The Shipwrecks of the Skeleton Coast of Namibia
The Skeleton Coast is the northern part of the coast of Namibia, south of the Kunene River to the Swakop River. It is also often used to describe the entire Namib Desert coastline.

The Skeleton Coast is associated with shipwrecks, and stories of sailors walking through the desert in search of food and water. The name is derived from the bones that lined the beaches as a result of whaling operations and seal hunts. A few of the skeletons were human.

The blinding fog typical of this coast results in ships running aground or wrecking on the off-shore rocks. The coast is littered with scores of shipwrecks, some are barely recognizable, other are still in remarkably good condition.

Portuguese seafarers called this wilderness of white sand ‘the coast of hell’. Later it became better known as the Skeleton Coast, because of the dismal fate of castaways from ships that were wrecked here through the centuries, doomed to endure searing heat, clammy mists, total solitude and little drinking water or shelter.

See a full list of Namibian coast shipwrecks.

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