Colonies general

From 1895 to 1914, Germany built up overseas trading connections with the Americas, and with her colonies in Africa and in the Far East. Mail written on board ship, or collected from agents in the ports, was franked with German stamps and cancelled by the ship's bursar, using a standard KAIS. DEUTSCHE MARINE SCHIFFSPOST cancel. In this era, almost all the ships carried sail, a few being entirely sail, but most were combined sail and steam powered. Each ship had a cancel with an individual number. In a few cases the cancels were moved to different ships for administrative reasons (the retirement of a ship, or changes of trade routes). For a list of the numbered MSP (Marine Schiffspost) cancels and the ships which carried them, see the list below.
List of MSPs (Marine Schiffspost) numbers, the ship that bore them, and dates of operation.
MSP 2 : "BUSSARD" (1895-1899)
MSP 3 : "FALKE" (1895-1899)
MSP 6 : "ARCONA II" (1895-1899)
MSP 7 : "MOVE I" (1895-1905)
MSP 8 : "CORMORAN" (1897-1903 and 1909-1914)
MSP 9 : "HABICHT" (1897-1905)
MSP 10: "CONDOR" (1897-1901)
MSP 11 : "SEEADLER" (1897-1914)
MSP 12 : "ZIETEN" (1897) and "MOLTKE I" (1898-1905) and "CHARLOTTE" (1905-1909)
MSP 13 : "HYANE" (1807)
MSP 14 : "LORELEY" (1897-1914)
MSP 16 : "CHARLOTTE" (1897-1903)
MSP 17 : "STEIN" (1897-1898) and "SCHWALBE" (1898-1902)
MSP 18 : "SOPHIE" (1898-1899) and "GNEISENAU" (1899-1900)
MSP 19 : "MOLTKE I" (1907-1908)
MSP 21 : "ZIETEN" (1899)
MSP 22 : "WOLF" (1897-1905)
MSP 26 : "OLGA" (1898)
MSP 32 : "HOHENZOLLERN" (1898-1905)
MSP 36 : "GEIER" (19897-1905)
MSP 37 : "NIXE" (1897-1898)
MSP 38 : "FRIEDRICH CARL I" (1897-1898)
MSP 39 : "GNEISENAU" (1897-1898)
MSP 40 : "FALKE" (1901-1907)
MSP 41 : "NIXE" (1898-1900) and "STEIN" (1901-1908)
MSP 42 : "HYANE" (1913)
MSP 51 : "BUSSARD" (1900-1910)
MSP 59 : "SPERBER" (1903-1911)
MSP 60 : "CONDOR" (1903-1914) and "HYANE" (1914)
MSP 67 : "GEIER" (1911-1914)
MSP 70 : "HOHENZOLLERN" (1907-1914)
MSP 73 : "ZIETEN" (1901-1914)
The 'HOHENZOLLERN' was the famous Kaiser's yacht, as depicted on the high-value stamps of the German colonies.

Seepost cancellers in one form or another continued in use through the Weimar, III Reich, and postwar periods, but the above list is for those in use in the classic "Imperial" days of the German fleet.