1c Bank Note, Continental Printing (Scott 156), two horizontal strips of five and vertical pair (one strip of five affixed to reverse) with the stamps on front tied by New York duplex cancels and the stamps on back with cork cancels, fancy manuscript sender's note "Ship's Letter, U.S.S. Vandalia, Harbor of Kingston, Jamaica Apr. 19th 1876, Geo. H. Cooke Surgeon, U.S. Navy", to his wife in Philadelphia, blue ms. "Due 21c" barely ties strip on front, cover roughly opened and slightly reduced at right, three stamps with small faults

The USS Vandalia, according to its wikipedia page, was commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on January 10, 1876. 

European Squadron, 1876–1878

Vandalia was soon deployed with the European Squadron and spent most of the next three years cruising in the Mediterranean along the coasts of Africa, the Middle East, and Turkey. She was run into by the Norwegian barque Atlantic. Vandalia towed Atlantic to Lisbon, Portugal, arriving on 1 November 1876. The ship put into Villefranche, France, in October 1877, and left on 13 December with former President Ulysses S. Grant and his party as passengers. During the next three months, the screw sloop of war touched at ports in Italy, Egypt, Turkey, and Greece before Grant and his party disembarked at Naples on 18 March 1878. After making several more Mediterranean cruises, Vandalia received orders to return to the United States later that year. She put into Boston on 13 January 1879 and departed on 7 April, bound for Norfolk, Virginia, and duty with the North Atlantic Squadron.

North Atlantic Squadron, 1879–1884

Vandalia remained with the North Atlantic Squadron for five years, performing patrol, reconnaissance, and convoy escort duty off the eastern seaboard of the United States. The vessel was also active off the Grand Banks, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean. Vandalia was detached from the squadron in 1884 and put out of commission at the Portsmouth Navy Yard on 14 October for a thorough overhaul, which took over a year. 

Pacific Squadron, 1886–1889

Vandalia was ready for recommissioning on 15 February 1886, and she left New York on 14 August, heading westward for duty with the Pacific Squadron as the flagship of Rear Admiral Lewis Kimberly. Vandalia remained with the squadron into 1889, seeing duty in the Hawaiian Islands and Samoa, as well as along the Pacific coasts of North, Central, and South America. The sloop put into the Mare Island Navy Yard, San Francisco, for repairs on 11 October 1888.

Wrecked in a cyclone, 16 March 1889

While Vandalia lay at Mare Island, relations between American and German officials at Apia, Samoa, became increasingly strained. Late in the winter of 1889, at the behest of the American consul in Samoa, Vandalia, Trenton, and Nipsic sailed for Samoa and reached Apia Harbor early in March to balance the presence of the German vessels Adler, Olga, and Eber. The British were ably represented by HMS Calliope. On 15 and 16 March 1889, each of these vessels suddenly became trapped in the harbor when violent, hurricane-force winds roared out of the northeast, driving mountainous waves before them in the 1889 Apia cyclone. Adler, Olga, and Eber were all either sunk or hopelessly grounded and torn apart on the sharp reef, and together lost a total of 150 officers and crew killed. The powerful engines of Calliope barely enabled the vessel to get to sea in a dramatic performance that drew cheers from the crews of the American vessels. However, despite heroic efforts by the officers and crews of Vandalia and Trenton, the two vessels tore their bottoms out upon the reef on 16 March. Vandalia struck at about noon and sank until her decks were completely awash, forcing her crew to scramble into the rigging. Trenton grounded alongside Vandalia at 2200 that evening, but enough of her main deck remained above water to allow Vandalia's crew to climb on board. After the hurricane began, Nipsic was driven ashore on a sandy beach and was later salvaged.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++