As a beginning collector I have not paid much attention to postmarks but I recently bought a stamp album with some interesting material and noticed these postcards were postmarked on U.S.Navy Ships. I will try and store and index them here by ship name.

The Wyandot was a U.S. Navy Andromeda Class Cargo Ship. Keel was laid May 6th, 1944. It was launched June 28th, 1944.

This postcard is postmarked January 2nd 1958 although the 58 is partially missing. I think it is a Locy Type 2(n). The cachet reads:

USS Wyandot
Deep Freeze I, II & III
1956 – 1957 – 1958

It is addressed to Alfred H. Dowle of Downers Grove, Illinois

Alfred H. Dowle, USCS H-1609 (1995). Was the national president of the Naval Covers Collectors Society from 1959 to 1961. He provided significant support for the Society in the midwest. Editor of the USCS LOG for several years, and part of the committee that assumed responsibility for the Catalog of United States Naval Postmarks when the USCS took over the task of its publication. For many years he wrote a regular column in the LOG providing historical information.

The back provides this information:

J.D. Williams, Naval Postal Clerk, El Paso, Illinois

and there is a handstamp, in blue, for Elwood E. Ellis, Universal Ship Cancellation Society Number 1799.

On the bottom, in pencil, are further notations 15h-92 10/11 190

In the spring of 1955, Wyandot joined Task Force 43 for “Operation Deep Freeze I” in the Antarctic. After a brief yard availability, the ship loaded supplies and equipment at Davisville, Rhode Island, and shifted to Norfolk, from whence she departed on 14 November. Sailing via the Panama Canal and Lyttelton, New Zealand, Wyandot arrived at McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, on 27 December. While in those cold southern latitudes, she served as the flagship for Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, officer-in-charge of the Antarctic programs.

She was then assigned to “Operation Deep Freeze II” in 1956. Wyandot rendezvoused with Staten Island (AGB-5) near the Panama Canal Zone before both continued on for Antarctica, arriving on 15 December at the Weddell Sea pack ice and then breaking through the Antarctic Circle on 20 December en route to Cape Adams. In 1957 Staten Island led Wyandot from Cape Adams to Gould Bay where Ellsworth Station was then assembled. Subsequently, the Wyandot returned home and operated with the Atlantic Fleet into the late 1950s.