SOMERTON MAN: THE DELORAINE & THE USS NEW ORLEANS, THE BOTTOM LINE. Updated

HMAS DELORAINE J232
& USS NEW ORLEANS CA32

The Somerton Man code page has revealed one of its secrets, and there are more to come. The image of the letter Q further down this page shows just some of the micro written letters and numbers found concealed beneath the 'code' letters that were partially overwritten by the Police.  The numbers and letters correspond with the HMAS Deloraine and the USS New Orleans. We followed up by examining the Proceedings from the HMAS Deloraine and they show beyond doubt that both ships were only once in close proximity to each other. In fact the Deloraine was acting as a 'screen' for the newly repaired New Orleans as it left Sydney Harbour for its return journey to the Puget Sound Naval Base in the US.

The above image was retrieved from the Australian War Memorial website, it shows the New Orleans at sea and underway. Note the very much shortened bow, the ship had been torpedoed and the damage took 115 feet off the bow. 

The photograph was likely taken by a RAAF aircraft known to be filming close to Sydney Harbour at the time. Of note is the fact that the ship's hull number, CA 32, were not visible on the port side of the ship, probably overlooked during the repair. However, ships at the time had their numbers painted on both sides so the CA 32 number would have been visible from the Starboard side, this would have been visible from the South Head side of the harbour. A place where, incidentally, the RAN had in March 1943, a newly opened training facility for perators of ASDIC and Radar equipment. Another coinicidence perhaps is that the Officer in charge of that training facility was a Lieutenant Commander Francis.

CLOSE UP 'Q'

We can now put a day, date and indeed an approximate time to when the letter Q at least was written. According to the log files (Proceedings), the two ships were in close proximity at around: 

9 am on Sunday, 7th March, 1943

The hidden letters were revealed using a Sodium Hypochlorite development technique
as described in a 1942 British SOE manual.

It seems more than likely that the USS New Orleans, despite having had extensive repairs to its bow destroyed in a torpedo attack at the battle of  TASAAFARONGA near Guadalcanal on 30th November 1942, left Sydney Harbour bow first in contrast to its arrival there in December 1942 stern first due to the enormous amount of damage done by the torpedo.

Interestingly, the date of the torpedo attack was 6 years to the day before the Somerton Man was first spotted on the beach at Somerton. That date could, of course, be pure coincidence, but an interesting one just the same.

Another interesting fact, yet to be formally confirmed, is that the USS New Orleans left Sydney Harbour approximately 35 minutes after the Deloraine.

Ship Movement Spotting

Last year, Clive had interviewed Paul Lawson, the man who created the now famous bust of the Somerton Man. In the interview Paul dropped something of a bombshell, he stated that Jestyn was receiving details of ship movements from Alf Boxall. Alf was the Army Lieutenant who had known Jestyn in 1945. In fact, Jestyn had handwritten verse 70 of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in the front of another version that she had given to Alf Boxall at their meeting at the Clifton Gardens Hotel just across the harbour from Watson's Bay, the March 1943 mooring place of  HMAS Deloraine.

The Code Page

The evidence points to the code page being the original ship movement notes possibly made by someone who was located in a position from where they could see both ships. That could be either Georges Head or South Head/Watson's Bay. Alternatively, it was written by someone who had access to the ship movement records.

J232 HMAS DELORAINE                                                                 USS NEW ORLEANS                  

Both ships shown were last seen together on Sunday 7th March 1943 when someone at South Head close to the mouth of Sydney Harbour made clandestine notes on the back of a copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. The same Rubaiyat that turned up in June 1949 and was associated with the body of the Somerton Man thanks to the finding of a tiny slip of paper rolled up in a hidden fob pocket which the Somerton Man was wearing at the time of his discovery.

Questions:

1. Where was Alf Boxall on 7th March 1943?

2. Where was Jestyn on that date and time?

3. Was there a third person who was in a position to make those notes?

We have every reason to think that Jestyn was in Sydney and her address was in Mosman. Not that far, a short bus ride perhaps from the area around Georges' head although it must be said that that particular area formed part of the Sydney Harbour defences at that time so access may have been restricted and only Military personnel having legitimate access.

What we do know is that the book on which the code was written turned up in Adelaide in June 1949, a piece was torn from it that contained the words TAMAM SHUD and a piece matching that torn-out area was found tightly rolled up and pushed well down into a concealed fob pocket that the Somerton Man was wearing when he was found on the beach on December 1st 1948.

What's Next

There are many more letters to be more thoroughly examined but we already know that some contain relatively clear letters and numbers, so we will be looking at those first. Best to substantiate what is known.