HMAS Sydney II Memorial Plaque, Christmas Island
GillPThis photo was taken in August 2010. It's a photo of a plaque placed in the Old European Cemetery behind the Catholic Church on Christmas Island. The plaque commemorates the grave of the unknown sailor who was found in a carley float off Christmas Island in 1942, approx 3 months after the disappearance (sinking) of HMAS Sydney II off Western Australia. The unknown sailor's remains were discovered there in 2006 and moved to Geraldton, WA.
Wikimapia text:
This was the final resting place of an unknown sailor who floated into the bay on 06 February 1942 in a carley float. Based on forensic evidence (initial examination and after exhumation) of both the body and carley float, current behavior, and known ship losses in the area the sailor was more than likely from the HMAS Sydney, which was sank by the German ship Kormoran (HSK-8) in a mutually destructive battle off the coast of Perth in November 1941. His body was afloat for an estimated two months and found missing his eyes, nose, and the flesh from his right arm (probably due to being eaten by sea birds and fish) before being hauled ashore on Christmas Island.
The Royal Australian Navy performed an unsuccessful search of the graveyard in August–September 2001, and a second, successful search in October 2006. When it was found, the body was in an unusually-shaped coffin, which appeared to have been constructed around it as the body was buried "with legs doubled under at the knee," the same position it had been in when found on the raft, possibly due to mummification. It was concluded that the sailor was kneeling in the carley float when he was killed after being hit twice in the head with shrapnel from the Kormoran's guns before falling backwards in the float.
The unknown sailor was reburied in the Commonwealth War Graves section in the Geraldton Cemetery on 19 November 2008 with full military honors. DNA collected and tested against living family members and descendants of the HMAS Sydney's crew has narrowed the unknown sailor's possible identity down to one of 50 sailors.
