A picture, believed to be the only image of the Civil War ironclad, the CSS Georgia has been revealed to be a fake created in a teenage hoax using a 2ft model. John Potter, from Savannah, has admitted forging the picture with his brother in the 1980s and placing it in a frame which now holds a picture of his dead dog. He then passed on the image on to the Georgia Historical Society and the photo became an unofficial part of the ship's history even though it was never authenticated. Scroll down for video . John Potter (pictured), from Savannah, has admitted forging the picture with his brother in the 1980s and placing the picture in a frame which now holds a picture of his dead dog . In 1986 he fibbed that he was at a yard sale when he found the photograph in an antique frame.Inscribed on the back of the frame, he claimed, was 'CSS Georgia.' He told historians that he didn't have the $175 the owner wanted . The picture Mr Potter handed over to the society was actually a picture of a picture. In 1986 he fibbed that he was at a yard sale when he found the photograph in an antique frame. Inscribed on the back of the frame, he claimed, was 'CSS Georgia.' He told historians that he didn't have the $175 the owner wanted, so he took a photo of it and then mailed it to historical groups in Savannah. Potter has now admitted the sham and explained how he falsified the image. When he was a teenager in Savannah, Potter, his brother Jeffrey and a friend shot a short 8mm movie about the building — and destruction — of the CSS Georgia in a fictional battle with Union troops. For the movie, they built an 18-foot long boat of plywood and Styrofoam, as well as a smaller 2-foot model. They based the design, in part, on his grandfather's recollections of details passed down by word of mouth through generations of their family. Potter also used an illustration of the ironclad he found on a postcard. To create the fake image Potter's younger brother put on a coat and straw hat went out to a marsh with a cane fishing pole and Potter took a photo. He took another photo of the 2-foot model and cut out the boat's image, glued it onto the photo of his brother, then used dirt and glue to create the illusion of a photo faded by age and stained by water or chemicals. Evidence of the hoax: All elements of the fakery were snapped by Potter at one time. The small model boat here appears alongside the false picture, polaroids of it and a 1984 copy of Mad Magazine . He bought an old picture frame and beat it up even further. He put the photo in it. Then he drove 120 miles to a yard sale in Waycross, Georgia, put the picture down and took a Polaroid of it. He laughs now, when he remembers that it had seemed so important that he actually do this at a yard sale, so at least that part would be true. 'Who knows what goes through the mind of a kid,' he said. The US Army Corps of Engineers appealed for information about the picture as it embarked on a project to raise the ironclad . Potter sent out the photo to historical groups, setting off the sporadic, and fruitless, search for a CSS Georgia photo that he now says never existed. As the Army Corps of Engineers embarked this year on a $14 million project to raise the wreckage of the real CSS Georgia from the river, archaeologists publicised the image online and in news stories hoping to track down the original photo. 'Wanted: A Photo Of This Confederate Battleship,' read the headline above the image on the Army Corps website. 'There are a lot of characteristics in the photograph that lead us to believe it is the CSS Georgia,' Julie Morgan, the Army Corps archaeologist in charge of raising the ironclad's remains, said in a February interview. 'On the other side, there are some skeptics who believe it's a complete fake.' Robert Holcombe, former curator of the National Civil War Naval Museum in Columbus, Georgia, said in February that while the original photograph would be needed to confirm if the image was authentic, he believed it was real. 'Most people seem to think so,' he said. 'Or else it's an awfully good fake'. The peeling gilt frame that once held the disputed photo, is now filled with a portrait of Potter's deceased pug, Puggy Van Dug. He never became a successful special effects artist with the exception of the one faked photo. The peeling gilt frame that once held the disputed photo, is now filled with a portrait of Potter's deceased pug, Puggy Van Dug .
Picture believed to be sole image of Civil War ship revealed to be a fake .
John Potter, from Savannah, admitted forging it with his brother in the 80s .
Image, part of the unofficial history of the ship, was never authenticated .
Faked using a fishing pole and a Styrophome model from a historical film .