The Skeleton Coast is a 500-mile-long desolate shore that is one of the most dangerous in the world. It is part of present-day Namibia in West Africa. The name Skeleton Coast comes from the large amount of whale and seal bones that are found there. The coast is devoid of humanity and patrolled by hungry lions and desert elephants. Many mariners who wrecked on this coast survived the sea only to perish from exposure and thirst.
What makes this coastline so dangerous to navigation? First, there is the cold Benguela current that, upon meeting warm tropical air, creates a dense fog that shrouds the 300-foot dunes along the beach, making it almost invisible. A relentless, heavy surf pounds the uncharted shifting sandbars. Finally, the strong currents have all combined to wreck as many as one thousand ships, making this the world’s largest ship graveyard.
One of the most well-known wrecks on the coast was the MV Dunedin Star, a British refrigerated cargo liner that ran aground on November 29, 1942. The ship hit a reef known as the Clan Alpine Shoal while on a voyage from Liverpool, England, to Egypt carrying a cargo of munitions and supplies for the British Eighth Army in Africa. She had a crew of 85 and 21 passengers, mostly women and elderly men escaping the German Blitzkrieg in Britain.
The Star’s hull was badly holed by being relentlessly pounded on the sandbar. Captain R B Lee managed to free the ship, but the aspect of abandoning ship on the desolate beach seemed fraught with peril, so he decided to continue toward Cape Town. The wireless operator sent out a distress message, which was received.
Not long after the grounding, it became apparent that the ship was going to sink. Captain Lee then purposely headed toward shore and grounded the vessel about 550 yards out in the heavy surf. Thinking the ship might break up, Captain Lee began putting people ashore in the ship’s boat. A total of 63 people, including eight women, three babies, and several elderly men, made it before the rough sea disabled the boat. They were left with no shelter and only the boat’s water and food rations to sustain them. Another 42 people, including Captain Lee, were left aboard the stranded ship.
The Star’s distress message had been received and a massive rescue effort was hastily organized to rescue the stranded people and the valuable cargo. The tug Sir Charles Elliot, the mine sweeper HMSAS Nerine, the Norwegian cargo ship Temeraire, and the cargo steamship Manchester Division all headed north to try and help in the rescue. A land rescue convoy was also organized, led by Captain JWB Smith of the South African Police. He set out with 11 vehicles to try and reach the survivors who were stranded on shore.
Two of the ships reached the Dunedin Star on December 1 and the Nerine launched floats with supplies to try to reach the people on shore, but the strong current swept them away. Temeraire launched her motorboat and took 10 men off the Dunedin Star, but the boat took on water, which disabled her engine.
The following day, the Temeraire’s motorboat made 4 more trips to the Dunedin Star and rescued the remaining 32 crew. When the tug Sir Charles Elliot tried to return to Walvis Bay the next morning, she ran aground. Most of her crew managed to swim ashore through the strong current, but two of her crew drowned in the heavy surf.
Several aircraft were also deployed, but the first to land at the wreck became stuck in the deep sand and was a total loss. Her crew was now also in need of rescue. Three other aircraft flew supply missions to drop water, food, and other emergency supplies to the survivors on the beach and to Captain Smith’s land convoy. On December 8, Captain Smith reached Rocky Point and found the survivors of the Sir Charles Elliot. He took them to a makeshift landing strip where they were picked up.
In Walvis Bay, Nerine refueled and loaded new supplies, and on December 7, headed north again. She reached the Dunedin Star two days later and launched her lifeboat, which unsuccessfully tried to fire a line ashore by rocket. So, instead Nerine’s radio operator, Denis Scully, swam ashore with a rope tied around his waist. That day, 14 crew, two women and two children were taken off the beach and transferred to Nerine. On December 10, eight more of the survivors from the beach were transferred to the minesweeper.
Captain Smith’s convoy finally reached the beach and rescued those survivors who had not been transferred by lifeboat to Nerine. Smith’s trucks got back to Windhoek on December 23, where the survivors stayed before continuing overland by train. They reached Cape Town on December 28, one month after the wreck.
All of Dunedin Star’s passengers and crew survived thanks to the courage of many rescuers by sea, air, and land. But it was at a high cost, one aircraft, the tug Sir Charles Elliot, and two of the tug’s crew who were lost.
In 1971, Namibia established the Skeleton Coast National Park. This 6000 square mile park’s southern section is open to four-wheel drive vehicles as far north as the Ugab River, where a sign with skull and crossbones warns you to go no further. Today, this stretch of coastline is still one of the most remote in the world. Some remains of the Dunedin Star are still visible to this day on the beach and serve as a warning to all mariners, “Beware of the Skeleton Coast.