IN February 1982, as the junta unsheathed its sword and prepared to invade the Falklands, two Argentinian divers plunged into the waters of the Rio Deseado.

They set in train a series of events which a quarter of a century later saw the remains of a British marine interred with full honours in Argentina’s capital.

Marines – the Corps did not earn the prefix Royal until 1802 –Rusker and Ballard suffered a grim fate, drowned when their ship, HMS Swift, foundered on rocks near Port Desire in Argentina.

The men died when their brig foundered on rocks in the Deseado estuary as she attempted to shelter from a storm in March 1770.

Swift had been based at Port Egmont, a settlement and naval base in the Falklands, and was dispatched to the Patagonia coast to conduct survey work.
All but three of Swift’s 90 crew survived the sinking; the body of a cook was washed ashore shortly afterwards and buried by his comrades.

A few survivors rowed to the Falklands to raise the alarm; a rescue vessel was sent to bring their shipmates home.

But the sea never gave up Rusker and Ballard – until maritime archeologists began to investigate the wreck site in earnest.

Divers began to take interest in the loss of the Swift in the late 70s, but it wasn’t until early 1982 that the remains of the ship were found close to the main berths of Puerto Deseado, a thriving fishing port.

In the two decades since that discovery, around ten per cent of the ship has been uncovered beneath the silt. Cannons and the captain’s Chinese porcelain have been recovered and are now in the local museum.

But it wasn’t until the autumn of 2005 that the first human remains were found in the wreck – a foot bone in a shoe found near the captain’s cabin.

After receiving permission from the British Defence Attaché in Buenos Aires, Capt Christopher Hyldon RN, to continue excavation, the dig’s leader Dr Dolores Elkin and her team recovered a complete skeleton.

And so it was that 237 years after the Swift sank that one of her crew was finally laid to rest at the British cemetery in Chacarita, Buenos Aires, with full military honours by British and Argentine Navies, civic dignitaries, and government officials.

The Argentine Navy provided a nine-marine guard and a bugler to sound the last post for the marine, whose dark oak casket draped with the White Ensign was lowered into the earth beneath a memorial stone with a simple inscription: An unknown private marine, HMS Swift, 13 March 1770.

“We will probably never know which of the two marines has been interred,” said Capt Hyldon.

“But RN records of the time were so extensive that we know the names of all the crew, including those who died, their town or village of origin, as well as their date of birth.”

For the record, the marines drowned were 21-year-old Robert Rusker and 23-year-old John Ballard.

Further information about the Swift project is available from National Institute of Anthropology