THE SHIFTING SANDS OF SOMERTON BEACH: THE HIGH TIDE, BREAKTHROUGH...

THE SOMERTON MAN DID NOT DIE ON THE BEACH, HE DIED ELSEWHERE AND HIS BODY WAS PLACED ON THE BEACH AFTER THE HIGH TIDE.. THE EVIDENCE...

 

1. GOOGLE EARTH VIEW...

December 1st 1948 at approximately 4.30 am, was the time of the Spring/ Neap tide, the highest tide of the year. 

This raised a question, just how far up the beach did that tide travel? What if that tide had reached the sea wall, what would be the implications of it did? Furthermore, How would we be able to find out if that was the case, did the tide actually reached the low sea wall against which the Somerton Man was found lying? He was found with his head and shoulders leant against the wall and his legs, crossed, were pointed towards the sea...

This Google Earth image shows a recent view of the exact place where the body of the Somerton Man was found on December 1st, 1948, this image is dated December 15th, 2020, the Spring Tide had occurred in early December, just as it did in December 1st, 1948.

You can see the measurements marked on the image and you can quickly calculate that the height of the rock wall from the Pathway edge to the beach floor is just around 14 feet. In fact, when Dr. John Luick and I compared the notes, the vertical height of 14 feet was the same in 1948, despite the regularly shifting sands over the years. 

(It transpires the Department of the Environment has had responsibility over the years for maintaining sand levels. In the early days that was done by physically trucking loads of beach sand from one beach to another. In recent years that system was upgraded when they added a pipeline from Glenelg to Kingston beach, the pipe itself was concealed beneath the rock wall that you can see in the image.)

2. THE FIRST CLUE

That 14-foot measurement was one of the first clues, Dr. Luick used that in his first assessment of just how far up the beach the high tide had traveled. If you look closely at the image at the top of this post, you will see that there is debris, more than likely seaweed, scattered along the beach close to the base of the rock sea wall. What if that tide in 1948 did the same thing, what if it too brought with it a payload of seaweed and other debris?

3. THE CALCULATIONS

As you have read in earlier posts on this subject, the calculations that were derived from the number and estimated height of the steps leading down to the sand gave us the vertical height between the edge of the road to the beach floor in 1948. Surprisingly, the vertical measurements were remarkably similar to those we discovered in the Google Earth Satellite image shown above. This despite a fair amount of work having taken place in the intervening years; the whole embankment and its low sea wall, as was in 1948, was reworked on at least two occasions in that time. The most recent works that we see evidenced in the top image, added a fairly wide footpath to the beach side of the Esplanade leading to the steepening of the angle of the rock covered sea wall. But, the vertical height from the edge of the pathway to the beach floor, faithfully recorded by Google Earth, remains almost the same as it was in December 1948.

Dr Luick and I have exchanged numerous emails over the course of the last month or more discussing the various measurements and came to the conclusion that having similar measurements was all well and good but what we really needed was a photograph taken at or near the time, December 1st 1948, that would prove the tide reached up to the low sea wall. We needed an image that showed debris washed up by the sea and against that low wall as the tide rolled in. A big ask.

4. THE BREAKTHROUGH EVIDENCE

As you have probably surmised, we found a photograph that did just that. Better still, this was a Police photograph, here it is:

Yes, it was the original image that shows the location where the body was found on the beach and the Crippled Children's Home. We believe that the image was taken within 7 days or so of the finding of the body. Researching Wiki, we found that the image was marked as having Crown copyright and that it was named as a Police photograph taken in 1948.

The marked area to the right of the steps shows an amount of debris, quite probably seaweed, right against the low sea wall. How did it get there? One way was by the action of the high tide. Here's a larger, unmarked image showing the same debris:

'I cannot say whether or not that is debris left at high tide. I would agree that if the seaweed/debris was left at a high tide, then the tide would have reached the body that night because the tides were at the “springs” portion of the spring/neap cycle at the time.' Dr. john Luick

This result is as close to a solid confirmation that we can hope to get. As John points out, there is no way we could say the tide definitely carried the debris to the wall; apart from having a film of the tide moving in on that day which we do not have. However, what we have is close to it, we can say that, on the balance of probabilities, then it would be the tide that washed the debris in. To underline that, the Google Earth image was taken of the same location in December 2020, with extraordinarily similar measurements, also shows debris along that same stretch of sand and very close to the wall. Further evidence was provided by Constable Moss at the 1949 Inquest, in his words, 'The sand around the body was undisturbed..' How does sand get to be undisturbed? One certain way is when the sand gets washed over by the tide.

5. THE IMPLICATIONS

One of the first reports in the press clearly states that ' The body had not been in the water', similar words to those uttered in evidence at the inquest. The body had not been in the water, Moss described the man's condition being 'Cold and damp', not soaked or wet, the term used was damp. How could that be if as this newly uncovered evidence states, the tide had reached the wall?

If the tide reached the wall and the man had been there then there is no doubt whatsoever that he would have been soaked and not just damp... It looks more and more like he wasn't soaked because he wasn't there.

In this scenario, there is only one answer, the man was placed against the wall after the high tide had receded enough to allow others to undertake that task. I suggest that it would have taken at least two people to move the man given his height and build.

It would also mean that the man seen the previous evening in a similar location may not have been the Somerton Man. Coroner Cleland would have the answer to his question, all the problems go away if this were a different man.

From the Police perspective, the case now becomes a suspected murder, there is enough evidence here to justify that.

Some thoughts for consideration:

1. Could it be that the man who stood leaning against the railing alongside the road, saw an opportunity to dispose of another body? Or was it that this was all part of the Act?

2. When you examine all of the documentation, including those of the inquest and its witness statements, there is no mention at all amongst them of the tide and yet it was amongst the highest tides of the year, the Spring/ Neap tide. Why would that be?

6. THE SIGNIFICANCE

This is a real and significant breakthrough of huge and far-reaching impact. Not that long ago we had nothing to suggest that the tide would have played a part, and today, we are in a position that strongly suggests that the newly discovered evidence will add extra impetus to the Police case and cause them to rethink what really happened on that night of November 30th/ December 1st, 1948. 

In my view, when you add this information to earlier breakthrough information including the Microcode on the code page, the Boxall Rubaiyat code and the Daneta code found in Tibor Kaldor's last letter, it is difficult to deny that this is anything other than an espionage case.

Dr. John Luick

In closing off this post, I once again extend my sincere thanks and gratitude to our expert witness, Dr. John Luick, his advice, guidance and professionalism have helped this case enormously. We would have been lost without it.