United States Icebreakers

This cover features a full-color photographic front picturing two U.S. National Science foundation icebreaker research ships – the R.V. Laurence M. Gould (left) and the R.V. Nathaniel Palmer.

Posted on March 26, 2007, at Punta Arenas, the capital of Chile’s southernmost region at the southern tip of South America, this spectacular cover features a circular date stamp and the U.S. ships’ cachets.

The cover is franked with a 300-peso stamp (Scott #1290) picturing a student, computer and modern building issued on July 6, 1999, to celebrate the 150^th anniversary of the University of Santiago; and a July 1993 olive and black 90-peso definitive stamp (Scott #1059) picturing Quehui Church on the Chilean island of Chiloé.

R.V. Laurence M. Gould is named after American polar explorer and scientist Laurence McKinley Gould (1896-1995). He was Adm. Richard Byrd’s second-in-command during the first Antarctic expedition. The ship was launched in 1997. The research vessel Palmer is named after the first American credited with sighting Antarctica – Nathaniel Palmer (1799-1877). It was launched in 1994.