Yesterday's page 8 story in the Sydney Morning Herald brings an update on the quest to identify the remains of the Unknown Sailor of Christmas Island. He is thought to have died as a result of the action between the German raider Kormoran and the HMAS Sydney (II) in World War Two, which saw the Australian ship sunk with no survivors. See online here.
The Royal Australian Navy's Commander Matt Blenkin has revealed that out of the list of 13 possible crew of the HMAS Sydney (II) whom he believes may be the unknown sailor of Christmas Island, DNA testing has now excluded nine Now leaving four possibles; Lieutenant Robert Ridout, Sub-Lieutenant James Clifton, Salvatore Zammitt and Lieutenant Commander Michael Singer (RN).
You may recall that after analysis at the Australian War Memorial of cloth worn by the corpse, fibres found inside press studs were found to be white, leading the investigation in the direction of persons who may have been wearing white coveralls. This would have been officers, and Mr. Zammitt was included since he worked in the ship's canteen and canteen workers were also believed to have been wearing white coveralls.
"Although little clothing remained on the skeleton, investigators found the remains of button eyelets from what appeared to be World War II overalls. Tiny shreds of cloth were in the eyelets and were sent to the Australian War Memorial, where the overalls were found to have been white, the colour officers wore.
For Commander Blenkin, it was a breakthrough.
Investigators had been able to use dental records and the bone structure to narrow down the list of possible candidates to just over 200 out of the ship's crew of 645, but of those barely more than a dozen would have worn white overalls.
"That was when we were really able to narrow it down and draw up a practical list, so that we would be able to track down families and start collecting DNA," Commander Blenkin said." (From SMH article)
My belief however, based upon analysis of eyewitness accounts of the corpse arriving at Christmas Island upon a Carley float was that the unknown sailor was wearing blue coveralls, from the engineering division of the ship.
( Captain Jim Parsons, team leader for the Christmas Island Project, hands over artifacts found at the grave site of the unknown sailor to the Australian War Memorial's Assistant Registrar, Georgia Cunningham. Photo from Department of Defence) Note that the Glad Bag in the foreground of the picture is labeled " 6/10/06 C206 ?pressstud {illegible} of R. scapula"
(Sailors hauling up an anchor on HMAS Australia, 1945. From the National Archives of Australia, citation NAA: A1200, L2875 )
Although this photograph depicts sailors on HMAS Australia (II), and not HMAS Sydney (II), it does show the type of overall worn by sailors in the engineering branch, and the fact that their front closure was a press stud type. Due to the way this blog presents the uploaded photograph, you may need to click on the image to see the two press studs visible in the coveralls' front placket worn by the silor at right.
I know, I know, the fibre analysis conducted in 2007 indicates the fibres were white. But firstly, World War II era RAN sailors in the engineering division were known to have used bleach to soften their stiff indigo blue denim overalls. Secondly, I doubt if the synthetic dye chemistry of the early 1940s was of sufficient stability to give a correct indication under chemical analysis of the fabric colour 60 years later, and I doubt if the Australian War Memorial has a valid comparison of World War II RAN issue indigo blue denim which has been buried for 60 years in a high rainfall area to serve as a comparison sample. Or even World War II RAN issue white coverall material which has likewise suffered such weathering for the purpose of comparison.
Now, what artifacts exactly were examined?
( The Australian War Memorial's Assistant Registrar, Georgia Cunningham photographs the artifacts found in the grave site of the Unknown Sailor.
Department of Defence photo )
Zooming in on the writing on the brown paper bag we see it is labeled " C706 7/10/06 eyelets foot of coffin "
These eyelets probably came from canvas in which the corpse was wrapped prior to burial. Although the journalist, John Dart, who wrote yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald article refers to an eyelet, I think he actually means a press stud. Previous mentions of the analysis inferring the sailor wore white have always referred to a press stud.
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