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Bid to identify unknown sailor
By LCDR Antony Underwood
Volume 50, No. 12, July 12, 2007 |
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| SEARCH: The remains of the unknown RAN sailor were exhumed from an unmarked grave. |
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Scientists at the University of Adelaide will try to extract a DNA sample from a jaw-bone in a bid to positively identify the unknown RAN sailor, believed to have been the only survivor of the HMAS Sydney II disappearance more than 65 years ago.
But a question remains over whether the jaw or teeth it contains will yield DNA to compare with that of relatives of three engineers thought the most likely to have survived the battle with the German raider, HSK Kormoran, off Carnarvon (WA) in 1941.
And if DNA is not available from the remains, researchers may use photos of the teeth of relatives to infer likely identification.
Six hundred and forty-five members of the RAN and other services disappeared with Sydney II in Australia’s greatest naval disaster.
The body of the unknown sailor was found adrift in a carley float off Christmas Island in February 1942 and buried on the island. It remained there in an unmarked grave through World War II and beyond.
A Navy-led expedition failed to find the grave in 2001.
A second search team, led by CAPT Jim Parsons, discovered the body in the island’s old European cemetery last October.
The body was exhumed and brought to Australia for forensic examination which found skull injuries, at least one of which was consistent with a shrapnel wound that “may not have been immediately fatal”.
The Navy received a report from the Australian War Memorial and an Army Ballistics expert in January outlining ballistic and metallurgical analysis of an object found in the skull as well as analysis of the clothing worn by the unknown sailor.
After receiving forensic odontological and anthropological reports, that detailed the dental and skeletal characteristics of the sailor, the forensic team met to analyse the findings and produce a short-list of potential matches.
White fabric and the particular weave of that fabric found within an overall stud recovered with the body pointed to an engineering officer from Sydney II.
The likely candidates were SBLT Allen James King (from SA), SBLT Frederick Harold Schoch (WA) and LEUT Allan Wallace Wilson (NSW).
In recent weeks, the leader of the forensic team seeking to identify the unknown sailor, OIC of the Balmoral Naval Hospital at HMAS Penguin, CMDR Matt Blenkin, has been making contact with close relatives of these three officers gathering specific information and photographs of the missing men, and taking DNA samples from the families for comparison to the unknown sailor.
At last report the lower jaw of the unknown sailor was being delivered to the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide.
“We have just completed the series of interviews with relatives of the missing engineering officers with the interview of LEUT Wilson’s brother who’s aged 93 and living in Melbourne, and with his second cousin in Sydney,” CMDR Blenkin said.
“In each case, we have taken a DNA sample of the relative and obtained smiling photographs of the missing men.
“A lot depends now on whether Adelaide Research and Innovation (ARI) are able to extract a DNA sample from the teeth for comparison. Although it’s possible to obtain DNA from much older remains, in most instances they have not been subject to the effects of the elements – particularly water – which tend to destroy or remove DNA; Christmas Island has an annual rainfall of about two metres.”
If DNA can be extracted, CMDR Blenkin said, it’s likely to be four to six weeks before there’s a definite result.
“Great care has to be taken to keep the DNA analysis separate from any other DNA such as mine or others who have handled the remains,” he said, “and from the relatives who have provided their DNA for comparison.
“The photos are of the missing men smiling. They will be used to either confirm DNA findings, or in the absence of a DNA result, to infer identification. Smiling front teeth are frequently quite distinctive but so far have been used to exclude possibilities rather than confirm them.” |
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