One of a dozen crewman (and the only one presently anonymous) from the frigate HMS Assistance, this Briton died in the line of evacuation duty after the American Revolutionary War. He was part of a search party led ashore by Lieutenants Hamilton D. Halyburton, Royal Navy, and James Champion, Royal Marines, on New Year's Eve, 1783. The men were in pursuit of deserters, but were themselves caught in a blizzard. Their frozen bodies were subsequently discovered in a Sandy Hook salt marsh and committed to a common grave nearby. The site was later marked by a memorial erected by Lt. Halyburton's mother, the Dowager Countess of Morton, but was subsequently lost to neglect and deterioration. When the remains of the HMS Assistance casualties were re-discovered in 1908, they were transferred to Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY. The present monument on Sandy Hook, a cenotaph, dates from 1939. PHOTOS by Nikita Barlow, September 2005
One of a dozen crewman (and the only one presently anonymous) from the frigate HMS Assistance, this Briton died in the line of evacuation duty after the American Revolutionary War. He was part of a search party led ashore by Lieutenants Hamilton D. Halyburton, Royal Navy, and James Champion, Royal Marines, on New Year's Eve, 1783. The men were in pursuit of deserters, but were themselves caught in a blizzard. Their frozen bodies were subsequently discovered in a Sandy Hook salt marsh and committed to a common grave nearby. The site was later marked by a memorial erected by Lt. Halyburton's mother, the Dowager Countess of Morton, but was subsequently lost to neglect and deterioration. When the remains of the HMS Assistance casualties were re-discovered in 1908, they were transferred to Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY. The present monument on Sandy Hook, a cenotaph, dates from 1939. PHOTOS by Nikita Barlow, September 2005
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