Published on the occasion of Monacophil 2019
608 pp. - colour and b/w ill. - cloth-bound with gold inscriptions and colour cover - printed 2019
English and French text

This work is intended to serve as a practical handbook covering all the different packet ship lines, with a short description of each line, a map showing the routes (missing from many studies), the name of the ships used by the lines (often found in letters) and, finally, an overview of the specific stamps that appear on letters transported via these lines.

The study is divided into five parts: the North Atlantic, the South Atlantic, the Pacific, the Indian Ocean and the letters which have travelled through two or three Oceans, a theme that has, until now, been less widely known and rarely covered. It includes connection routes overland via Suez and Panama.

Each Ocean part is subdivided into two parts: the first dealing with sailing packets from ca. 1674 to 1840; the second with steam packets from 1840 to 1875.
The sailing and packet lines are classified in chronological order.
Rates and ports are not discussed.

Images of the original English broadsheets (postal notes) concerning the packet lines are illustrated, as well as service orders and newspaper advertisement from Belgium, France, Germany and other countries.