Hello, Once a year, "Matt" from the "TODAY" show on TV  visits many countries around the world - for one week.    Yesterday,  he visited  Namibia in South Africa,  and the Skeleton Coast.       One of the things he mentioned is that there are at least 2  .skeletons.  of ships sitting in the desert.     He asked why they were in the desert, and the answer was -  that was where the coastline was at the time those ships ran aground.      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namibia#Coastal_Desert One example of a rusted, ship skeleton is shown on this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeleton_Coast The Skeleton Coast             is the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean coast of Namibia and south of Angola from the Kunene River south to the Swakop River, although the name is sometimes used to describe the entire Namib Desert coast. The Bushmen of the Namibian interior called the region "The Land God Made in Anger", while Portuguese sailors once referred to it as "The Gates of Hell". and The coast is named for the bleached whale and seal bones which covered the shore when the whaling industry was still active, as well as the skeletal shipwrecks caused by rocks offshore in the fog. More than a thousand vessels of various sizes and areas litter the coast. Notable wrecks in the region include the Eduard Bohlen, the Otavi, the Dunedin Star, and Tong Taw. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory_ship Just an FYI for you. Betty             (near Lowell, MA, USA) (on Lists for 10 yrs.;  now an Admin for 9 Lists) FYI:    My  great-great-grandfather, Evan CORKILL, was a mariner  (1827-maybe 1900) and was involved with shipping of some sort from the Isle of Man and Liverpool and Whitehaven, England.     He lost his wife ~1872, and, when his 5 young children were being "shipped to Canada" as part of the "UK's Child Migrant Scheme,"  he was - on his way to Africa.     I don't know anything about what kinds of ships he sailed on,  and whether he sailed to many areas around the world from 1850's to 1880's.)