Dead Reckoning: The Dunedin Star Disaster

by Jeff Dawson

In November 1942, the Dunedin Star, a ship of Britain’s Blue Star Line, was bound for the Middle East, her consignment of munitions for the 8th Army supplemented by 21 civilians escaping the Blitz. Three weeks into her voyage, her hull mysteriously holed, the Dunedin Star ran aground off Namibia’s infamous Skeleton Coast—the most violent and desolate shore on earth. Sixty-three passengers were to defy unfathomable odds to reach land—but their struggle for survival had only just begun.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Africa, World War II

320 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2005

About the author

Jeff Dawson is a journalist, author and scriptwriter. Amongst other things, he pens Real Dictators, the award-winning historical podcast (200m downloads) that goes out on Spotify, Apple, BBC Sounds and elsewhere.

He was, for many years, a feature writer for The Sunday Times' Culture section (interviewees including Robert De Niro, George Clooney, Dustin Hoffman, Hugh Grant, Angelina Jolie, Jerry Seinfeld and Nicole Kidman). Before that he was the US Editor of Empire magazine.
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Jeff is the author of three non-fiction books — Tarantino/Quentin Tarantino: The Cinema of Cool (Cassell/Applause, 1995), Back Home: England And The 1970 World Cup (Orion, 2001), which The Times rated "Truly outstanding", and Dead Reckoning: The Dunedin Star Disaster (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005), the latter nominated for the Mountbatten Maritime Prize.

Historical thriller No Ordinary Killing (2017), an Amazon/Kindle bestseller, was his debut novel. The follow-ups, The Cold North Sea (2018) and Hell Gate (2020), continue the adventures of Captain Ingo Finch.

Reviews

[JD · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing story of survival and rescue, which is well told and the author really brings the rich cast of characters to life. It is the true story about the beaching of the MV Dunedin Star on the Skeleton Coast of Namibia where men, women and children were stranded for weeks and of the epic rescue performed by South African sailors, airmen, soldiers and policemen during the latter part of 1942. This is another heroic story that took place not against enemy action, but against the elements. Highly recommended!!

[John Humber · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a bit of a sucker for sea stories and for survival tales so I'm a captive audience for something like this.

It was a holiday read a few years ago and for the time it took to read I didn't do much else as I recall.

The story builds quite well with background to the various people involved - why they were on the ship, where they were heading and such. The author draws on written testimonies of those involved and spoke to the only two living survivors at the time of writing.

The ship ran aground on Namibia's desolate Skeleton Coast. The subsequent rescue was a tortuous affair with the rescuers needing rescue too. If this were a novel you might well find yourself saying "Oh come on. That's pushing it a bit too far".

[Mags · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting tale of people surviving in the Skeleton Coast after a shipwreck.

Tends towards a little bit of colonial racism at points, but I'm presuming that comes from the ages of the people who provided their stories.

Would have been nice to have had more of a postscript on what happened to everyone after the War.

[Joann Mcpherson]

Fascinating read. I had heard Simon Winchester being interviewed and he talked about what prompted him to write a book about the Atlantic Ocean.....the stranding of the Dunedin Star was part of the reason.....

[L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jeff Dawson tells the tragicomedy story of the wreck of the Dunedin Star and the numerous attempts by land, sea and air to rescue the survivors. Dawson is very, very British and there were a few times I had no idea what he was saying. He does something different I've not encountered in other nonfiction works. Dawson sort of writes a script as a way to make the people more flesh and blood, not just names on the page. I understand what he's trying to do. It doesn't work. He's putting early 21st century values into early 20th century mouths.