names on two of the five stamps were spelt wrongly, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

Now hundreds of thousands of 65 cent and five cent stamps, worth thousands of dollars, have been scrapped and the original issue -- delayed due to the error -- has been cut to just three.

One stamp collector -- who asked not to be named -- said: "It's just diabolical. What an embarrassment.

"It's ridiculous. The world is focusing on us during the Tall Ships Race.

"It's a great chance to get these stamps and Bermuda's name around the world and then this happens.'' The stamps, all featuring different ships taking part in the marathon race, were specially printed in the UK and due to be issued before the annual Bermuda Day holiday.

But the errors, plus a delay in getting them from the airport, meant they arrived at the General Post Office in Hamilton on Tuesday, just a day before the Wednesday celebrations.

Postmaster General Clevelyn Crichlow said: "We were supposed to have them on May 23. We did have a problem with the spelling of two of the ships.

"In order not to scrap the issue entirely, because we didn't have time to go back to London and do more first day covers and all that, we decided to scale it down to three ships.'' The first tall ships to reach Bermuda from Cadiz in Spain are due to arrive at the weekend.

Mr. Crichlow declined to say whose fault the spelling errors were but The Royal Gazette understands that race organisers supplied the Post Office stamp design committee with the names of the vessels.

Mr. Crichlow said: "I really don't want to put blame on anyone in particular.

"It was an error in communication between the Tall Ships Committee and my Post Office stamp design committee.

But he added: "In the final analysis, it's going to be our fault. We didn't get the correct information, but we produce the stamps, so it rests in our laps.

"We didn't receive the correct information -- that's the most I can say.'' Mr. Crichlow said the final cost of the two spelling mistakes -- Blue Nose II instead of Bluenose II on one stamp and Jolie Brize instead of Jolie Brise in the other -- had yet to be calculated.

But he added 10,000 sheets of stamps with 50 stamps each had to be trashed -- a total of 500,000 stamps.

And about 5,000 first day covers have also had to be dumped because of the mistakes.

Mr. Crichlow said: "We haven't been able to ascertain the cost yet. We fortunately didn't produce the total amount of first day covers.'' But he added that special first day covers bearing the three stamps, as well as individual examples of the three all-correct stamps, were now available.