posted 08-23-2026 12:35 PM               

Space Cover 870: Ship vs. Captain's Cover

Collectors of recovery ship covers are familiar with covers that have either printed cachets or rubber stamp cachets that were designed by Morris Beck. These covers are not hard-to-find and were produced for MA-8 (Schirra) to the Apollo Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) mission.

In addition to the Beck cacheted covers there are also Captain's covers and ship's cachet covers for many of the crewed missions. These covers were produced by the prime recovery ship in limited numbers primarily for the crew. But is there a 'black and white' definition of what is considered a Captain's cover and what is considered a ship's cover? Are any cover's signed by the Commanding Officer considered a Captain's cover or are any covers printed specially for the use of the crew considered ship's covers?

The first cover that I am aware of that that's considered a Captain's cover was for the MA-6 (Glenn) Mercury mission from the USS Randolph, the prime recovery ship for MA-6 (See photo above). This cover had a sticker cachet that was applied to the cover and are available both signed and unsigned by the Captain of the USS Randolph (Max Berns, Jr.). Since the cachet was used exclusively by the ship with some covers signed by the Commanding Officer is it a Captain's cover or a ship's cover?

The next Mercury mission, MA-7, was recovered by the USS Intrepid and also had a printed cachet specifically for the USS Intrepid. Like the USS Randolph cover it is also available signed and unsigned by the Commanding Officer of the USS Intrepid (James Abbot Jr.). Again, is this considered a Captain's cover or is it a ship's cover?

Note that there is a USS Decatur cover for the recovery of the unmanned MA-4 spacecraft but I believe this is considered a ship's cachet cover and not a Captain's cover (See photo below). This cover has a typed name of LT. J.A. Felt above the return address of the USS Decatur and not Commander Royal Thomas Daniel Jr. who was the Commanding Officer.

There is also a cover from the USS Lake Champlain for the recovery of Alan Shepard during the MR-3 mission that has a printed cachet and the ship's return address. Some collector's may consider it to be a Captain's cover and some a ship's cover? Which is it?

The first Captain's cover for the Gemini program was for the recovery of Jim McDivitt and Edward White II by the USS Wasp during the Gemini 4 mission (See Photo below). This was a printed cover with a printed signature of the Commanding Officer (James W. Conger). This cover as always been described as a Captain's cover, so there doesn't appear to be any debate as to whether it is a Captain's cover or a ship's cover. But what specifically makes it a Captain's cover? Did Captain Conger have these covers made for the crew?

There were other Captain's covers to commemorate the recovery of Gemini missions 6, 7, 9, 11 and 12 (See photo below for Gemini 9). I'm not aware of Captain's covers for Gemini's 3, 5, 8, and 10.

The most difficult ship's cover of the Gemini program is the one for Gemini 10. After many years of looking I was finally able to add one to my collection earlier this year (See photo below).

There were Captain's covers for the Apollo program as well. The first one that I'm aware of is the one for Apollo 11. There are also Captain's covers for Apollos 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17. I don't recall seeing a Captain's cover for Apollos 7, 8, 9, 10 and 13, although there is a ships cover for Apollo 10. The Apollo 10 ship's cover is the most difficult to find. Below is a photo of the Apollo 14 Captain's cover

There is also a cover with a Beck Rubber Stamp cachet for Apollo 9 with a printed LM in the lower right-hand corner. I don't believe this is either a Captain's cover or a ship's cover, so who made this cover?

There are also Captain's covers for Skylabs II, III and IV and a cover for ASTP that was privately made but was on the USS New Orleans for the recovery of the ASTP astronauts (See Photo Below). I've seen it described as a Captain's cover or a 'Crew's cover' but to my knowledge although covers were given to the crew it wasn't 'officially' made at the direction of or signed by the Captain (I believe these covers were produced by space cover collector Dr. Ben Ramkisson who was on the USS New Orleans).

Note that it is cancelled on July 25, 1975, the day after the ASTP splashdown. The reason for this is that this cover was on-board the USS New Orleans and the ship's postoffice was closed on July 24, 1975, the day the ASTP crew was recovered. Therefore it was cancelled the next day that the ship's postoffice was open, which was July 25, 1975.

If any collectSPACE member has additional information regarding Captain's covers please post it. Also if there are Captain's covers for Geminis 3, 5, 8, 10 and 11 and Apollos 7, 8, 9, 10 and 13 please post them.

posted 08-23-2026 03:44 PM               

I do think the answer is more "black and white" than you think.

A captain's cover is one in which the CACHET was created at the behest of the captain of the ship and PRINTED ON THE SHIP. Examples: MA-7 USS Intrepid and Gemini 4 USS Wasp in Randy's post. These were created at the behest of the captain and printed aboard the ship AND in both of these cases many (but not all!) covers sent to the ship by collectors also had the cachet printed on their covers.

While a ship's cover is the normal SHIP STATIONARY envelopes. Example is Axman's USS Lake Champlain cover for Alan Shepard's flight. These envelopes were available to the crew of the USS Lake Champlain for five cents at the ship's post office.

Interestingly, for Gemini 10, see Randy's post for the image, the USS Guadalcanal captain's cover cachet comes as both printed and rubber stamp formats.

The earliest prime ship rubber stamp covers were the USS Kearsarge covers for Schirra and Cooper flights.

For Gemini 8 there is no captain's cover but it is known that the printing office on the USS Boxer did produce copies of the Beck RSC in various colors. They were printed without numbers - known colors are: green, blue, gold and silver-grey with a hand cancel plus red and blue with a machine cancel.

The Apollo 10 captain's cover, along with Beck RSC and printed cachet, can be seen in this image from SCOTW week 6! from the Pooz.

There are no captain's covers for Apollo 13. However there is an Artopages one that is sometimes called a captain's cover.

The variation of these are ship covers not printed on the ship - Examples: Artopages printed covers for Apollo 13 USS Iwo Jima, or looks to be ship's stationary with personally added cachet items like Lt. Felt's cover for MA-4 USS Decatur (see image in Randy's post that adds typed name and rubber stamp words to the USS Decatur stationary - note that there are actually two versions of the stationary). I have not seen any references to the captain of these ships involved in their creation/distribution.

Randy, no idea who did the Apollo 9 cover or when the printed part was applied - it could have been before or after the cover was processed on the ship.

There are also some Press Pool printed covers that were aboard ships - again, not directly related to the captain or ship - here is one from J. Walter Green for Apollo 14 from cS member Kosmo post in 2020.

A couple corrections to Randy's post - there are NO CAPTAIN'S COVERS FOR THE SKYLAB MISSIONS. Cover's typically called captain or ship covers for these missions were privately printed and brought aboard the ships by Dr. Ben Ramkissoon. The ASTP cover was not done by Dr. Ben Ramkissoon by but space cover dealer Sean Marsar (as these have his RS address on the back side of the covers).

It should also be noted that ship and captain's covers come in different size envelopes.

There are also some other official naval covers for missions like the Commander in Chief Pacific stationary for I believe Apollo 12 through 16.

posted 08-24-2026 11:32 AM               

Before I summarize the list of Captain's covers I would like to verify that the Gemini 11 cover shown below is a Captain's cover. If it is, or isn't, please let me know.

posted 08-24-2026 01:08 PM               

Interestingly this is an instance of astronaut autopen signatures printed as part of the cachet of a captain's cover.

posted 08-24-2026 01:45 PM               

Based on the explanation of a Captain's cover I believe the list below is a complete list of Prime Recovery Ship Captain's covers:

• MA-6 - USS Randolph
  
• MA-7 - USS Intrepid
  
• Gemini 4 - USS Wasp
  
• Gemini 6 – USS Wasp
  
• Gemini 7 – USS Wasp
  
• Gemini 9 – USS Wasp
  
• Gemini 10 – USS Guadalcanal
  
• Gemini 11 – USS Guam
  
• Gemini 12 – USS Wasp
  
• Apollo 10 – USS Princeton
  
• Apollo 11 – USS Hornet
  
• Apollo 12 – USS Hornet
  
• Apollo 14 – USS New Orleans
  
• Apollo 15 – USS Okinawa
  
• Apollo 16 – USS Ticonderoga
  
• Apollo 17 – USS Ticonderoga

posted 08-24-2026 05:39 PM               

How about PRS covers for MA-8 and MA-9 issued under the Captain's corner card? Captain's Covers? Or something else? See below.

posted 08-24-2026 06:14 PM               

Those are great covers, but I don't believe they can be called "Captain's covers" because, even though they are on the Commanding Officer's stationery and are signed by the Captain, the envelopes weren't produced specifically for the mission, even though they have a Beck RSC for the mission. They are standard ship's stationery for the Captain; he would have used those envelopes for correspondence before and after the mission.

posted 08-24-2026 09:37 PM               

Randy, you are correct that the Pooz's covers are normal ship stationary for the captain's use. The added RSC, however, was not created by Beck but it was created by the ship.

Because the USS Kearsarge rubber stamp was applied to nearly ALL covers sent to the ship the covers are NOT considered to be captain's covers.

The other prime ship rubber stamp, already mentioned was the Gemini 10 USS Guadalcanal ship rubber stamp, which matched the printed cachet on the ship's captain's cover, and was applied to only a limited number of covers.

posted 08-28-2026 08:02 AM               

Are these two covers considered captain covers?

posted 08-28-2026 10:20 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by bobslittlebro:
Are these two covers considered captain covers?

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posted 08-29-2026 08:26 AM               

The next is a USS Randolph Glenn Captain cover with a rare machine cancel. Cover is dated Mar 9,1962. Possible return to port?

posted 08-31-2026 09:57 PM               

The GT-11 cover is the ship stationary envelope that the sailors could buy at the ship post office so not a captain's covers.

quote:

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Originally posted by Ken Havekotte:
Is it not uncommon to find hardly any PRS covers posted but with no postage stamps applied?

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posted 09-02-2026 05:16 AM               

I'm thinking of the likes of such as the one illustrated here:

posted 09-03-2026 07:52 AM               

There are no images in all the previous posts for a Gemini 12 Captain's Cover, although Gemini 12 is one of the missions that produced them, can I conclude that my image is one of the GT-12's Captain's cover?

There is an image shown by Randy in his initial post showing an Apollo 14 Captain's cover which has both a printed cachet and an additional Beck RSC alongside it. The printed image is different to mine. Is mine a Captain's cover as well, or something else entirely?

posted 09-03-2026 09:59 AM               

To me there are clear signs that the Gemini 4 and Gemini 12 captain's covers have a shared design basis. The Gemini 9 captain's cover, though not so obviously, also seems to be connected.

As all three missions were recovered aboard the USS Wasp this seems like a fairly reasonable conclusion.

However, the captain for each cover is a different individual: James W Conger; G E Hartley; and Melvin Rhuel Etheridge.

It seems highly unlikely to me that these captains themselves designed the cachets. Not only were they responsible for an entire ship and therefore very busy people, but I doubt they went to the same art design classes either. It is much more probable that another individual, either ship-based or shore-based was commissioned to design these covers. Do we know who that is?
Given that, after analysing the definition of a captain's cover "created at the behest of the captain of the ship and PRINTED ON THE SHIP." - I am intrigued to know who actually designed the USS Wasp's "captain's covers", and was he aboard the ship at the time of each of these missions, was he a crew member, or in the Navy, or did he have an outside connection to the USS Wasp; additionally what printing process did they use, was the printing press a permanent fixture onboard, or just loaded for each mission; and given that one of the connecting features of these designs is the precise location of the splashdown, was that a last minute process of the cachet printing or are the coordinates only best guesses and the cachets actually printed days or hours beforehand on board?

posted 09-03-2026 10:55 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Axman:
....

It is much more probable that another individual, either ship-based or shore-based was commissioned to design these covers. Do we know who that is?

Given that, after analysing the definition of a captain's cover "created at the behest of the captain of the ship and PRINTED ON THE SHIP." - I am intrigued to know who actually designed the USS Wasp's "captain's covers", and was he aboard the ship at the time of each of these missions, was he a crew member, or in the Navy, or did he have an outside connection to the USS Wasp; additionally what printing process did they use, was the printing press a permanent fixture onboard, or just loaded for each mission; and given that one of the connecting features of these designs is the precise location of the splashdown, was that a last minute process of the cachet printing or are the coordinates only best guesses and the cachets actually printed days or hours beforehand on board?

Finally, is it certain that these captain's cover cachets were actually printed aboard ship, or is it possible they were applied onshore to postmarked blank envelopes?

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I have never seen any document that states exactly who on the ship created the design of the USS Wasp captain's cover cachet (or, for that matter, any other ship captain's cover). The carriers have their own printing machinery aboard ship and personnel that can do graphic design work (e.g. ship newsletters, announcements, menus, posters, etc.) so it could be one or more sailors who designed the cachet and obviously would have previous work aboard the ship to reference.

Examples of GT-12 captain's covers do exist where the exact latitude and longitude are NOT a part of the cachet as it was unknown at the time ..... these are sometimes referred to as a "proof" cachet .... ones I have seen had the location typed in and do have the splashdown postmark date. Thus, after updating with the exact location, the covers were printed aboard the ship using the ship's permanent printing press.

For GT-9 there are two versions of the captain's cover cachet with the only difference between them being the latitude and longitude being different.