Help With History

[Herod]

One for the experts please. Many years ago I remember reading about an aerial exploration in, I think, the thirties, where an aircraft crashed somewhere along the Skeleton Coast in Africa. What made the story interesting was that the aircraft sent to rescue the members of the party crashed on take-off! I think there may have been another accident as well, before all the assorted explorers and rescue crews were lifted out. All fact, not fiction. Does anyone have any details of this, and perhaps the name of the book I read it in? Thanks for any help.

[toscana24]

The book is "Skeleton Coast" by John H Marsh : the shipwreck was the Dunedin Star followed by a tug and then the aircraft (a Ventura) going down.


Gripping stuff and true!

[Herod]

Thank you. I read it when there was talk of an expedition from the RAF going down that way back in the seventies. Never happened; I suspect for political reasons.

[skydiver69]

IIRC Benedict Allen mentioned the incident in his 1997 Skeleton Coast BBC series, but its been a long time since I've watched it so I may be wrong.

[Herod]

I've found a second-hand copy of the book on the river site, and it's on my Christmas list. Thanks both.

[parabellum]

Also available on Kindle for $1.33!

[Herod]

Thanks, but I prefer hard-copy of classics. You never know what you might find. I bought a copy of "Ferry Command" a while back, and it's signed by Don McVicar, location Dorval. Well worth the few pounds.

[Jhieminga]

That's a good find! The copy I bought last June didn't have any signatures, but it did complete the set of five McVicar books on my shelf...

[toscana24]

Herod : I hope you enjoy the book over Xmas. It is a tale of incredible bravery on the part of both those marooned on the coast and of the rescuers.


I have been to Namibia many times and flown up the coast viewing the many shipwrecks and abandoned gold mining 'towns'. It is a forbidding even frightening landscape.


We have also had adventures along the coast with an alternator failing in the desert and a few days later being caught in a sandstorm that blew a side window in on our Land Rover. And that was on the gravel and salt desert roads. Having to make their way across the dunes in such hostile terrain for many many miles to rescue people is unbelievably heroic. Maybe people were made of sterner stuff then?

[Herod]

Thanks to all who came up with the goods. Santa didn't leave it, but I got hold of a used hardback, and have just finished it. Bravery, and incredible fortitude. Apart from the sad loss of two men from the tug, no casualties among the crew and passengers of the Dunedin Star.