Unknown Sailor

[Ian C]

Hi

I was just reading Terrys post about memorials to the missing and that got me thinking again about a grave I found in Skerries, which is about 20 miles north of Dublin. The grave is of a sailor who was washed ashore in March 1918 and with, presumably, nothing on the body from which to make an identification was buried as unknown. What surprises me is that although there was nothing on the body to allow identification, that the authorites could not work out who it was, as far I know there where not any sea battles at that time so it must have been a man over board, and how many of those could there have been in that area at that time?

As I was only there on a two week holiday I did not have a real chance to do much research but hope to move there this time next year when I will be able to start looking into it properly.

Ian C

[historydavid]

Hello Ian, it would not have been as easy as it may seem to identify an un-named corpse.

It might have been the result of a man overboard as you suggest or it could have resulted from a sinking.

There were two merchant ships sunk in the area in March, the first lost 3 men and the second 6 men. It could, of course, have been the result of a sinking in February, depending on the tide and currents.

Additionally, there may have been losses from the Admiralty trawlers and drifters searching for U-boats or the fishing fleet, as well as warships.

As I said it all goes to make the task nigh on impossible unless a body is washed ashore immediately from a known disaster.

Best wishes

David

[Ian C]

Hi David

CWGC states it was an unidentified rating of the Royal Navy, so presumably must have been in uniform, wouldn't this rule out the merchant ships?

Regards

Ian C

[Michael Lowrey]

Ian,

No. Virtually all merchant ships had Royal Navy gun crews by February 1918. That though may be easiest aspect to check, as the ships torpedoed and resulting casualties are known...

Best wishes,

Michael

[historydavid]

Hello Ian,

I think you are going to have a mamoth task on your hands trying to identify this man, bearing in mind that if he was Navy then a serious attempt will have already been made.

I have just looked at Navy men who died in March 1918. After eliminating illness, died from from wounds etc, I was left with 389 possibles. A good number of these will be eliminated when you identify the location of the 40 plus ship losses.

21 men are specifically identified as having drowned and 5 who died, each one of these came from a different ship. The term died is often used as a catch-all, from died in sleep to suicide (jumped overboard in your case). Locating where these deaths occurred will probably be a nighmare, as it is often impossible to identify the ports for a particular voyage, let alone where some incident took place during a voyage.

A final thought, I doubt if you will be able to find out how long it would take a body to come ashore from different locations in the Irish Sea, bearing in mind that it is open at the North and South ends to channels which are affected by the Atlantic currents and tides. This probably means that you have to take at least February losses into account.

If you go for it, then I wish you the best of luck

Best wishes

David

[Ian C]

Hi David & Michael

Thanks for your replies.

I don't know that I ever seriously considered trying to find a name for this man but I would like to try and find out a bit more. It just struck me, with my limited knowledge, strange that they could not identify him. As I said I plan to go into semi retirement in the Skerries area next year so this might be something to keep me out of trouble, (and the wifes hair).

Regards

Ian C