Willson, a former tech developer, was working on virtual-tour software when he stumbled across a cruise ship named "Faithful" on Craigslist. Keen to do a virtual tour of the ship, he reached out to the owner.
"I pretended to be a potential buyer, and the owner, who was a ship salvager, let me on board. After doing the virtual tour, I went home curious about the ship's history but could not find anything about it," Willson told Insider.
Willson spent days researching the ship's history until he found a photo that looked exactly like the vessel.
"I went through over hundreds of images of vintage ocean liners, and did a lot of matching and cross-referencing of the ship's appearance before I found a match," Willson said.