U.S. & Worldwide Stamps & Postal History

1909 (6 Sep) picture postcard franked with 3k red, sent from Sevastopol to Alupka (a resort city located in the Crimean peninsula), by the zoologist Ivan Ivanovich Puzanov (addressed to Dr. V. Ya. Polunin who owned a dacha in New Simeiz and was Puzanov's neighbor). With handstamp "Steamship Meotida". (The message reads, "Honorable neighbor! Did you hear the whistle when the Meotida passed New Simeiz at 6 AM on 4 September? I wonder. I think only the janitor Stefan heard it. In three days, or even sooner, we will once again pass Simeiz and then I will come ashore. You are welcome to inspect the ship but be warned: there are no sick people on board. On the 15th I will finally disembark at Simeiz and stay there for a week. Regards, I. Puzanov-Chernomorsky." In 1909, while a student at Moscow University, Puzanov obtained some practical experience at the Sevastopol Biological Station by taking part in an expedition to collect specimens of marine life along the southern coast of Crimea from Cape Lucullus (north of Sevastopol) to Kerch. The Ministry of Trade and Industry put the small steamship Meotida at the disposal of the expedition from 15 August to 15 September. In his book, Puzanov says that on 4 September, the ship was returning to Sevastopol from Kerch; on 6 September (when this card was mailed) he and the ship were in Sevastopol; on 9 September the ship made a 30 minute stop in Simeiz; on 15 September the expedition ended in Yalta and the ship returned to Sevastopol without him; he sailed to Simeiz that evening on the yacht Tatiana; at the end of September he returned to Moscow. His signature is a humorous imitation of those of famous explorers who were given the right to add territorial names to their family names, Chernomorsky referring to the Black Sea. The photograph on the back has an arrow pointing to the Sevastopol Biological Station which still exists in the same building under the name A. O. Kovalevsky Institute of Marine Biology Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences), Ex-Casey
Estimate: $150