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USS Watertown Ghost Picture

Mythago

Gone But Not Forgotten
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This is a photo I first saw when I was in my teens and scared the crap out of me. The story behind it is that during a voyage by the S.S Watertown in 1924 two crew mebers were overcome by fumes while cleanng out a boiler and died, as was customary then they were given a burial at sea. Afterwards crew mebers reported seeing faces in the water following the ship, this photo was taken from the deck by the captain.
Has it been proved as a fake?

Edit To Add (FYI):

I first saw this photo over twenty years ago. It was the first "ghost photo" I ever came across and it still wigs me out to look at it. In 1924 James Courtney and Michael Meehan, two crewmen of the tanker S.S. Watertown, were accidentally killed by gas fumes while cleaning a cargo tank. The crew of the Watertown - on its way to the Panama Canal from New York City – buried the two sailors at sea off the Mexican coast. That was on December 4th. On December 5th the first mate reported that the faces of Courtney and Meehan were appearing in the water off the port side of the ship. Over the next several days every member of the crew witnessed the faces appear and disappear, including the ship's captain. When he reported this to his supervisors after docking in New Orleans it was suggested that he try to photograph the faces. Captain Keith Tracy bought a camera and the ship was soon underway again. Sure enough, the faces appeared, and Tracy took six pictures, then secured the camera in the ship's vault. The camera was not removed until it was taken to a commercial developer after docking in New York City. Five of the photos showed nothing unusual, but the sixth clearly showed what was said to be the faces of the two dead crewmen. No evidence of forgery or tampering of the film was ever discovered. The faces stopped appearing after a new crew was brought aboard the Watertown.

SOURCE: https://www.theknightshift.com/2005/10/top-ten-best-ghost-photographs-ever.html
 
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ringwraith said:
This is a photo I first saw when I was in my teens and scared the crap out of me. The story behind it is that during a voyage by the S.S Watertown in 1924 two crew mebers were overcome by fumes while cleanng out a boiler and died, as was customary then they were given a burial at sea. Afterwards crew mebers reported seeing faces in the water following the ship, this photo was taken from the deck by the captain.
Has it been proved as a fake?

I must admit that one is scary. A very old photo though, hard to authenticate, but scary none the less.
 
The difficulty with ghost photographs is that since the existence of ghosts themselves hasn't been proven, then it's impossible to prove a ghost photograph to be genuine, which can be taken by some to be proof of its invalidity.
With regard to the S.S. Watertown image, I've never seen it without the superimposed arrows, much less in its original context (presuming that the image which is in circulation is cropped from a larger, original photograph): has anyone seen the original photograph, or a copy without the arrows?
 
I think the answer to that is no. There are no original photos in circualtion. Just done a quick trawl and thwy all have the arrows on them.
 
(Copied from the 'All time favorite ghost photo' thread)
Brighid45 said:
Has anyone mentioned the picture of the sailors faces showing up in the ocean in a picture taken aboard a ship? I forget the name (of course--good ol' menopause, *sigh*) but you see that picture everywhere. Even cropped and with those stupid arrows pointing out the faces, it still scares me. Love that pic.

paranormal.about.com/library/gra ... sts_lg.jpg
Link is dead. The MIA photo (shown here) is accessible at the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/2006050....com/library/graphics/watertown_ghosts_lg.jpg


watertown_ghosts_lg.jpg

--snip----------------
James Courtney and Michael Meehan, crew members of the S.S. Watertown, were cleaning a cargo tank of the oil tanker as it sailed toward the Panama Canal from New York City in December of 1924. Through a freak accident, the two men were overcome by gas fumes and killed. As was the custom of the time, the sailors were buried at sea off the Mexican coast on December 4.
----------------------------

I've always loved this photo, as well!
TVgeek
 
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Thanks TVgeek! Took a quick peek at it and it STILL gives me the heebie jeebies *shudder* :shock:
 
The USS Watertown appears several times on this board such as discussion of an issue of FT that had a big article on it and regularly in discussion of the best ghost photographs. But it doesn’t have its own thread.

Some. Wes just released prompts me to right that wrong.

https://doctoratlantis.medium.com/t...-revealed-after-nearly-a-century-cc93fe32b783

The Watertown Ghosts Photo Fully Revealed After Nearly A Century​


The story tells us about the photo we have all seen

306EDC39-0E83-4441-A873-CD29274C9130.png

But Doctor Atlantis has managed two incredible things.

He has been able to identify the two dead crewman and find the uncrowned photo!

76F1A64F-01DB-4812-AAB0-C74F92D72A04.png


The full story is on the website.
 
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Those are brilliant finds. I had always imagined the faces to be in the ships wash.

Does anyone know the podcast he mentions? Edit, just realised the article was only posted three days ago and the podcast probably isn't online yet.
 
Those are brilliant finds. I had always imagined the faces to be in the ships wash.

Does anyone know the podcast he mentions? Edit, just realised the article was only posted three days ago and the podcast probably isn't online yet.
Yes and the story i know was that the captain had requested the next time the faces were seen he be informed so he could photograph them. This does not seem to be a photograph that matches that description.
 
I remembered it as the faces being visible over a period of time so that there were many many totally reliable witnesses.....
 
@Frideswide that's what I remember too.

I probably first read about it in The Unexplained partwork, if it is in there. Anyone got their copes handy to check?
 
The USS Watertown photo was the subject of an extensive and exhaustive investigation reported in Fortean Times No. 261 (April 2010):

The Watertown Ghosts
A photo of dead sailors returned to haunt their old ship is one of the most famous ghost pictures ever, but there's more to it than meets the eye...
By Blake Smith April 2010

The full article can be accessed at the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/2010042...m/features/fbi/3256/the_watertown_ghosts.html

SPOILER: As it turns out, the evidence strongly indicates the famous photo was faked.
 
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