HAFNIA

Origins of the Postal Service
This year marks the 400th anniversary of King Christian IV introducing regular mail in the Danish kingdom, which paved the way for the Danish postal service. This milestone is celebrated with a Hafnia stamp issue, acknowledging its significance in Posta's history.

The Danish Postal Service
The earliest political initiative for a structured postal delivery system in Denmark is in King Christian II's Secular Law of 1522, but it never came to fruition. A century later, in 1624, Christian IV's "Ordinance on Mailmen" formalized the postal system, setting up nine routes. The most important route was between Copenhagen and Hamburg due to key trade connections. Letters, goods, and parcels were delivered via horse-drawn carriages on this route, while the other eight routes, primarily on foot, only carried letters. The main post office was housed in the now-burnt Børsen building in Copenhagen.

Mail to the Faroe Islands
In its early days, the Danish Postal Service didn't include the Faroe Islands, so cargo ships carrying goods for the Royal Monopoly Trade also delivered mail there. After the monopoly ended in the 1850s, various private operators took over. The volume of mail was limited, mostly comprising official letters from Copenhagen to the Faroese government, business correspondence, and occasional personal letters for Danish clergy and officials. The amtmand county governor managed the mail deliveries in the islands, using the "skjúts" system, (conveyance by boat) which enlisted men from various settlements to carry mail, cargo, and passengers by boat or across mountains.

Mail Steamer Diana
In 1870, the Danish postal service took over the steamship connection to the Faroe Islands and Iceland via Lerwick in the Shetland Islands or Leith in Scotland. Over several years the mail steamer "Diana" made seven round trips each year between March 1 and the end of November. The United Steamship Company (DFDS) eventually took over this route.

The First Faroese Post Office
With Diana's service, the Danish Postal Service appointed H. C. Müller, a well known Sheriff, as a Faroese postal forwarder in 1869. By 1870, he had established the first Faroese postal expedition at his home in Tórshavn, allowing the public to send and receive letters, parcels, and newspapers at standardized postage rates.

The First Faroese Mailmen
After the postal reforms of 1871, three postal routes were created in 1872, each with a dedicated postman.

• The southern route: Tórshavn to Kirkjubøur, by rowboat to Skopun on Sandoy, then overland to Sandur, and onward by boat to Skúvoy, Hvalba in Suðuroy, and finally to Trongisvágur.

• The western route: Tórshavn to Kvívík, then by boat to Fútaklettur on Vágar, and finally by foot to Sandavágur and Miðvágur.

• The northern route: Tórshavn to Søldarfjørður in Eysturoy by boat, then overland to Leirvík, and finally by boat to Klaksvík on Borðoy.

Mail Steamer Smiril
In 1895, the private trading company A/S J. Mortensens Eftf. in Tvøroyri commissioned a small steam freighter named Smiril, built at Kochum's Mekaniska Verkstad in Malmø. It addressed the pressing need for reliable freight, passenger, and mail services between the islands, especially now that the transition from a medieval farming community to a modern fishing nation really set social development in motion. The belief that the political authorities would solve logistical problems and build a functional infrastructure was not present. Especially in Tvøroyri on Suðuroy, where shipping and the fishing industry boomed, impatience was great.

Therefore, A/S J. Mortensens Eftf. decided to build a steamship for cargo, passenger and mail transport and put it into coastal sailing in January 1896 under the name Smiril. Conditions for coastal traffic on the Faroe Islands were difficult at the time.

While "Smiril" was supposed to serve most settlements, it could dock only in a few places. In most places boats had to transport passengers and cargo to and from the ship, making coastal navigation challenging and slow.

But this was, after all, a radical change, especially for postal connections. Despite this, Smiril had its own postal expedition, sorting and cancelling mail, much to the delight of later collectors and philatelists.

Eventually, Smiril's extensive coastal service was discontinued, with new local operators stepping in. The ship was acquired by the public coastal shipping company in 1917 and used primarily for the Tórshavn-Suðuroy route.

Thus ends this look back at the pioneer days of Faroese postal history. Many more fascinating aspects remain, but those are stories for another time.

Congratulations to the Danish Postal Service on its 400th anniversary. Here's to many more years!

Anker Eli Petersen