Many modern stamps from the Caribbean commemorate a maritime tradition encompassing everything from dugout canoes belonging to indigenous people to modern refrigerated cargo vessels and colossal cruise ships. Five ships occupy a special niche in this maritime and philatelic history: the Lady Drake, the Lady Nelson, the Lady Hawkins, the Lady Rodney and the Lady Somers. Both stamps and items of postal history provide collectors with many souvenirs of years of service by the Lady Boats that carried passengers and freight between Canada and the Caribbean beginning in 1928, and ending in 1952 when the two liners that had survived the Second World War were sold.
The Lady Boats were ordered under legislation passed by the Canadian government in 1927 to modernize the its merchant marine fleet. Authorities hoped to make the fleet competitive while meeting obligations to provide regular steamship services to the Caribbean under a trade
