage for usage’s to Africa, Austria, Peru, Chile and Switzerland.
The SS Adriatic was an advanced ship for its time. This marvel was chosen for the vignette of the 12c. The SS Adriatic was owned by the Collins Line (more formerly known as the New York & Liverpool United States’ Mail Steamship Company) who in 1849, built five ships that were to be the fastest mail ships across the Atlantic. They were big ships, 12 knots faster than any other ship, and had such luxuries as running water, ventilation and even a hair dressing salon. The purpose of building these fast ships was to win the US Postmaster’s contract for the ocean transit of the US to UK mail. The contract was currently held by their bitter rival the Cunard Line.
The Collins Line won the bid for the mail route but soon found out that their fast modern ships were expensive to operate. The ships consumed 87 tons of coal a day, whilst Cunards ships used less than half this amount. This forced the company to scale back its sailings from weekly to bi-weekly. The big engines soon took their toll on the wooden hulls and required expensive repairs. Within two years the company was close to being bankrupt and congress was forced to bail them out. This was not enough and during the winter the Collins Line only one ship a month crossed the Atlantic. Meanwhile the Cunard Line had doubled the amount of sailings on their slower, more profitable ships. Congress continued to pour money into the loss making Collins Line whilst Collins used the money try to dominate the cross Atlantic Trade.
In 1854 one of their five ships collided with a French Mail carrier off the coast of Newfoundland, and sank. Two years later another ship disappeared without trace while on a voyage from Liverpool. By now the Collins Line was down to three ships and needed another. A new ship was laid down in 1855 to replace the ship sunk off Newfoundland, it was the SS Adriatic, the subject of the 12c stamp. Unlucky from the start, it’s launch was delayed by almost two years due to technical problems on the sea trials. Congress halved its subsidy and the Collins Line went bankrupt, but not before the SS Adriatic had made its one and only commercial crossing across the Atlantic. The Cunard Line was left without competition.
After the Collins Line went bankrupt the SS Adriatic went through several owners and names and ended its days beached on the coast of west Africa. The Adriatic name was continued by the White Star Lines SS Adriatic launched in 1871, a ship that won the blue ribbon for the fastest ship to cross the Atlantic. This later Adriatic was famous for colliding with four ships, three of which she sank.
