1814 a Good Strike of the RARE POST PAID WITHDRAWN SHIP LETTER LONDON

1814 Entire to Major General Baird at the Cape of Good Hope. Fine Strike of the Very Rare POST PAID WITHDRAWN SHIP LETTER LONDON. 14 DE 14 1814. Manuscript 1/2 (the correct rate). It seemed that the General did not appreciate Cape wines as he had stocked up in England but did not pay his account. He is pressed for payment after two years. Although Rare theses are an interesting type of ship letter mark. It was issued in 1814-1815 when a Post Office experiment allowed people to send letters abroad by handing them in at a Port Post Office where they paid one-third of the rate of a Packet Letter. The sender could then withdraw the letter and send it by any private ship of their choice. Such letters were known as Post Paid Withdrawn Ship Letters.