HISTORY

Chogyal PT Namgyal launching the Rocket mail Stephen Smith Courtesy: Tenzin C Tashi

WE’VE GOT ROCKET MAIL!

Forgotten by some, unknown to many, the Sikkim Rocket Mail Experiment
1935 completes seventy five years since its first successful experiment which
marked the world’s first ever parcel dispatch over a river conducted at Rani
Khola near Ranipool. Sheetal Pradhan reminisces

I
first heard about the Sikkim Rocket great accomplishment and attempt of for an old document at the State Archives
Mail Experiment in early 2001 while a single man, Stephen Hector Taylor- Department at Gangtok, I happened to
browsing through web pages on Smith, also regarded the pioneer of come across a personal file of Stephen
Sikkim. Since then I have been looking Indian Rocket Mail. More than seven Smith about his proposed trip to Sikkim
for every minute detail and information decades of the historical experiments for the Rocket Mail Experiment of 1935.
about this Experiment which was a that set the wheels rolling for the world’s The file contained letters documenting
pioneering effort in the history of mail airmail invention, it remains sadly long the process for acquiring the permit
post. Interestingly, this year is also the forgotten in this part of the world today. sought by Smith to then kingdom of
75th anniversary of the Sikkim Rocket Also forgotten is the world’s first ever Sikkim. I must have been the first person
Mail. parcel dispatch over a river that was to have leafed through these in more than
I joined Weekend Review, a noted conducted at Rani Khola near Ranipool five or six decades. I interacted with the
weekly newspaper then published from (East Sikkim). It would intrigue many a Archives officials, hoping to get some
Gangtok, with an article on the Sikkim Sikkimese to know that it was one of the more information, but apart from the fact
Rocket Mail Experiment 1935, marking greatest accomplishments carried out on that a document titled ‘Proposed visit of
my entry as a journalist in the Sikkimese Sikkimese soil when for the first time a Stephen Smith to Sikkim’ was listed in
print media. For obvious reasons, the parcel was carried by means of a rocket. their records, they were unable to give
story of Sikkim’s Rocket Mail remains This successful rocket firing was done me any other piece of information.
very close to my heart. The small note from Saramsa to Ray. From the file I discovered that,
that I received as the first feedback for Much of the information that I share following the Sikkim Rocket Mail
my article on Sikkim Rocket Mail in here is extracted from the websites on Experiment 1935, Smith had sent three
2003 read: “lost in 1935 re-discovered the 1935 Silver Jubilee of George V as photographs of the event to Chogyal Sir
in 2003”. These words reflected the well as from the book From the Diary Tashi Namgyal, the then king of Sikkim.
very ethos of the Sikkim Rocket Mail of Stephen Smith. Some have also been However, doe to some unknown reason,
Experiment of 1935 which had been sourced from the documents collected these photographs were returned back to
long lost and was nowhere to be found from the State Archives Department, Stephen Smith. The file further contains
even in Sikkim itself. Government of Sikkim. a letter from an American stamp collector
Today the West acknowledges the Last year i.e. 2009, while searching asking the Chogyal about the items of

40 Talk Sikkim October 2010

Stephen Smith Special Cover Stephen Smith with Rocket

the Sikkim Rocket Mail to which the two thousand of each kind being printed statue on the wall leading to the male
Chogyal had directed that the American by Experimenter. ward of Gangtok’s STNM Hospital.
get in touch with Smith directly. It was At the time, experiments for sending Prior to the first experiment at
sheer pleasure going through each page mail through rockets were being Gangtok, experimental tests of firing of
of that file, being allowed to touch and conducted in only two places in the entire four rockets were conducted of which
feel a part of history. According to the Indian subcontinent. One was Calcutta two was ragged and busted. The first
letters in the file, two separate events and some of the district towns of West official rocket mail was carried from
were held at Sikkim. First, the Sikkim Bengal, and the other was the kingdom of the Gangtok Post Office compound to
Rocket Mail envelopes were posted in Sikkim. All of the rockets were supplied the Durbar High School, transporting a
the first half of 1935 and second, the free to Smith by the Oriental Fireworks load of 200 items. It was fired between
Sikkim Rocket Gram Experiment was Company of Calcutta who was also 10.30 am and 10.35 am. The envelopes
held in the second half of the same year. responsible for their design. The rockets were franked with the special two-rupee
It was a red letter day on April 7, were learnt to be fairly crude, resembling Rocket Mail label in blue and yellow.
1935 at Gangtok, the then capital of the larger versions of fireworks. They were The letters were then posted and bore the
small Himalayan kingdom of Sikkim, approximately six feet in length with the postmark ‘Gangtok 7 April 1939’. Two
when the first Sikkim Rocket Mail body (which carried the mail) two feet launches made with over 50 yards were
Experiment, a unique experiment in long. They were launched by lighting a successful.
mail delivery, was flown. In fact, Sikkim touch paper from a sloping stand aimed The second firing was done at Chogyal
was one of the first few countries in the in the general direction of the intended Tashi Namgyal Field towards the Post
world during the reign of the Chogyal to target. “The rockets were launched by Office in presence of the Chogyal. His
perform this ambitious feat. The parcels lighting a touch paper from a sloping Highness signed his name in three of the
along with letters and other items were stand aimed in the general direction of six covers. The covers scripted ‘Tashi
sent from the rockets to the assigned the intended target” reads a document Namgyal Field 8/4/35’. Six covers and
destinations. relating to the experiment. 410 cards were flown by the Maharajah
The Sikkim Rocket mail experiments Sikkim is also the first country in with the weight of the mail carried by
were the first official firings in Asia. the world to successfully dispatch by the rocket standing at one pound (0.45
Stephen Hector Smith, a pioneer in means of a rocket, a parcel containing kg). The evening of April 8 witnessed
Indian Rocket mail history, chose small quantities of useful articles such as an interesting sight: the rocket being
Sikkim for his experiment because of medicine, tobacco, tea, sugar etc. Among fired vertically upwards. This marked
its favourable geographical conditions, the people who helped the Sikkim Rocket the first vertical firing east of Europe.
including the mountains. With the Experiment succeed were Chogyal Sir The rocket carrying 388 gold cards
sanction from the Sikkim Durbar, Tashi Namgyal, CE Dudley, General weighing 21 pounds rose to a height of
Stephen Smith visited Sikkim early in Secretary to the Chogyal Tashi Dadul 1000 feet. The Chogyal autographed two
April 1935 and conducted a series of Densarpa, Private Secretary Rai Sahib cards for the experimenter and granted
experiments. The Durbar also sanctioned Fakir Chand Jali, the State Engineer and him permission to have a personalised
the use of four special rockets labels for British Political Officer, F Williamson block with his signature to impress on
use on the mail and parcel experiments, who has been immortalized through a all rocket mail items dispatched by him!

Talk Sikkim October 2010 41

HISTORY
to observe the strength of the rocket
against the gale. Smith fired eight firing
over the Singtam River in Singtam on
April 13 with 118 covers flown. The
distance covered by the rocket was 550
yards. The ninth and last firing in Sikkim
was carried out over the Rangpo River at
Rangpo. 100 covers flown.
In another milestone, on September
28, 1935, a Rocket Mail experiment was
conducted in Gangtok which involved
the rocket carrying a rooster! This is
the second achievement for Sikkim in
Rocket Mail history.
Stephen Smith FDC
Today, stationery items related to the
The fourth firing saw 175 covers being Dudley fired the parcel rocket over the historic Sikkim Rocket Mail Experiment
dispatched by Political Officer FW river Rani Khola from Saramsa to Ray. are much sought-after by airmail
Williamson from the Dak Bungalow At the other end, Smith opened the parcel collectors as well as philatelists across
towards the Post Office. The rocket after it successfully crossed the river and the globe. I found it very interesting that
failed to reach its target and struck a rock reached its destination. All the articles the cost of a single Sikkim Rocket mail
and smashed. were perfectly intact. In the missives of flight cover ranges from $100 to $500. I
The world’s first parcel dispatch word ‘mail’ had been cancelled by hand have been fortunate to have in my own
over the river was done on April 10 and the word ‘Parcel’ written instead. collection one of the labels or the Sikkim
over the Rani Khola which was spelt The firing was once again carried out Rocket mail stamp including a signature
as ‘Ranikhali’ on the covers at 3.30 pm over the Rani Khola, but from the of Stephen Smith for which I shelled out
that historic day. CE Dudley discharged opposite bank i.e. from Ray to Saramsa. Rs 1,500 a few years back.
the mail rocket. The sixth firing on April Tashi Dadul Densapa fired the 186-cover Today, we may have long forgotten
10 at 3.35 pm established a new world flight. Dudley handed over a certificate this rare achievement that was performed
record when for the first time a parcel to Smith hailing this experiment as a on our very soil. Nonetheless, whenever
was carried by the means of a rocket. means of transport during floods or anyone talks about airmail history, the
The parcel comprised of 12 items that landslips. Another experiment was held name ‘Sikkim Rocket Mail Experiment
included packets of tea, sugar, spoons, on the same day opposite the White 1935’ will always be given its due
handkerchief, toothbrush and cigarettes. Memorial Hall in Gangtok. The test was respect.

42 Talk Sikkim October 2010