Show & Tell - February 2004 THE FIRST BOSTON AIR MAIL FIELD DISPATCH Contract Air Mail Route 1 was extended northward from Boston, via Portland to Bangor, Maine, for seasonal service from August 1, 1931 through September 30, 1931. At Bangor, the flight connected with Foreign Air Mail Route 12 serving Saint John, New Brunswick and Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Foreign Air Mail Route 12 service was also inaugurated on August 1, 1931. The entire service from Boston to Halifax was flown by Pan American Airways, operating as a subcontractor on the Contract Air Mail Route 1 segment from Boston to Bangor and as the contractor for the Foreign Air Mail Route 12 segment from Bangor to Halifax. During the two months of Contract Air Mail Route 1 service to Bangor, the United States Post Office Department's Railway Mail Service (R.M.S.) had a clerk at Boston Airport, using a room provided by Colonial Air Transport (the Contract Air Mail Route 1 contractor). This clerk did not have a regular Airport Mail Facility cancel until August 4. For the first three days of operations, he used a steel handstamp (Airfield and Airport Mail Facilities Cancellation Type R4a) reading "Emergency No. 4 1st Div." A small quantity of collector mail received that cancel and were dispatched on the inaugural flight. The bulletin editor, George Sioras, recently unearthed this old AJ article. Comment please by email to Webmaster or mail to Editor.

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