Thread: DNA hopes to solve sailor mystery

DNA hopes to solve unknown sailor mystery - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Adelaide University's ancient DNA laboratory may have solved the mystery of the unknown sailor from HMAS Sydney, the only body found after the ship's crew of more than 600 was lost.

For more than a year, scientists in Adelaide have been testing DNA from people considered the most likely keys to unlocking the secret of the sailor's identity.

The last DNA sample on its list has just been under the microscope.

Dr Jeremy Austin has been trying to uncover the identity of a man who died when the ship was lost off Western Australia in 1941 in a fierce battle with the German raider Kormoran.

A reference sample in an envelope received from England marked the end of a long journey.

It is a swab of DNA taken from a relative of one of the Sydney's crew and the last of 12 samples from relatives the Navy considered the best hopes of identifying the unknown sailor, whose body turned up at Christmas Island months after the sinking.

The body was buried and its location all-but-forgotten for more than six decades until, in 2006, it was recovered and returned to the Australian mainland.


Research challenge

So poor was the body's condition, that Adelaide University's ancient DNA laboratory was considered the only place in Australia with the necessary skills to tackle the project.

Dr Austin explained the challenge.

"Initially we thought the hard part was going to be getting the DNA from the sailor and after that finding a match would have been relatively simple but, as it is turned out, getting the DNA from the sailor was almost the easy part," he said.

"Getting the reference samples has been a tough job for the Navy and, although it's easy for us to test those reference samples, sample after sample after sample has not matched the sailor."

The material recovered from the unknown sailor was not the unique DNA markers used by police to identify criminals, but mitochondrial DNA.

Dr Austin says that type of DNA is often shared by thousands of people around the world.

"It also only comes from the mother, which means descendants of Sydney's crewmen - children, grandchildren, great grandchildren can't provide an answer.

"So to be able to compare the DNA which we have obtained from the Sydney sailor, we need to be find relatives that share a maternal link with the HMAS Sydney sailor - so that's either the same mother or the same grandmother on the mother's side or the same great grandmother on the mother's side."


Announcement due

The Navy and Dr Austin now know the results of the last test and a public announcement is expected in coming days.

If there is a match, the sailor now has a name.

If not, the Navy will stop its active quest to search out and test relatives.

The samples checked in Adelaide were the Navy's best hope of putting a name to the sailor, but there is a list of about 100 other men whose age and other characteristics make them possibilities.

Those families will now be able to request to have their DNA tested.

The unknown sailor has now been buried at Geraldton in Western Australia, still without a name at this time.

Widening the population is a wise plan.

HMAS Sydney families face DNA plan - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

An inquiry into the sinking of HMAS Sydney has heard the Navy wants to DNA test the families of 89 crew members aboard the ship to identify a body that washed up on Christmas Island a year after it sank off the coast of Western Australia.

The body, which was found in 1942, is believed to be that of a sailor from the Sydney and was exhumed in 2006 for analysis.

The commission, headed by Terence Cole QC, has heard DNA testing, height, age and dental records have eliminated all but 89 of the 645 Sydney crew members from being identity matches.

Navy forensic dentist Commander Matthew Blenkin today told the hearing the unidentified body had up to 12 gold fillings, which was unusual for the time.

Conservators also gave evidence that press studs and fabric found on the body were most likely from a boiler suit worn by sailors in 1941.

The hearing was also told a piece of metal found in the body's skull may have been shrapnel from a large-calibre German projectile.

The inquiry will conclude its hearings in Sydney next week.