Chicora

The Inland Vessels stamps feature Canadian passenger steamers and a riverboat. Constructed in England as a blockade runner for the Confederacy, the speedy Let Her B was so profitable that captains and crews drank to "the health of the Confederacy... continuously and often riotously." Although blasted by union gunboats, Let Her B survived. Rechristened the Chicora, she was cut in half in 1868 and transferred to the Great Lakes. In 1870 she helped carry the military expedition heading for Manitoba in the aftermath of the Riel affair. In 1874 she accommodated the Governor General on his Upper Lakes tour. However, in 1878, since she had too much passenger and not enough freight capacity for this region, she entered the Toronto Niagara River passenger trade. Chicora ended her career as the coal barge Warrenko in Kingston harbour where she sank in 1942. Tom Bjarnason's designs for this stamp have captured the elegance and gracefulness of these 19th century passenger vessels. They have a sense of aliveness and presence while preserving a visual continuity with the 1975 set of Coastal Ships stamps. The stamp were printed by a combination of one-colour steel engraving and nine-colour lithography, a method which renders faithfully the delicate line work and bright colour characteristics of Mr. Bjarnason's drawings, as well as showing the interesting detail of the ships' hulls and rigging.