SOMERTON MAN MYSTERY: ABLE SEAMAN CARL WEBB.... UPDATED 15th December 2022....

 

....ABLE SEAMAN CARL WEBB...

1936 British Passport Issued to Australians

This particular Passport was issued to LES HARLEY and is held in the Victorian Museum. It is thought that Carl Webb had a similar passport which would identify him as 'English' A common practice in those days.

Originally Posted in October 2022 with follow-up posts listed below...

SS GOLDEN SUN

Tokyo

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/36377892?searchTerm=%22Golden%20Sun%22%20San%20Francisco

THE SS GOLDEN SUN

A ship from a stable of ships owned and operated in 1937 by the Oceanic and Oriental Navigation Company based in San Francisco. Along with other ships from the line these ships plied their trade across the Pacific calling regularly into many Ports along their routes including Australian ones.

But the purpose of this post is not to discuss the routes so much as it is to focus on the crew lists:

Above is a 1934 list of Alien crew members aboard the Golden Sun on a journey that included Yokohama docking at the end of its voyage in San Francisco. Amongst the names listed is Carl Webb, who is listed as 'English' language, his age at that time was 28/29 years, the date of arrival shows November 19th, 1934 close to Carl Webb's birthday. His height is shown as 5' 8".

At the time of those first posts we did not have access to the Webb Family photographs:

In the enhanced image above you will see Carl, Roy his brother, and their parents. It is known from Roy's service record that his height was 5' 8" and in this image as first spotted by Pete Bowes of the tomsbytwo.com blog, both Roy and Carl appear to be the same height, that is 5' 8". Full credit to Pete for that smart piece of work.

SUMMARY

I will be adding more to this post but for now and in summary, we have identified a Carl Webb of the same age as Carl/Charlie Webb who was identified by DNA analyses serving aboard the merchant freighter the Golden Sun. He is the same age and the same height as Charlie Webb in this photograph.  His appearance in the crew list is consistent with Australian records which make just one reference to him playing soccer in a local team during the time period. As a seaman, Carl would have had leave and would no doubt have called into his Home port for that purpose. A game of soccer would not have been unusual on those occasions.

A thorough search was undertaken as you will read amongst the linked posts listed below, there was no Carl Webb of this age and description found in the UK nor to this stage has one been found in the US apart from one who was listed in North Carolina and who in census forms was unemployed.

We are awaiting a response from US records to confirm the details of the crewman. Given the fact that he is listed as English, (Australians regularly described themselves that way and in fact, carried British passports in those years), his age, time frame, and now most recently his height, Able Seaman Carl Webb could indeed be Charlie Webb.

His height in particular is of great significance as he was identified by Professor Abbott and Colleen Fitzpatrick as being the Somerton Man. The Somerton Man's height was recorded at his autopsy as being 5'11". In that case, Charlie Webb cannot be the Somerton Man. He is the man of whom the bust was modeled BUT NOT THE SOMERTON MAN.

PREVIOUS POST LINKS:

https://tamamshud.blogspot.com/2022/10/somerton-man-mystery-carl-webb-sailor.html

https://tamamshud.blogspot.com/2022/10/carl-webb-was-not-somerton-man.html

https://tamamshud.blogspot.com/2022/11/the-carl-webb-mystery-part-2-if-this.html

https://tamamshud.blogspot.com/2022/11/paul-lawson-was-told-to-make-bust-from.html