HALIFAX - They are scattered throughout a small military cemetery in Halifax -- dozens of weathered headstones dating back more than a century, bearing the names of seamen and civilians associated with the Royal Navy.

The grave markers were meant to stand as enduring tokens of respect, but they also serve as a reminder of the many more men, women and children buried here whose names cannot be found on any memorial.

Now the Department of National Defence has launched a project in hopes of preserving potentially hundreds of unmarked graves at Canadian Forces Base Halifax.

"The hope is to find out where all these graves are," says historian Rick Sanderson, executive director of the Maritime Command Museum located on the base.

"The graveyard is very important to the navy because the origins of the Canadian navy are with the British navy and to a certain extent, the French navy as well."

The federal government wants to hire experts to carefully scan the grassy 0.6-hectare site to determine how many bodies are buried there.

"The main objectives of the project are to protect the dignity of those who are buried there and preserve the integrity of this important cultural landscape," reads a tender posted by Public Works and Government Services Canada, on behalf of the Department of National Defence.

The cemetery, which once sat next to a military hospital, is found on the east side of the base, surrounded by nondescript buildings and enclosed by iron and barbed-wire fencing. Save for several tall trees, it is an open space that slopes gently toward bustling Barrington Street and historic Halifax harbour.

It's believed that some 480 people are buried in the cemetery, primarily Royal Navy seamen who were based in Halifax, but also family members and civilians associated with the navy. Most of the burials took place in the 1800s.

Walking across the grounds it's impossible to know where the graves are. There are only 84 grave markers in the cemetery.

Some are wooden, their decaying tops sheared off and splintered. The vast majority are intricately carved headstones made of marble, sandstone or granite inscribed with names, causes of death and the occasional poem.

Near the centre of the graveyard sits a lonesome wooden marker engraved only with the initials G.A. and the year 1864. Sanderson notes it has held up surprisingly well, likely because whoever placed it there had the forethought to lay a strip of copper on its rounded top, protecting it from 147 years of rain, snow and wind.

"Most of these stones were erected by the shipmate of the person that was killed," says Sanderson.

"There wasn't an awful lot of money floating around for that kind of activity but they did the best they could."

A number of the young men interred at the cemetery died after plummeting from a topmast. There are some war dead, including five sailors from HMS Shannon who were fatally wounded in a bloody battle with the USS Chesapeake during the War of 1812. Civilians, like family members or workers on the base, often succumbed to diphtheria and other maladies of the time.

It's believed a number of the markers were wiped out in the Halifax Explosion of 1917 when a munitions ship collided with a relief vessel in the harbour. Some graves were probably never given headstones, while others were lost over time because of age and weather. The base now tries to replace damaged markers with replicas.

While the locations of the graves could soon be determined, what may never be known is to whom they belong.

Sanderson says cemetery record-keeping before 1861 was practically non-existent and records afterwards are incomplete.

"Many of the members who were interred up until 1861, their names ... I'd say probably the majority of them are lost," he says.

About 95 people who are buried at the cemetery have been identified through the remaining markers that sometimes sit on multiple graves. Sanderson says there are documents containing more names in a public records office in England that the museum is trying to obtain.

There is also another research project planned to find out more about the dead and buried, but Sanderson says there are no plans to exhume any bodies.

"It's more macabre than would be useful," he says.

To that end, Public Works and Government Services Canada says the methods used will be non-invasive. They include using magnets and electrical currents to map soil patterns.

"They provide a good indication of the location and the arrangements of the grave sites without disturbing them," says Carol Rogers, manager of conservation and landscape architecture with the department in Halifax.

"It means it's possible to document a site while respecting and honouring the sanctity of the people that are buried there."

The work is expected to be completed by Sept. 30 and handed over to the Defence Department.

Sanderson says the project is important even if some questions remain unanswered.

"Although most of these people were British, they were all in service of protecting this nation," he says.

"So we need to maintain the graveyard, we need to maintain what knowledge we have of this graveyard because it's how we learn about who we are as a people."