30c Orange (38). Cancelled by red grid, matching "New York Paid 18 Oct. 3" credit datestamp on 1858 blue folded cover to Barcelona, Spain, endorsed "P Vanderbilt" and carried aboard the famed Vanderbilt of the Vanderbilt Line, Havre transit, red boxed "P.P." handstamp, blue "8Rs." due handstamp, appropriate transits, faint vertical file fold well away from stamp

VERY FINE. A COLORFUL AND SCARCE 30-CENT 1860 ISSUE COVER TO SPAIN, CARRIED BY THE VANDERBILT, WHICH WAS BUILT BY CORNELIUS VANDERBILT FOR TRANSATLANTIC PACKET SERVICE AND LATER SERVED AS A UNITED STATES NAVAL SHIP DURING THE CIVIL WAR.

Built for direct competition with the British Cunard Line, the passenger mail steamship Vanderbilt was named for steamship and railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt. Flying the flag of the Vanderbilt European Line, she sailed (in summertime only) until the Civil War. The Vanderbilt was then chartered to the government as a transport, but when the Confederacy unveiled the C.S.S. Virginia, Vanderbilt offered the services of his ship -- which had 50 feet of iron plating forward -- as a ram to destroy the ironclad. Armed with two 200-pounder, twelve 9-inch, and one 12-pounder guns, she arrived at Hampton Roads after the duel between Virginia and Monitor. She then sailed in a yearlong search for the Confederate raider Alabama, during which time she captured several blockade-runners.

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