text: Greatest maritime mystery about to be solved after 80 years - News on the Flipside
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  A positive match for DNA has been made for "The Unknown Sailor", the only sailor recovered from HMAS Sydney sunk off the Western Australia coast with the loss of 645 lives during the Second World War.
  The Australian War Memorial describes it as "the most grievous loss suffered by the Royal Australian Navy."
  The only body ever found from Sydney was washed ashore almost three months later on February 6, 1942, in a carley float off Christmas Island and has always been referred to as "the unknown sailor".
  He was buried with military honours on Christmas Island but the remains were exhumed in 2006 and bone and dental samples taken before reinterment at the war cemetery in Geraldton north of Perth. Since then, exhaustive checks have been made over 15 years with relatives of crew members asked to provide DNA samples.
  Ahead of the anniversary a source who cannot be named, told the Herald: "A DNA result has shown a positive match. There is DNA which matches the unknown sailor."
  Asked to comment on progress in identifying the unknown sailor, a spokeswoman for the Department of Defence said: "The announcement regarding your inquiry is imminent." Defence did not provide any further details other than to say the announcement was due in about a week which would tie in with the anniversary on Friday.
  Now Y chromosomes known as Y-DNA testing enable a trace to be made through the paternal line. If the sailor had a brother who had a son, then the son could now provide DNA for testing which opened the opportunity to search a new and broader range of people.
  The Herald and The Age have not seen the new test results and therefore has not been able to seek to verify them with independent researchers.
  Some details of the unknown sailor were learned at the time the body was discovered. He was a white man wearing blue overalls bleached white by the sun. Blue overalls indicate a lower rank sailor and not an officer. Australian made press-studs were recovered from the remains with blue material between the studs.
  It was previously believed that his hair was blond, light brown or red, rather than black or dark brown. He is thought to have had blue eyes and been between five foot two inches (1.67 metres) and six foot two inches (1.87 metres) tall. He was likely aged between 20 and 30 years old.
  Robert Henry Hill an engine room artificer enlisted in 1940, just months after he had fallen in love and become engaged. He was the great uncle of Alison Mudie who learnt of his experiences as a crew member on the HMAS Sydney, including one where he and his crew marched through the streets of Sydney as heroes after a successful deployment in the Mediterranean.
  Robert aged 26, wrote a last letter home to his family which arrived only a few weeks before the ship was lost. The letter was to congratulate his sister, who had given birth to a daughter, Rosemary White, his niece and Alison's mother and who just turned 80 on October 27.
  Ms Mudie from Lilyfield said her mother had given a DNA sample five years ago but had heard nothing. "It wasn't just Robert who died in the war, his brother Ron in the RAAF died when his aircraft, a B-25 Mitchell crashed off the coast of Nightcliff in 1943," she said.
  Lavington "Jack" Agar, aged 40 was serving on the ship as a chief mechanician. In a letter to his mother dated "September 30, 1941 At Sea" (three weeks before the ship went down) he wrote: "I hope you receive this letter alright and hoping to hear from you again very shortly. I will say goodnight for the present, best love to you and dad, from your loving son, Lav." There were 14 kisses.
  After the wreck of both ships was found in March 2008 a Commission of Inquiry was launched by Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston and deputy prime minister Julia Gillard. The Coles Inquiry noted: "There is a sense of frustration within the community that the navy has not revealed the full circumstances surrounding the deaths of the crew of HMAS Sydney."
  The inquiry found that by the time battle ceased there were likely many casualties on board, probably in the order of 70 per cent of her complement. It is probable there were still some alive on Sydney as she slowly sailed away from Kormoran. They had available to them no lifesaving measures that would allow them to leave the ship. The unknown sailor in the Carley float recovered off Christmas Island in February 1942 had suffered a serious shrapnel wound to the head, which caused his death immediately or shortly thereafter.
  The sole empirical fact available to Captain Joseph Burnett when making his initial decision was that the ship was not expected to be there. The terrible consequence of his erroneous decision was that Sydney did not go to action stations and approached to a position of great danger, where all her tactical advantages were negated and the advantage of surprise was given to Kormoran. It resulted in the loss of Sydney.