SOMERTON MAN CODES: CARL WEBB: BAKER, TRADIE, SALESMAN, SPY?...PART 1.

BAKER, TRADIE, SALESMAN...

SPY? 

A BAKER A TRADIE OR A SALESMAN BY DAY
BUT BY NIGHT ANOTHER OCCUPATION?

When you look through all of the posts and comments from people trying to track down details of Carl Webb, they almost always draw a blank in terms of photographs, descriptions, or just what he did for a living. Maybe he just liked it that way or maybe he was a contrived Gray Man. Someone who deliberately blends into the background, unnoticed, unremarkable, and unseen. but perhaps a very valuable asset. Then again...

The purpose of this post is to provide as much substantiated evidence as possible but focused on one of two aspects that link Alf Boxall, Jess, and The Somerton Man/Carl Webb together. It is a story of espionage and the use of then-secret clandestine communications techniques to pass sensitive information...

THE PHYSICAL EVIDENCE

Let's cut to the chase. There are 3 key pieces of evidence that link Alf Boxall, The Nurse, and the man found on the beach...

1. The Boxall Rubaiyat...

Here you see two pages of the book, on the left is the Inscription page complete with the printed image, My understanding is that despite its appearance it is in fact a portrait of a young Omar Khayyam.

The page on the right is the title page with text and an image of a bunch of grapes.

There's a far more detailed discussion on the Boxall Rubaiyat further down the page...

2.  Next we have the Somerton Man Code page...

I have marked this image up to indicate what was actually beneath the heavy line marks made by the police or some other agency. It turns out that the physical size of the code page creates a number of questions.

Detective Len Brown is on record as saying that the Nurses phone number was found on the code page and it was '..in tiny writing under the code..'

More to follow further down this page.

3. The Tamam Shud torn piece...

This slip was found hidden in a 'secret' waistband fob pocket of the trousers worn by the Somerton Man when he was found on the beach on December 1st 1948.

Detective Brown is on record as saying that the slip had been rolled up tightly and that Burtie Cleland, the pathologist, had to use tweezers to get it out. More to follow down the page...

You can read more about indented writing and its recovery here, complete with images...

1. The Boxall Rubaiyat, this is the copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam containing an inscription made by the nurse known as Jestyn that was given to Alf Boxall in August 1945. The story goes that there was a party at the Clifton Gardens Hotel very close to The Water transport HQ in Sydney where Alf was stationed and Alf was about to head North to the Islands. The records show that Alf had in fact met Jestyn in 1944, that information is courtesy of the Littlemore Documentary made in 1976 but broadcast in 1977. Those documents are available via the NAA website or I have a set that I am happy to share. It is not just the inscription within the book that provides us with evidence, it is also other information contained in the Title Page and elsewhere beneath and around the inscription page.

Here are some close-up images of the inscription and microcode 

within each of the words:

The word 'Repentance' from the last line:

The number 70 was added to the page by Alf Boxall sometime after the  
Stuart Littlemore 1977 documentary:

The 'Dash' is from line 2:

Having made a study of clandestine communications for the last 10 years, I can confidently say that the examples above have been expertly executed by someone who really knew their stuff. Note how the microcode rarely falls outside the outline of the individual letters. It takes great skill to do that. Alf, we know did the work inside the number 70 and it is believed that the inscription itself was done by Jes.

2. The Somerton Man Code page was apparently found in the glove compartment of a car in July 1949 and after the inquest. When examined the Police saw 'faint pencil markings' but according to a discussion with Gerry Feltus, they were in fact pencil indentations. There is also a reference to a claim that the book was found in the back of a ute and not a car. For our overseas guests, a UTE is similar to a 'pick up' in the UK:

Hillman Minx 1948 Model:

The Hillman Minx was supposedly the car into which the copy of the Rubaiyat was ditched at sometime around the Parafield Airshow which was close to the time that the Somerton Man's body was found. There has been some discussion as to whether it was a soft top or not. If it was a soft top you would imagine that it would be easier to drop a book into the back seat. As a matter of interest, a known Tradecraft technique was to leave a copy of a book on the front dash of a car as a signal that there was something to be collected or a particular action to be taken.

Ford Ute 1940s Australia

The car above is a Ford Ute from the 1940s in Australia. Fairly certain that the rear tonneau cover wasn't a feature in those days but I stand to be corrected on that. It would certainly be easier to drop a book into the rear of this vehicle.

The book itself has always been thought of as being a Whitcomb and Tombs version. However, whilst the size of the torn piece was the same as the W&T version, detective Brown in has on the record said that the piece came from a Collins version. Gerry Feltus in his book also mentioned that he had not been able to find an exact matching size of book in a W&T version. Below is a comparison image of the size of the code page Vs the size of the W&T book:

You can read more here:

https://tamamshud.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-somerton-man-rubaiyat-some-answers.html

The Code Page

The image above has been printed out at high resolution at the best print quality setting and on bleed-proof paper. This prevents ink from spreading and you will get a much finer finish. You should be able to make out the outlines of microcode in various locations but especially on the crossed lines in the center and the flourish at the base. 

As you will see below there are numerous examples, in fact, every letter and the marked areas contain letters and numbers.

Some notes of interest on the code page:

• The second line is often referred to as the 'crossed out line'. The reality is that we do not know when that line or through was made, people have assumed that it was done after the letters were written but it may have been done before and then written over. 
• The same applies to the X above the point where the two lines meet in the centre of the code page. There is no way of knowing when that was placed there nor in which order the two lines at the center were written.

After printing and drying, I applied a liberal amount of acetic acid, this has the effect of removing a very thin layer of the ink from the surface as you can see below:

You can download both of these images to review for yourself.

Microcode Examples:

GAR Sequence, Last Line:

The last letter is in fact an R as I see it, the tail end is just an extension that was added.

PA Sequence

you should be able to see the lettering around the letter P but the crossbar in the letter A is really quite clear.

AQ sequence:

AQC The previous and the following example were taken around 6 years ago from a different angle and with lower quality cameras

The group CA 32  followed the number 35 is viewable in the letter Q This was the hull number of the USS New Orleans. The ship was severely damaged by a torpedo in the Coral Sea and ended up traveling to Sydney all the way in reverse because they had lost more than 100 feet of the bow and forward turret. She had arrived in Sydney on December 24th 1942. It was repaired, a stub bow was fitted and she sailed under her own steam back to the US for a full refit. 

Most interestingly, apart from the number of this ship, the number J232 was also found in the letter Q. On checking the records it turned out that J232 was the hull number of an Australian Navy ship, the HMAS DELORAINE, a corvette. Both ships were in Sydney Harbour on one day only and that was Sunday, March 7th 1943. The Deloraine escorted the New Orleans out of the Harbour and saw her on her way. Further, a press article appeared around 29th January, follow this link to read the detail, essentially a Berlin Radio Broadcast the details on 29th January 1943, someone had sent that information to Germany, probably via Japan and here we have the bones of it on the Somerton Man code page. Here's the link to the post:

https://tamamshud.blogspot.com/2018/12/somerton-man-uss-new-orleans-proof.html

Who knows, one day the correct book may turn up in someone's letterbox :)

I will be adding the Torn Slip information in part 2 of this post which will be available by the weekend.

A reminder that at this time, what we have is a DNA sample taken from a hair shaft (no roots) that came from the plaster bust created by Paul Lawson in June 1949. It was found that this particular DNA sample came from a member of the Webb Family tree. So far so good but here's where it gets a little murky.

As I understand it, the researchers on finding this evidence thought that it would be a good idea if they could research the tree and see if anyone from it had no burial record. They found 2 from the 1940s era I believe, one was discarded and the other was a Mr. Carl Webb. We have no photograph nor do we have a description of Mr. Webb but the assumption has been made that this has to be the Somerton Man.

The concern I and others have, (thanks Trish!), is that whilst the researchers checked for any likely contamination of the sample by examining Mr. Lawsons DNA, they did not, as far as I am aware, check the DNA of either of the two detectives who helped Mr. Lawson in the physical building of the mold and the bust at the Morgue.