U.S.S. Fitch Cover
A
United States Navy cacheted envelope, mailed
from the destroyer, U.S.S. Fitch. It bears a three-cent, green, Iowa Jima
Memorial stamp and was postmarked on the ship, 11 Jun. 1947.
The return address, typed in red, reads U.S.S. Fitch (DD-462). The envelope
was sent to Earl K. Price, 4022 Green Street, Harrisburg, PA,
an address which appears to have been printed rather than typed. Mr. Price
belonged to the Universal Ship Cancellation Society (USCS), whose members
collect
covers from such ships. He probably had envelopes printed with the anchor
cachet and his address, stamped them, and sent them to various ships. The
Navy Mail Clark aboard the U.S.S. Fitch applied the ship's cancellation
and mailed the envelope back to Mr. Price. Although Mr. Price
typed "DD-462" in the upper left corner, it
appears to have been crossed out (perhaps by the Navy Mail Clerk), because
by 1947 the ship had been redesignated a destroyer mine sweeper, the
DMS-462.
The U.S.S. Fitch was named for Commander LeRoy Fitch (1835-1875), No. 4008,
who, during
the Civil War, commanded a group of six small converted steamers, called
"tinclads" on the Cumberland, Tennessee, and Ohio Rivers. With this fleet,
he contributed substantially to the pursuit and defeat of the rebel general,
John Hunt Morgan.
The destroyer was built at the Navy Yard in Boston, and launched in June 1941.
She served throughout World War II, off Africa and France, in the North
Atlantic on combat convoy and minesweeping duty, and at the surrender
ceremonies in Tokyo Bay. There is a picture of the ship itself on page 564
of Vol. 2 of
Descendants of Rev. James Fitch
.
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