Namibia: West Coast shipwrecks: "Dunedin Star" & "Dunmuir" | Кораблекрушения у западного побережья Намибии
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22. "Dunedin Star"
Date: 29.11.1942
North of Cape Fria
The Dunedin Star was 13 000 tons British refrigerated cargo passenger liner, designed to ship frozen meat from Australia and New Zealand to the United Kingdom. It stranded on 29 November 1942, 40 km south of the Kunene River mouth and north of Cape Fria with 106 passengers and crew members on board. 42 people managed to get to the shore, the rest were rescued by Norwegian cargo ship Temeraire.
Various rescue attempts were undertaken from Cape Town, Walvis Bay and Windhoek. A Lockheed Ventura bomber plane was sent from the Cape of Good Hope (Cape Town) to land with supplies and water for survivors who had made it to shore. Unfortunately plane bogged down on landing in deep loose sand. A second bomber was sent to replenish supplies but it did not land, merely dropping its supplies. Second plane crashed into the ocean on the way back. The three crewmen made it to shore and began their long walk south. A Walvis Bay tug boat, SS Sir Charles Elliott and two of its crew members were also lost just north of Rocky Point during the rescue attempt. The crew of the stranded tug attempted to row a dinghy with five volunteers ashore, but it capsized. Three were washed out onto the beach, more dead than alive. Mathias Koraseb somehow managed to climb back onto the tug. The other man, first mate Angus McIntyre, carried away by the current, was never seen again. The next day, Koraseb and two others, wearing life jackets, made a desperate attempt to reach the shore. They managed to do so, but Koraseb died a few minutes after reaching safety. His grave is on the beach north of Rocky Point. With five men ashore, the heavy lifeboat was launched and rowed through the surf to the tug and rescued all their surviving shipmates.
A land rescue convoy, led by Captain Smith of the South African Police, set out from Windhoek through Kaokoland and the Namib Desert to reach those survivors who were ashore. The convoy reached the beach and rescued those survivors who had not been transferred by lifeboat to the Nerine, a converted minesweeper.
Smith's 11 trucks got back to Windhoek on 23 December, where the survivors stayed before continuing overland by train. The valuable cargo of war materials was totally lost. The hundreds of rubber truck tyres destined for the Eastern war front, washed up on the Skeleton Coast National Park, but now up to a kilometre inland can be seen even now.
22.1. "Dunmuir"
Date: 1971
Walvis Bay
This fishing vessel foundered NNW of the Walvis Bay area.
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