Jeff Jewkes

Many years ago I watched a documentary on the Skeleton Coast of Africa’s Namib Desert. I can’t remember what the title of the documentary was but it included a small excerpt about the infamous Dunedin Star shipwreck that occurred there during WWII. The strangeness of the event along with its exotic locale captured my imagination. I’ve since tried to find the documentary I watched that long time ago but have not been able to re-discover it. I did find, in my searching, a recently written historical novel on the subject titled, Dead Reckoning, The Dunedin Star Disaster by Jeff Dawson. Of course, I purchased the book immediately and had it read within days. It follows the story of this tragic, heroic and sometimes funny incident through the eyes of one Annabel Taylor, a diplomat’s daughter on her way to the Middle East to escape the Blitz of London aboard the Dunedin Star, a British ship of the Blue Star Line. Dawson’s book completely re-kindled my fascination with those events in November 1942. So much so that I ended up writing a song about it. And so, Annabel In The Moonlight came into being.

I would highly recommend Jeff Dawson’s novel as I felt it was a good read. Perhaps I will someday stumble again upon the documentary that first sparked my imagination. If so, I will definitely purchase a DVD of it as well for my records. I think also, this would make a great movie but in the shadow of the Titanic film(s) will probably never be considered by any of the big American studios. My hope is some independent film producer will become captivated with the story and make a feature film out of it. MIRAMAX perhaps?? I think they’re part of the Walt Disney Company now. I guess that means they’re not “independent” any more so who knows?


Jeff's live performance of Annabel In The Moonlight. This video was filmed 3.17.08 as part of a one-on-one series featuring some of Jeff's new music in an unplugged and up-close setting. For more information please visit: www.jeffjewkes.com All content ©2008 Jeff Jewkes / ASCAP