STAMP collecting, that somewhat nerdiest of hobbies, is reportedly fashionable again among millennials. That’s somewhat surprising, if only because few letters are sent anymore, and these days parcels are delivered by couriers rather than postal workers.

But during its 1960s and 1970s heyday, this innocent pastime was enjoyed by a majority of British schoolboys. Naturally, I was one of them.

One of the biggest joys was getting your hands on stamps from the more obscure outcrops of what had until quite recently been the British Empire and turning to an atlas to ascertain the geographical whereabouts of their place of issue.

This has certainly paid off in later life. To this day, I can still point out British Bechuanaland, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Tristan Da Cunha on a suitably pink-tinted map.

I got a similar vibe today after reading our story on the flagging choices of the dark fleet.

Registers such as St Kitts and Nevis, and the Cook Islands — two other territories I recollect from my years as a junior philatelist — are increasingly unwilling to flag tankers engaged in trades with sanctioned Russia, Iran and Venezuela.

Instead, these vessels are increasingly turning to Barbados, another jurisdiction extensively represented in the stamp albums I have never been able to bring myself to throw away.

The former British colony now flags 30 of the 73 ships sanctioned by the UK over the past five months. Most of them are beneficially owned by Russian government-controlled tanker giant Sovcomflot.

By the way, did I mention that the USSR used to have some really great stamps?

Lloyd’s List did try talking to the register and the Barbadian government about this issue. It didn’t return our calls.

The business does remain legal. But Barbados may want to consider the reputational risk it runs in accepting the tankers, for a comparatively small return.

David Osler
Law and marine insurance editor, Lloyd’s List

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