PONTCHARTRAIN WHEC 70

Ship Name and Designation History

This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.

Owasco Class 255-foot High Endurance Cutter Originally to be named "OKEECHOBEE" Keel Laid 5 July 1943- Launched 29 February 1944 USCGC PONTCHARTRAIN WPG-70 Commissioned Patrol Gunboat (WPG) 28 July 1945 Decommissioned 17 October 1947 Recommissioned 5 September 1948 USCGC PONTCHARTRAIN WHEC-70 Redesignated High Endurance Cutter (WHEC) 1965 Decommissioned 19 October 1973 Sold for scrap

Naval Covers

This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each name of the ship (for example, Bushnell AG-32 / Sumner AGS-5 are different names for the same ship so there should be one set of pages for Bushnell and one set for Sumner). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).

Since a ship may have many covers, they may be split among many pages so it doesn't take forever for the pages to load. Each page link should be accompanied by a date range for covers on that page.

1. USCGC Pontchartrain WPG-70 / WHEC-70 Covers Page 1     (1945-1973)

 

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each name and/or commissioning period. Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.

A postmark should not be included unless accompanied by a close-up image and/or an image of a cover showing that postmark. Date ranges MUST be based ONLY ON COVERS IN THE MUSEUM and are expected to change as more covers are added.
 
>>> If you have a better example for any of the postmarks, please feel free to replace the existing example.

 

Postmark Type --- Killer Bar Text	Postmark Date	Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

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1st Commissioning 28 July 1945 to 17 October 1947

Cutter had no Official Postal Facilities

 

Locy Type F USCS Postmark Catalog Illus. P-38

1947-01-20

The ship's name is misspelled in the cancel. Patriotic cachet by T & T - W. R. Threlkel and W. R. Tharp. From the Richard F. Hoffner collection.

 

Locy Type F USCS Postmark Catalog Illus. P-38 (Bars Removed)

c 1952

The ship's name is misspelled in the cancel. From the Dennis Pack collection.

 

Locy Type SL2

1946-12-27

Example of the Gunboat's straight-line marking. From the Richard F. Hoffner collection.

 

Locy Type SL

1947-04-19

Example of the Gunboat's straight-line marking. Cachet by Jacques Minkus. From the Richard F. Hoffner collection.

 

Locy Type RECD

1947-05-30

Example of the Gunboat's Received marking. Memorial Day cachet. From the Richard F. Hoffner collection.

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2nd Commissioning 5 September 1948 to 19 October 1973

No Postal Facilities Aboard the Cutter

 

USPO Machine Cancel Long Beach CA

1965-06-02

N/A

Cachet by Edwin H. Lameck

 

Other Information

NAMESAKE - Named for Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana

Two cutters of the US Coast Guard have borne the name PONTCHARTRAIN - USCGC Pontchartrain and USCGC Pontchartrain WHEC-70.

 

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If you have images or information to add to this page, then either contact the Curator or edit this page yourself and add it. See Editing Ship Pages for detailed information on editing this page.

 

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