Scottish sailors identity was unknown for 200 years until now

A gravestone in Mystic, Connecticut that long read “Unknown, HMS Terror, August 13, 1814” has finally been traced to a specific sailor: William Adamson of Pittenweem, in Scotland’s Fife. After years of research, local historian Grace Cleere linked the burial to a War of 1812 skirmish. Adamson, believed to have been pressed into the Navy in 1807, was a quarter gunner on HMS Terror by August 1814. He was fatally shot when a British cutter crew was lured into an ambush at Groton Long Point by an American militia. Records—including muster rolls and captain’s logs—confirmed his identity.