HONOLULU — Scientists hope the 150th anniversary of the sinking of the ironclad USS Monitor during the Civil War will help identity two sets of remains at a Hawaii military lab.
HONOLULU — Scientists hope the 150th anniversary of the sinking of the ironclad USS Monitor during the Civil War will help identity two sets of remains at a Hawaii military lab.
The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam has been working to identify the remains since they were recovered in 2002. The lab last year identified 69 service members missing from past wars.
A clay reconstruction effort at Louisiana State University is showing what the sailors — one who had a gold ring found dangling on his finger — looked like at the time of their deaths on Dec. 31, 1862, when the Monitor sank in a storm off Cape Hatteras, N.C.
“Since we have no dental records, and we have no fillings in these guys’ mouths, we’re going to have to go back to the DNA, and the DNA is going to tell us who these folks are,” said Robert Mann, director of the Forensic Science Academy at JPAC.
Scientists hope the anniversary will spur maternal descendants to submit DNA for comparison. If no living relatives are found, the remains will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery on Dec. 31.
Last year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hired a genealogist to trace family histories of the 16 sailors who died aboard the Monitor. Descendants of seven sailors have been located. There have been several recent inquiries from those who might be related to crew member Robert Williams, and a great-grandnephew of Samuel Lewis also contacted NOAA.
Louisiana State University’s Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services Laboratory volunteered to create the facial reconstructions. According to JPAC, both were Caucasian. One was 17 to 24 years old, and possibly 5 feet 7 inches tall. The other was about the same height and 30 to 40 years old.
“This is all part of our mission,” Mann said. “Even though they were missing (nearly 150) years ago, we still want to do the recovery and identify the sailors and send them home.”