DNA hopes to identify "Unknown Sailor" from HMAS Sydney

By Carmelo Amalfi
The Federal Government wants relatives of 13 HMAS Sydney crew members, including two canteen workers and two British sailors, to provide DNA samples as a way of identifying Australia's "Unknown Sailor".
The badly decomposed body of the young sailor, possibly one of two or more Royal Australian Navy sailors to have survived the 1941 battle off Carnarvon, was carried in a bullet-ridden liferaft that washed ashore three months after the November 19 battle with Kormoran.
Residents buried the remains in an unmarked grave on Christmas Island (shown here in this Sydney Morning Herald image) after an autopsy was held on the island.
After several unsuccessful attempts to find the grave, searchers funded by the Federal Government returned to the island in 2006 and exhumed the remains of what they now believe to be a sailor from Sydney.
According to analyses so far, it appears the sailor who was tall for the time suffered horrific head wounds when he struggled onto the life raft, possibly with a second sailor whose identity is marked on a single shoe.
The 1999 Senate Committee report to Parliament on the ship's loss concluded: " ... on the balance of probability, that the body and the Carley float found off the shore of Christmas Island in February 1942 were most likely from HMAS Sydney".
Dressed in a bleached blue boiler suit, the corpse had its arms outstretched and the flesh stripped from its face. The lower portion of the sailor's body was in water which had collected in the raft during its three-month journey north. The sailor's right arm was partly eaten off and a small crab found inside its mouth during the 1942 autopsy on Christmas Island.
The bullet or pieces of shrapnel in his skull was overlooked. The parliamentary inquiry heard that Christmas Island harbourmaster Reg Smith, who recovered the sailor's corpse, noted the carley float had a bullet hole in its wooden decking while remains of another were found in the kapok filling.
Smith apparently kept one of these bullets on his watch chain but his wife, who died in Perth several years ago, did not recall him wearing it.
The sailor's remains were buried in a purpose-built coffin on Christmas Island after a solemn ceremony and military escort by a few volunteers including a Sikh policeman who sounded the Last Post.
The 2006 search for the sailor’s grave turned up an odd-shaped coffin that measured about 1.2m by 980mm by 500mm deep.
With the threat of a Japanese invasion, Captain Smith sailed to Perth with the autopsy report and part of the Carley float - both of which were destroyed or lost after they were handed over to naval authorities.
The Christmas Island searchers had just about given up hope in 2006 when, "virtually the last thrust of a crowbar caught the edge of the coffin".
The first discovery was an ankle bone then a skull lying face down with the hands underneath the body. It was in a foetal position, explaining the odd shape of the coffin and condition of the corpse at the time of burial.
The rusty press-studs, timber and nails from the coffin have been analysed by experts at the University of Sydney and Australian War Memorial. The bullet and shrapnel holes in the navy-issue float suggest the unknown sailor was from HMAS Sydney.
A canvas topped shoe which was stamped Australian Government issue and bearing the name McGowan or McEwen was also found in the raft. Both were seamen on the Sydney. The shoe did not belong to the corpse.
The identity search has eliminated 500 Sydney crew members based on dental records and historical and physical anthropological
research.
This left nearly 150 crew members who have not been excluded on scientific grounds. To reduce this number to a manageable level, the outcomes of analyses conducted on artefacts found with the remains in the grave have been considered.
Australian War Memorial analysis of cloth fragments caught within press-studs suggested the sailor was buried wearing white coveralls. Initial historical research concluded that the sailor was most likely to be an officer or warrant officer (they were entitled to wear white coveralls), but DNA testing showed this may not be the case.
The DNA search will focus on the 11 officers and warrant officers who have not been excluded on dental or anthropological grounds. Two civilian canteen workers also will be considered as potential matches.
Work is underway to locate surviving relatives of these 13 crew members.
Ballistics analysis on the remains has ruled out speculation the sailor was shot in the head by German sailors in motorised boats. Former Minister Assisting the Defence Minister, Bruce Bilson, said the tests revealed the fragment was probably a piece of shrapnel: "That examination reveals it's not a small calibre fire-arm round as was originally thought after visual and X-ray assessment. It looks more like a fragment from munition, a piece of shrapnel embedded in the skull of the victim."
He said that a number of German survivors reported significant shrapnel injuries: "That may be the case with these remains, but we're carrying out further examination of the metal itself to see if we can match the metal to other kinds of metal held from the event or from munitions at the time."
The 13 crew members DNA experts want to sample include:
* Sub-Lieutenant James Irvine CLIFTON, RAN, born 7 November 1916, WA
* Lieutenant Thomas Garton BROWN, RAN, born 22 January 1920, NSW
* Lieutenant Eric Elton MAYO, RAN, born 28 July 1912, SA
* Lieutenant Robert Ernest RIDOUT, RAN, born 4 September 1914, VIC
* Surgeon Lieutenant Mervyn Clive TOWNSEND, RAN, born 5 February 1917, VIC
* Lieutenant Ian Thomas Roy TRELOAR, RAN, born 10 April 1919, VIC
* Schoolmaster Percy Francis SKEWES, RAN, born 28 November 1914, QLD
* Sub-Lieutenant Alexander Vinrace EAGAR, RAN, born 13 March 1917, QLD
* Lieutenant Commander Michael Morgan SINGER, RN, DOB 5 Dec 1909, UK
* Warrant Officer Gunner Frank Leslie MACDONALD, RN, UK
* Flying Officer Raymond Barker BARREY, RAAF, born 23 July 1916, SA
* Salvatore ZAMMITT, canteen manager, family believed to be in Sydney
* Samuel PSAILA, canteen assistant, no other details
Anyone with knowledge of the whereabouts of surviving family members of the above HMAS Sydney crew are urged to make contact with the Christmas Island Investigation Team by email on xmasisland.generalenquiries@defence.gov.au, or by letter to: Christmas Island Investigation Team, R1-4-C070, Russell Offices, Canberra, ACT, 2600.

"There are probably very few parents of sailors who were lost on HMAS Sydney who are still surviving, but there are many wives, children, brothers, sisters and other relatives who are. They are part of the Sydney family, and most would wish to know the identity of the sailor on Christmas Island." - ex-Melbourne magistrate and HMAS Sydney researcher Ted McGowan, whose older brother Tom celebrated his 21st birthday the day before Sydney's loss.

Copyright 2008