Barbados marked the centenary of the battle of Trafalgar by an issue
of stamps depicting the "first monument erected to Nelson's memory,
1813" (_Fig._ 327). The monument is in the capital of the Colony,
Bridgetown, but its claim to be the first erected to Nelson's memory
is contested.
Another naval hero, Michael A. de Ruyter, Admiral-in-Chief of the
Dutch Fleet, is commemorated on a set of stamps of Holland issued in
1907 for the ter-centenary of his birth. This design, in addition to a
portrait of the Admiral, depicts a battle at sea (_Fig._ 328).
[Illustration: 327 328 329]
The recent Balkan Wars (1912-13) would require a volume to describe in
detail the philatelic results. Two Greek stamp designs commemorate the
victories of the troops allied against Turkey. One shows the cross
of Constantine over the Acropolis and city of Athens and the Bay of
Salamis; the other depicts the eagle of Zeus flying over Mount Olympus
with a snake in its talons. _Fig._ 329 shows the design of two war
charity stamps sold for the benefit of Greek soldiers incapacitated in
the campaign, and for the widows and orphans of the killed. Greece
overprinted stamps very lavishly for territories occupied during the
war. When the fleet occupied Mytilene the Greek authorities overprinted
the Turkish stamps they found there with a Greek inscription rendered
"Greek occupation--Mytilene." Lemnos was furnished with Greek stamps
overprinted LEMNOS in Greek characters, and many other places were
provided with Greek stamps overprinted with an inscription signifying
"Greek Administration." In Samos four issues of new stamps appeared in
1912-1913, and Icaria's Independent Government stamps prepared just
prior to the Greek occupation were overprinted "Greek Administration."
[Illustration: 330 331]
Albania's separate stamp issues were an outcome of the Balkan Wars.
The first were created in 1913 by overprinting Turkish stamps with a
device of a double-headed eagle and the word SHQIPENIE (_Fig._ 330).
Since then four or five new issues have appeared, crude labels of
circular handstamp pattern (_Fig._ 331) with the value typewritten.
More recently a series has appeared depicting Skanderbeg, the warrior
hero of the Albanians, and these were overprinted in March, 1914, with
an inscription "_7 Mars. 1467._ rroftë mbreti. 1914" to commemorate
the arrival of Prince William of Wied as Mpret. The year 1467 was the
date of the death of Skanderbeg.
[Illustration: 332 333 334]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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