Red New York cds with red "SHIP" straightline on folded letter to New Jersey with manuscript "8" and "Ship Virginia."

In 1825, Postmaster General John McLean established a new way of treating letters carried by non-contract ships from New Orleans to New York, Philadelphia and Providence, Rhode Island. The Postmaster General created the fiction that such vessels were "Impliedly under contract" so that, unlike other non-contract vessels whose letters were rated based on the distance (i) from the port of entry to destination without regard to the distance traveled to arrive at the port of entry, or (ii) were charged a flat rate if the letter was addressed to the port of entry without regard to the distance traveled to reach the port of entry, these letters were also charged for the distance over any waters they traveled if those waters were official post road (e.g., in the case of a letter from New Orleans to Philadelphia, the distance down the Mississippi River from New Orleans to the sea and the distance from the sea up the Delaware River to Philadelphia.) 9

This letter carried from New Orleans to Rahway, NJ via New York City which is rated under the old system for the distance from New York City to Rahway (6e for not over 30 miles + 2c ship fee) without regard to the 103 miles traveled down the Mississippi River and across Long Island Sound to New York.

This was carried on the Ship Virginia in 1825 before the "Mail Route" fiction was created.