SS Watertown: Faces In The Water

Inspired by Max’s blog, ‘Old Steam Ships’ –
SS Watertown: Faces In The Water. Here is
a synopsis followed by a poem and ballad.

In December 1924, the oil tanker SS Watertown was steaming south from California toward the Panama Canal when tragedy struck. Two crewmen, James Courtney and Michael Meehan, were overcome by gas fumes while cleaning a cargo tank, and both died. As was the custom of the day, they were buried at sea off the Pacific coast of Mexico. The next day, according to the ship’s crew, something strange appeared in the water: two faces, floating in the waves off the port side, keeping pace with the ship. The faces were seen again and again over the following days, always at the same distance, always watching, until they faded from view as the ship moved on. When Captain Keith Tracy reported the sightings to the ship’s owners, the Cities Service Company, he was reportedly handed a camera for the return voyage. Several photographs were taken, and when the film was developed, one image appeared to show two ghostly faces among the swells. The photo became one of the most famous “ghost pictures” ever published, though skeptics have long suspected a double exposure or a clever hoax. Whatever the truth, the sailors who saw them never doubted what they had witnessed: two shipmates who would not let the Watertown sail on without them.

“Two Faces in the Wake” – lyrics by me, music by Suno

Ooh… two faces in the wake

December, nineteen twenty-four,
The Watertown left the California shore,
Bound for the Canal with her oil and her steam,
And the Pacific calm as a dream

Courtney and Meehan went down in the hold,
Scrubbing the tanks in the dark and the cold,
The fumes rose up and they never came out,
And the deck went quiet with no one to shout

We sewed them in canvas,
We said what we could,
And gave them to the water
Like sailors should

But there were two faces in the wake,
Rising and falling with every break,
Ten feet off the port side, day after day,
Two old friends who wouldn’t go away,
Keep your eyes on the water, for heaven’s sake,
There are two faces in the wake

The first man saw them at the turn of the light,
Then the whole crew gathered at the rail that night,
Same distance, same hour, the same quiet stare,
Like they were still on watch out there

The captain told the company back in New York,
They handed him a camera and wished him luck,
He leaned out over the rolling gray,
And caught them on film the very next day

Some say it’s a trick
Of the light and the lens,
But nobody aboard
Ever doubted their friends

There were two faces in the wake,
Rising and falling with every break,
Ten feet off the port side, day after day,
Two old friends who wouldn’t go away,
Keep your eyes on the water, for heaven’s sake,
There are two faces in the wake

Maybe they missed the sound of the bell,
The rhythm of the engine, the salt and the swell,
Maybe they just wanted to finish the run,
To ride her home till the work was done

Oh, two faces in the wake,
The ocean keeps what the ocean takes,
But some men sign on for the long, long way,
And they sail with you till the end of days,
So if you’re out on the deep and you start to shake…
Look for two faces in the wake

Two faces in the wake…
Ooh… two faces in the wake

NAR©2026

SS Watertown: Faces in the Water

^{Everything on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me, unless otherwise indicated, and may not be used without permission. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.}