26th January 1933
OPDR Shipping

The OPDR

The present cover was sent by the Oldenburg-Portugiesische Dampfschiffs-Rhederei (OPDR), founded in 1882 by August Schultze as a means of importing glass from Portugal. In the early 1900's trade from the Canary Islands and Madeira significantly increased with fruit imports into Germany. By the time of World War One the fleet had increased to 27 ships, all of which were either lost in the course of the war or delivered to the Allied powers as compensation. At the time of the this cover being sent the OPDR fleet comprised seventeen fine steamers in the range from 1,000 grt to 2,500 grt and named August Schultze, Bilbao, Ceuta, Larache, Las Palmas, Lisboa, Melilla, Oldenburg, Palos, Pasajes, Porto, Rabat, Saffi, Sebu, Sevilla, Tanger and Tenerife (ex Hermann Burmester). During World War Two many of the OPDR ships were requisitioned by the Kreigsmarine (including the Santa Cruz in September 1939 - renamed Thor, and the Gran Canaria, in 1938, with more being requisitioned in preparation for Operation Seal Lion).

​The recipient of the correspondence, Schmidt’sche Heißdampf-Gesellschaft, was an established firm specialising in heat recovery systems. Its founder, Wilhelm Schmidt, made his name by developing the Schmidt'sche Superheater for steam locomotives, as well other high performance steam boilers. Within the present context it is worth noting that Schmidt had, as early as 1887, sold a patent for a steam engine to ship builders Blohm & Voss (it should be noted that none of the ships in the OPDR fleet at the time of this envelope were built by B&V).

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