In April 1912, a cable laying ship out of Halifax, Nova Scotia called the Mackay Bennett was hired by the White Star Line to recover the floating corpses of those who had died during the sinking of RMS Titanic. They took enough provisions to process about 70 bodies but when they reached the site of the tragedy they found hundreds.
They were forced then to choose whose body would be recovered and whose would not, ultimately deciding to return the bodies of third class passengers to the sea. There was one exception, the body of an unidentified third class little boy was brought back. When nobody claimed the body from the makeshift morgue in Halifax, the hard bitten crew of the ship paid for a decent burial and the "unknown child" lay in Halifax cemetery for almost a century.
Then, a fame-hungry scientist and amateur "Titanic expert" from Lakeheath, Ontario named Ryan Parr persuaded the authorities to allow exhumation of the child's body for DNA testing. The results were not entirely conclusive but the child was tentatively identified. The thing is, nobody really benefitted from this desecration, with the possible exception of Professor Parr.
Instead, the simple beauty of the generous act by the crew of the Mackay Bennett was nullified by one man's thirst for fame and a scientific community who failed to ask itself whether it really should do this.
I'm a scientist working in an archaeology group and I was ashamed when I learned of the exhumation. It sullied all scientists with its grubby tabloid intrusion. The ancient DNA studying community is chock full of these grave-robbers, justifying their dubious Burke and Hare skullduggery in the name of science and human advancement. Shame on you Ryan Parr. Shame on all of you.
