The Skeleton Coast
Along the desert coast of Namibia, the wrecks of ships lie half-buried in the sand, far from the sea, in thick fog.
What was reported
Namibia's northern coast is where the Namib Desert meets the Atlantic. The Portuguese called it the Gates of Hell, and the San people's name for it is said to mean 'the land God made in anger'. It's known today as the Skeleton Coast.
More than a thousand ships are thought to have been wrecked along it. Their rusting hulls lie on the beach and in the dunes, some hundreds of metres inland, and sailors who got ashore faced a waterless desert. The bones of whales and seals once littered the sand too.
Explanations offered
A cold ocean current, the Benguela, runs up the coast and creates thick fogs and strong surf that drove ships aground. The wrecks seem to move inland because the desert keeps building the shore out into the sea. The name came from the whale bones and the wrecks.
- When
- Named in the 20th century
- Where
- Skeleton Coast, Kunene, Namibia
- Witnesses
- Sailors, castaways and travellers
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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