SOMERTON MAN MYSTERY: ABLE SEAMAN CARL WEBB, TWO CONTENDERS....

  ....BRITISH OR AMERICAN?...

...In the last post, I included a copy of a 1934 UK passport but with a Commonwealth of Australia overlay to prove that such passports were in use which is in addition to the passports shown above.

...Above are a whole raft of British Empire passports showing a total of 19 different countries that at one or another were part of the British Empire.

Carl Webb could have been from any of those countries but we do know that he didn't come from the UK and we also know another important aspect as you will read in the next paragraph.

THE TWO CONTENDERS

A quite extensive search of Ancestry found that during the relevant period, between 1930 and 1937 there were literally thousands of Merchant Seaman listed as crew members on ships that plied the waters of the Pacific.

Of those thousands of men, only two had the surname Webb and whose age and height details were close.

1. The first man was plain Carl Webb. in 1934 he was 28/.29 years of age. He stood 5' 8* tall and weighed around 149 lbs. In addition, in 1934he had 11 years of service. His nationality was listed as English

2. The second man was Carl L Webb, his age was 28/ 29, he weighed in at 142 lbs but was 5' 7" in
height and he also had 11 years of service in 1934. His Nationality was listed as American.

The two men were certainly close enough to warrant further inspection and that has been and is still being done. 

There was one other aspect of the men's profile that was different. Carl Webb was a crewman on the Pacific Oriental Line and Carl L Webb was a crewman on the Grace line which serviced the route between South America and the West Coast of the USA.

The position now is that plain Carl Webb has inched ahead so to speak. he is slightly taller, and he is registered as English which could mean that he held an Australian Passport. 

The research will go on, and I am still awaiting a response from the US Government regarding the documents for Carl Webb.

NOTE

There is a C Webb registered as coming from Wanaka in NSW but a much earlier date, 1903.

He is shown as coming from Wanaka but in June 10-3 he was aboard the MOANA heading for Tasmania

I do not know whether this C Webb was related to Carl Webb. If so then the seafaring life might be something that was passed down.