Royal Mail unveils merchant navy stamps – in pictures

The collection salutes the heritage of Britain's trading fleet of ships, which exported and imported goods from around the world, as well as passengers – and continues to do so to this day. The stamps have been made into 7ft flags which fly from the clipper Cutty Sark in Greenwich. Photograph: Matt Dunham/AP

The ships featured on the stamps are (top row, left to right) Clan Matheson (1919), Royal Mail Ship Queen Elizabeth (1940), Lord Hinton (1986); (bottom row, left to right) the East Indiaman Atlas (1813), Cutty Sark (1870) and the Royal Mail Ship Britannia (1840) Photograph: Royal Mail/PA

A miniature sheet of four additional stamps has also been launched to honour the contribution of service personnel who sailed in the Atlantic and Arctic Convoys during the second world war. One of these stamps shows a semaphore message being sent as a merchant navy ship passes control base Photograph: Ed Stone/Cartel Photos/Rex Features

The destroyer HMS Vanoc on Atlantic Convoy escort duty Photograph: Ed Stone/Cartel Photos/Rex Features

Clearing the deck of the battleship HMS King George V Photograph: Ed Stone/Cartel Photos/Rex Features

The North Sea Convoy Photograph: Ed Stone/Cartel Photos/Rex Features

Merchant navy veterans and their descendants joined Atlantic and Arctic Convoy heroes on the Cutty Sark in Greenwich. Left to right are Sid Hunt, 88, who sailed in the Atlantic Convoys and has the Atlantic Star, Ascension Star, Pacific Star and European Star medals; Leslie Taylor, 89, who sailed on SS Avondale Park – the last ship to be torpedoed by the Germans; Donald Staddon, 88, who sailed on Atlantic Convoys and was torpedoed twice between 1941 and 1945; Captain Gwilym Williams, 98, who survived two torpedo attacks during the Atlantic Convoys; Frederick John Honisett, 85, who sailed on the Atlantic Convoys and has the Pacific Star; Derek Ings, 88, who was an assistant purser during the second world war in the merchant navy, had a 46-year career on the sea and consulted for the Cutty Sark; and Stanley Mayes, 83, who sailed on the Tamaroa as a merchant navy butcher, trained during the second world war and, joining just as the war ended, took 'Ten Pound Poms' to Australia Photograph: Ed Stone/Cartel Photos/Rex Features