The Skeleton Coast

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Cacophonix
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The Skeleton Coast

#1 Post by Cacophonix » Fri Nov 09, 2018 9:14 pm

I guess most here know that the Skeleton Coast is the desolate and totally inhospitable coast running down from the mouth of the Cunene river to Swakopmund in Namibia, Famed for the wreck of ships over the last 4 centuries, some of them now sitting in the sand miles inland due to the prograding coastline it is a bleak and hostile place, prone to sea fogs in the morning along the frigid Benguela current and then tremendous heat during the day, it is a place of savage contrasts, great desolation and awesome but stark beauty at times. It was the location for one of the most extraordinary rescue operations ever undertaken in Africa by sea, land and air during the Second World War.
On 9 November 1942 Dunedin Star left Liverpool for Egypt via Saldanha Bay, Cape Town and Aden Her cargo was munitions and supplies for the British Eighth Army in the Middle East, and she was carrying 85 crew and 21 fare-paying passengers.

Approximate position of Dunedin Star's wreck on the coast of Namibia

Dunedin Star left Liverpool with Convoy ON 145, which convoy was bound for New York. In the North Atlantic Dunedin Star detached and headed for South Africa. However, at 2230 hrs on 29 November off the Skeleton Coast of South West Africa she struck an underwater obstacle,[10] presumed by the subsequent South African Court of Inquiry to be the poorly charted Clan Alpine Shoal. Her wireless operator sent a distress signal, which was received ashore at Walvis Bay.

Dunedin Star began rapidly taking on water and her pumps were unable to cope. Her Master, Captain RB Lee, chose to beach the ship for the safety of her passengers, crew and valuable cargo. In a heavy sea she grounded 550 yards (500 m) offshore, about 50 miles (80 km) south of the Cunene River mouth on the border with Portuguese Angola.

Captain Lee feared the heavy sea could break up the ship. He therefore had the crew lower her motor boat and start putting people ashore. The boat completed two trips, putting ashore a total of 63 people including eight women, three babies and a number of elderly men. Then the rough sea disabled the boat and it was stranded on the beach. 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 beached ship.

A South African Railways and Harbours tug, the 328 GRT Sir Charles Elliot, left Walvis Bay and headed north to reach the wreck. The 197 GRT minesweeper HMSAS Nerine, a converted civilian vessel, left Walvis Bay at 1400 hrs on 30 November laden with emergency supplies packed into Carley floats to take ashore to the survivors on the beach. The Norwegian 6,465 GRT cargo ship Temeraire and Manchester Liners' 6,048 GRT cargo steamship Manchester Division also diverted to help. Meanwhile, at Windhoek a land rescue convoy, led by Captain JWB Smith of the South African Police, set out to reach those survivors who were ashore.

The ships reached Dunedin Star on 1 or 2 December. Nerine launched some of her supply-laden Carley floats to reach the shore party, but the strong current swept them away. She moved closer to the shore, launched her remaining floats and returned to Walvis Bay. Temeraire launched her motor boat and took 10 men off Dunedin Star, but the boat shipped a lot of water which stopped her motor. The Norwegian boatmen then rowed for an hour and a half to Manchester Division, which took the 10 survivors aboard. The Norwegians were now so exhausted that Temeraire had to take them and their boat back aboard. The next day Sir Charles Elliot arrived. Temeraire again lowered her motor boat, which in four trips rescued the remaining 32 men from Dunedin Star and transferred them all to Sir Charles Elliot. In the heavy sea the tug then struggled to get alongside Manchester Division to transfer all of the rescued men except Captain Lee and his Chief and Second Engineers, who were taken aboard Nerine.

On 3 December Sir Charles Elliot left to return to Walvis Bay, but about 0600 hrs the next morning she grounded just north of Rocky Point. Most of her crew managed to swim ashore through the strong current, but First Officer Angus McIntyre and deckhand Mathias Korabseb did not survive.

At 1400 hrs on 3 December a South African Air Force Lockheed Ventura coastal patrol aircraft was sent from Cape Town to drop supplies on the beach for the survivors. At about 1620 hrs the pilot, Captain Immins Naude, found the beach. His crew dropped the supplies but most were destroyed on impact. Naude landed on a nearby flat piece of land with the intention of rescuing some of the remaining survivors on the beach. Unfortunately the land was a salt pan disguised by desert sand. The next day it was discovered that the Ventura's undercarriage had sunk through the crusted surface of the salt, damaging the aircraft and leaving it stuck in the sand.

Three other SAAF Venturas flew supply missions to drop water, food and other emergency supplies. They often flew several flights a day to the survivors on the beach. At times they also dropped supplies to Captain Smith's land convoy on the way from Windhoek to the beach. On 8 December Captain Smith's land convoy reached Rocky Point and Sir Charles Elliot's survivors and took them to a makeshift landing strip. There Lt Col PS Joubert landed a Ventura and picked up the tug's surviving crew.

In Walvis Bay Nerine refuelled and loaded new supplies, and on 7 December headed north again. She reached Dunedin Star two days later and launched her lifeboat, which unsuccessfully tried to fire a line ashore by rocket. Instead Nerine's radio operator, Denis Scully, swam ashore with a rope tied about his waist. That day 14 crew, two women and two children were taken off the beach and transferred to Nerine. On 10 December eight more of the survivors from the beach were transferred to the minesweeper.

Captain Smith's convoy then reached the beach and rescued those survivors who had not been transferred by lifeboat to Nerine. Smith's 11 trucks got back to Windhoek on 23 December, where the survivors stayed before continuing overland by train. They reached Cape Town on 28 December.

On 17 January 1943 Captain Naude left Windhoek leading an overland convoy to recover the Ventura. After on-site repairs and a four-day digging effort, he finally got the plane airborne on 29 January. However, after only 43 minutes' flying time the aircraft developed engine trouble and ditched in the sea about 200 yards offshore near Rocky Point. Naude and his two fellow aircrew survived the crash and managed to swim ashore. Their returning land convoy rescued them on 1 February.

All of Dunedin Star's passengers, crew and DEMS gunners survived, thanks to the courage and resource of many rescuers by sea, air and land. But it was at high cost: one Ventura aircraft, the tug Sir Charles Elliot and two of the tug's crew were killed.

The Court of Enquiry found Captain Lee culpable for the loss of his ship. Blue Star Line dismissed him and he turned to being a publican in England. In 1943 or '44 Blue Star re-engaged him as the master of one of the merchant ships for one of the Allied landings in Europe. After this contract Blue Star did not offer him another ship. He later emigrated to India, where he died shortly after his arrival.

Six of Dunedin Star's crew including an assistant engineer went on to serve on Melbourne Star, and were killed when she was sunk in the North Atlantic on 2 April 1943. Dunedin Star's chief electrician went on to serve on the landing ship Empire Javelin, and was killed when she was sunk in the English Channel on 28 December 1944.

Some of Dunedin Star's cargo was salvaged in 1951. Some remains are visible to this day on the beach, among them a section of decking from the bow or of the stern.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Dunedin_Star

SAAF Ventura bomber.JPG
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Engine from the wrecked SAAF Ventura.JPG
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The full story was well documented in the book Skeleton Coast by John H Marsh written in 1945. Difficult to find these days but a classic of its kind.

RIP - Immins Overbeek Naude 2011
Meneer Naude.JPG
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Hail the modest hero of the merciless Skeleton Coast!

In a retirement community in Potchefstroom a real South African hero died, almost unsung in his own country.
AT the age of 83 Immins Overbeek Naude succumbed to a double onslaught of asthma and angina. He probably wasn’t unhappy, because he had cheated death 52 years earlier in a hair-raising rescue bid that will rank as one of the most daring in history.
And while his heroism took place out of sight of the print and electronic media, he was, until his death, every bit as modest and taciturn about the whole thing as were the SAAF pilots who followed in his footsteps with the rescue of passengers from the sinking Oceanos. One of his fellow pilots in 23 Squadron of the South African Air Force, Durban pensioner Clyde Harley said: “What he did was courageous. He was a hero. We should remember”.
https://saafmuseum.org.za/skeleton-coast-hero/


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Re: The Skeleton Coast

#2 Post by izod tester » Fri Nov 09, 2018 10:24 pm

A very interesting story Caco. However, that picture is of a Liberator, not a Ventura. The Ventura was twin engined and a development of the Hudson.

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Re: The Skeleton Coast

#3 Post by Woody » Fri Nov 09, 2018 10:36 pm

The Skeleton Coast is on my bucket list, hopefully spend some time exploring when I get to spend more time in CPT
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Re: The Skeleton Coast

#4 Post by Cacophonix » Fri Nov 09, 2018 10:45 pm

izod tester wrote:
Fri Nov 09, 2018 10:24 pm
A very interesting story Caco. However, that picture is of a Liberator, not a Ventura. The Ventura was twin engined and a development of the Hudson.


https://saafmuseum.org.za/welcome-to-th ... liberator/


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/34_Squadron_SAAF

You are right izod. I am trying to source a photo of the downed Ventura. Many thanks for correcting my faux pas. I will climb into the loft tomorrow to pull out a copy of Skeleton Coast and see if the book has a photo.

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Re: The Skeleton Coast

#5 Post by Cacophonix » Sat Nov 10, 2018 6:21 am

Woody wrote:
Fri Nov 09, 2018 10:36 pm
The Skeleton Coast is on my bucket list, hopefully spend some time exploring when I get to spend more time in CPT
You'll need a big bucket and spade and a camera for the wildlife Woody! Hauntingly beautiful place. Don't be tempted to try the sea. Freezing, full of sharks, strong undertows, freak waves and kelp!

Not my shot sadly. Photos sitting in a box in Cape Town.

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Re: The Skeleton Coast

#6 Post by Cacophonix » Sat Nov 10, 2018 6:28 am

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Re: The Skeleton Coast

#7 Post by Cacophonix » Tue Nov 13, 2018 2:11 pm

Replacement copy of Skeleton Coast (original found to have been donated on Saturday, grrr) just arrived in beautifully packed parcel from Jim's Old Books in Kirkwall. I am somehow pleased it came from there and feel a sense of symmetry in that. Smella like it has been left in the salt air for a while as well. Best thing that has happened today.

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Re: The Skeleton Coast

#8 Post by Cacophonix » Tue Nov 13, 2018 4:57 pm

Reading again of the way that Dunedin Star foundered on a ever moving sand bar or shoal and how it sparked the grounding that initiated the sequence of events that created the need for this rescue is almost a metaphor for life. Captain Lee had come in close to the shore to avoid the predations of German U boats but the irony was that, with the 20/20 hindsight of historical record we know that know were none in that part of the Atlantic at all that month. As Captain he took responsibility for the grounding and his career was blighted and he eventaully died in India in the obscurity that he sought after the events of those terrible days.

I am seriously thinking of holidaying here next year to follow up on the Skeleton Coast which I haven't seen for over 25 years and to get some R&R. Perhaps Lee should have returned to the desert and made peace with the place. It can be a beautiful and there are worse places to disappear from the world.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/home ... nedin-star

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