Here we have "The Golden Hind", and we used this card because the text tells us that "This ship, originally "The Pelican", took Sir Francis Drake on his round-the-world voyage through the Magellan Strait."
This strait was indeed named after Ferdinand Magellan, often said to have been the first man to circumnavigate the globe, whilst looking for the East Indies - though that is not strictly true, as he died during the voyage, and the fleet was brought home under the command of another man, Juan Sebastian Elcano. That technically means that our man, Francis Drake, was indeed the first to complete the circling of the earth in its entirety.
There is a slight inaccuracy in the text of our card though, and we will find out about that with tomorrow`s card.
As for our issuer, well that is also a curious tale. It starts out with Bocnal Tobacco Co, of Bonhill Street in the East End of London - who you can read about with our Card of the Day for the 24th of April, 2024. They were founded in 1934, and only issued two sets in 1938.
Then they became our company, "The Amalgamated Tobacco Corporation, Luton" - who are not even listed in our original Directory of British Issues, RB.7, published in 1946 - with good reason, as it turns out, for in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, published ten years later, we find :
Amalgamated Tobacco Corporation, Ltd.
Associated with Philip Allman, 1954. Trading 1956. Includes brand issue inscribed "Mills" and "Yank" Cigarettes.
1. 1948 - 1949 SERIES. Inscribed "Amalgamated Tobacco Corporation (South Africa) Ltd., Johannesburg." . Series prepared 1948-49 : Set A46-1 was not used in South Africa, because of Government restrictions, and the entire stock was transferred to the U.K. and issued in 1952. Backs in English and Afrikaans.
- FAMOUS BRITISH SHIPS. Md. 75 x 48. Nd . .... A46-1
1. "Series No. 1". (25)
2. "Series No. 2". (25)- HISTORY OF AVIATION". Md. 75 x 48. Nd. (50) ....A46-2
2. ISSUES 1953-54. Inscribed "Amalgamated Tobacco Corporation Ltd., Luton, England." Issued in UK
- KINGS OF ENGLAND. Sm. 67 x 36. Nd. (25) ... A46-6
- PROPELLED WEAPONS. Sm. 67 x 36. Nd. (25) A46-7
3. MISCELLANEOUS ISSUES
- VIC TOWEEL POSTCARD (A), Ex. Lg. 140 x 90. Autographed portrait presented with two free cigarettes at Toweel`s fight with Boland in Johannesburg, 1951. Single card brand issue, inscribed "Mills" and "Yank" Cigarettes.
Two things need a little exploration from above. The first is that the "Mills" brand came from, and was also used by Bocnal. The second thing is that I have seen a packet of "Yanks" (sic) Cigarettes, and it is actually spelt "Yanx", but I have not seen the Vic Toweel card to find out if that is spelt that way on there too and there was, perhaps, an error in translation between the sender of this information and whomsoever tapped it in to the World Tobacco Issues Index. I have found out that the fight took place on the 2nd of September 1951, at which time Mr. Toweel was the World Bantamweight champion, but that it was not a title fight - he beat Bobby Boland, of Scotland, knocking him out in the first of ten rounds.
This is where the Amalgamated Tobacco Corporation story ends in our original World Tobacco Issues Index - but the story continues still further with our updated volume - though for that you will have to hang on a bit whilst I sort out the earliest of their sets and make it the home page for the next part of the story. This will involve looking in our magazines and seeing which set was issued first out of all the ones they issued in 1957.