SKELETON COAST

Another volume in the vast records on incident in World War II, this book tells of the trials endured by 63 passengers, officers and crew members of the Blue Star ship, Dunedin Star, marooned on the Went Coast of Africa in November, 1942, when their ship was torpedoed. The Dunedin Star did not sink drifting, instead to a reef off the Coast of Loneliness, the Skeleton Coast, a desolate and deadly stretch of and extending for 500 miles south from Angola to Wavis Bay. Radio messages alerted Wavis Bay of the disaster and the captain of the ship settled down on the reef to wait for help; then, afraid the ship might break up, sent his passengers, among them women and children, and some officers and crew members ashore by lifeboat, a perilous journey through pounding surf, staying in the ship himself with the real of the crew. Those in the ship were taken off, but the beach party was not so lucky, for all attempts to rescue them by ship or plane failed and they nearly perished, lacking water, shelter, adequate food and nearly driven insane by the heat. At last a motor convoy from Wavis Bay arrived and after more unbelievable difficulties they reached safety. Based on personal narrative the book is not so much a tale of heroism as of the reactions of human beings to stress and peril, and although too long for its content is a readable addition to annals of bravery -- and also of cowardice. Its appeal is to devotees of tales of danger, as an addition to war libraries, and, although limited, it may also find a place in lending libraries.