Wandering Sable Island. Island of bad luck
They call him “The Killer” and “The Graveyard of Ships”, he is feared and even feared. And all because this island is one of the few who “know how” to move, wander the ocean as he pleases. This is the most dangerous place in the entire Atlantic Ocean, and it is located less than two hundred kilometers from the coast of Canada. It's called Sable Island, and it's the second Bermuda Triangle in the world!
The island earned such a bad reputation because shipwrecks constantly occurred off its shores, and all fishermen and travelers were afraid like hell to get caught “in its path.” Even today, the percentage of ships that get into trouble off the coast of Sable Island is so high that it boggles the imagination, evoking thoughts of evil spirits and sea devils beckoning and deceiving sailors.
In fact, everything is quite simple, it is near this deadly saber that the warm Gulf Stream and the cold Lambrador meet. These currents create such pandemonium off the coast of the island that they cause whirlpools of terrifying size and strength to arise, raise gigantic waves and even move the shores from place to place.
However, to be precise, the island is slowly drifting east, leaving Nova Scotia “behind the stern”, further and further. In recent years of this slow movement, the island traveler has traveled several dozen miles. In a year, Sable is able to overcome more than two hundred meters, and this, you see, is a colossal figure.
In addition, it becomes longer, shorter, wider, narrower, depending on your luck. That is, calculating its objective dimensions in the next few years, days, or even hours is extremely difficult, and most often, simply impossible.
And while people are struggling with the secret of the drifting island, impenetrable fogs swirl above it and continuous winds blow, and the bright and beautiful sunrise here is a bad sign. It is after such a sunrise that the most terrible storms and storms occur. Not a single tree grows on the island, due to the fact that the sand raised into the air by the storm simply pierces through and destroys them. But there is grass here, and even wild peas have grown wildly in the hollow.
Another terrible secret of the island is the quicksand, which can simply camouflage itself and not be visible against the backdrop of a stormy ocean and a leaden sky. Once caught in a sand trap, even a modern, large steamship will simply sink into the foggy depths of the sucking sand, without leaving a trace, in just a month or two.
Now, for greater safety, a hydrometeorological center and a radio beacon have been built on the island, thereby protecting ships passing by. However, believe me, life here is not sweet for people. Those who live here permanently, over time, simply go crazy and tell stories about ghosts. Who knows, maybe the souls of everyone who laid their bones in the foundation of the island really want to break free, or simply take revenge on those who did not die. You can figure this out yourself - visiting the island is open to everyone. Just think, do you need it?
THE INCORPORABLE, WANDERING SABLE ISLAND.
It just so happens that Sable Island is considered one of the most dangerous and mysterious islands in the world. It is located in the Atlantic Ocean and belongs to Canada. It lies southeast of Halifax (Nova Scotia). The area of the island is small, but for the concept of uniqueness, let’s say that its length is 42 km, and its width... no more than 1.5 km. From the air, Sable resembles some kind of huge worm. Although size is a relative thing for an island...
The fact is that Sable is a living island! Alive in the sense that it moves! No typo, the island really moves. If you look at old nautical maps of the 16th-17th centuries, you can see that the size of Sable is much larger than it is today - 270-380 km.
For almost five centuries, the name of the island struck terror into the hearts of sailors, and finally it gained such gloomy fame that it began to be called “the island of shipwrecks,” “the devourer of ships,” “the deadly saber,” “the island of ghosts,” “the cemetery of a thousand lost ships."
Refers to inhabited islands. There are 5 people living on Sable who work at the meteorological station and monitor the lighthouse. Note that previously the staff was larger and numbered 15-25 people. Since over time the danger from Sable ceased, the contingent was reduced.
Many call this place not just mysterious, but damned. Believe me, there are reasons for this. No one can say with certainty how many ships were lost here. Some put the figure at 350, others about 500. The important thing is that for many Sable was the last thing they saw in their lives. “Graveyard of the Atlantic” - the sailors call it. Inexplicably, the sand on the shores of the “living island” has the property of “adjusting” to the color of the sea waves. This optical effect is the main reason for the death of ships. The ships (especially in bad weather) crashed into the coastline at all speeds, and the crew until the collision thought that there was only an immense ocean ahead...
Some lucky ones managed to survive and lived on the island for some time. But the ships that ran aground had the same fate - they were swallowed up by quicksand. Within two months, not even a trace remained of the large ships! (hence the phrase “ship eater”).
Most modern geographers and historians agree that Sable was discovered by the French traveler Léry, who in 1508 sailed from Europe to the “Land of the Bretons” - a peninsula that the British later called Acadia and even later Nova Scotia. It is possible that supporters of this particular version are right, claiming that the navigator Léry gave the new island the French name “SABLE”. After all, in French it means “sand,” and the island actually consists only of sand.
Sable is located 110 miles southeast of Halifax, near the continental shelf - just in the area where the warm Gulf Stream meets the cold Labrador Current. It was this circumstance that led to the formation of a giant sandy crescent mound here, which once extended to Cape Cod. Geologists believe that Sable is nothing more than the peak of this crescent protruding from under the water.
In its current state, the island stretches from east to west for 24 miles. The predominant terrain is dunes and sand hills. In some places there are areas of herbaceous vegetation. The highest “mountain” here is Riggin Hill, 34 meters high. Four miles from the western tip of the island is the semi-salty Lake Wallace, no more than four meters deep. Although it does not communicate with the ocean, waves still enter it by rolling over the dunes.
The western end of the island, under the continuous action of currents and waves of the Atlantic, is gradually eroded and disappearing, while the eastern end is washed out and lengthened, and thus the island continuously moves east, gradually moving away from the shores of Nova Scotia. It is estimated that over the past two hundred years, Sable has “walked” almost ten nautical miles across the ocean. The current speed of its movement is also known - about 230 meters per year.
The main danger that awaits ships near Sable is the quicksand of the shallows, a kind of “ocean quagmire.” Sailors and fishermen seriously say that they tend to take on the color of ocean water. The swells of the treacherous island literally swallow the ships that are captured by them. It is reliably known that steamships with a displacement of five thousand tons and a length of 100-120 meters that found themselves on the Sable shallows completely disappeared from view within two to three months.
The moving and changeable Sable has been constant in only one thing since the days of the ancient Vikings: in its irreconcilable hostility towards passing ships.
Historical documents - for example, numerous volumes of the Chronicle of Shipwrecks, maritime chronicles and other sources - allow us to judge that in ancient times Sable served as a giant ship graveyard of the North Atlantic. Here, under many meters of sand, rest the sharp-chested canoes of the brave Vikings, the clumsy carracks and galleons of the Spaniards and Portuguese, the gulets of the fishermen of Brittany, the strong pine ships of the Nantucket whalers, the English smacks, the cutters from Goole, the heavy three-masted ships of the West India Company, the elegant American clippers... And this armada of sailing ships, which has sunk into oblivion, is crushed by the heavy hulls of sunken steamships that sailed under the flags of all countries of the world. Some stumbled upon it, lost in the fog and shroud of rain, others were carried to the shallows by the current, and most of the ships found their last refuge here during storms.
Sometimes the sandbanks and dunes of the island, having moved under the influence of ocean waves, reveal to the human eye the remains of ships that disappeared a long time ago. Thus, a quarter of a century ago, the durable teak hull of an American clipper, which had gone missing in the last century, “resurrected” from shifting fishing lines. And three months later, dunes 30 meters high again grew above the hull... From time to time, broken masts and yards of sailing ships, steamship pipes, boilers, pieces of rusted ocean liners and even submarines are exposed.
Sable is one of the most conscientious and generous suppliers of unique exhibits to the defunct museum of romantic relics of the past. The current inhabitants of the island find rusty anchors, muskets, sabers, grappling hooks and huge quantities of ancient coins in the dunes... In 1963, a lighthouse keeper discovered in the sand a human skeleton, a bronze boot buckle, a musket barrel, several bullets and a dozen gold doubloons minted in 1760 . Later, a thick stack of banknotes - British pounds sterling from the middle of the last century - worth ten thousand was found in the dunes.
Some estimates show that the value of the valuables buried in the sands of Sable is at modern exchange rates almost two million pounds sterling. This is only if we take into account the ships about which information has been preserved that at the time of death they were carrying valuable cargo on board.
The first “devouring” of a ship by Sable was recorded back in 1583. Then an English ship called “Delight”, part of Humphy Gilbert’s expedition, rammed the sands of the island due to poor visibility. The last disaster is considered to be a shipwreck in 1947: the steamship Manhasset could not avoid a collision with the island. The entire crew was saved. However, we managed to find information according to which in 1999 the yacht Merrimac “met” with the sands of the “living island” (the navigation instruments malfunctioned). The three-person crew was not injured. The fate of the yacht is unknown.
Sometimes “gentlemen of fortune” buried their treasures here. They burned false fires on the dunes to lure merchant ships into a trap.
How many crimes were committed here and how many criminals Sable hid will forever remain a mystery. Until now, many superstitious residents of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia consider Sable a place cursed by God and the abode of evil spirits and ghosts. That’s what they call it: “THE GHOST ISLAND” - “Ghost Island”.
In 1598, Sable suddenly turned into... hard labor. Here 48 criminals were disembarked from the French ship Marquis De La Roche. The Marquis actually intended to found a colony in Nova Scotia, but after a long storm his ship developed a leak. Having never reached his goal, De La Roche turned back to the shores of Europe. Seeing the island, the Marquis came up with nothing else but to land the “extra cargo” on Sable, and so that the convicts would not starve right away, he left them fifty sheep. The exiles were remembered only seven years later, and the King of France signed a pardon for them. In the summer of 1605, a ship sent to Sable brought eleven overgrown people, who had lost their human appearance and dressed in sheep's skins, to Cherbourg. The rest, unable to bear the severe hardships, died. Surprisingly, five of those who returned to their homeland asked the king to allow them to return to Sable. Henry IV not only agreed, but also ordered to supply them with everything they needed. This is how a small French colony was formed. And when in 1635 a ship returning from Connecticut to England was wrecked on Sable, its crew was rescued and taken to the American mainland by these French Robinsons.
The British intended to erect a lighthouse on the dangerous island and create a rescue station. Its servants were charged with the duty of providing assistance to shipwrecked people and saving property from sea robbers. And in England itself at that time, notices were posted that, on pain of death, prohibited anyone other than rescuers from settling on the island without government permission.
What in 1802 bore the loud name “rescue station” was a tightly built barn about one and a half hundred meters from the shore. In it, an ordinary whaling whaleboat rested on wooden runners. Nearby is a stable. No, the horses were not brought here on purpose. Horses have lived here since ancient times, although no one really knows where they came from on Sable. According to one version, these are the descendants of cavalry horses that sailed to the island from a certain French ship that once perished on the shallows. According to another version, they were brought to the island by Thomas Hancock, the uncle of the famous John Hancock, a famous American patriot during the War of Independence. Sable's horses are more like large ponies. They are very hardy, live in herds, feed on sedge, wild peas and some flowers that grow only on Sable.
Every day, four rescuers rode around the island on horseback along the surf, walking in pairs towards each other. They searched for sails in the fog and looked to see if the ocean had thrown up the wreckage of the ship. A ship was spotted dying near the island... The watchmen galloped towards the barn and sounded the alarm. The oarsmen on duty harness four ponies into a team, which drag the whaleboat to the water. Having skillfully overcome the first three waves of the surf, the rowers rush to where the ship is in distress. Meanwhile, the rest of the rescuers, including the lighthouse keeper, are already racing to the scene by land. Then a rope is thrown from the sinking ship to the island: this is the only way to snatch people in trouble from Sable’s mouth.
In modern sailing directions, an important note remains: “If the ship becomes stranded near Sable Island, the crew should remain on board until the lifeboat station provides assistance. Practice shows that all attempts to escape on the ship’s boats invariably ended in human casualties.”
Perhaps Sable's most dramatic shipwreck was the sinking of the American passenger steamer State of Virginia on July 15, 1879. This ship, with a registered capacity of 2,500 tons and a length of 110 meters, was sailing from New York to Glasgow, carrying 129 passengers and crew. During a thick fog, the ship found itself on a sandbank on the south side of the island. 120 passengers and crew were rescued by the island service. The happy parents added a fourth to the names of the smallest rescued girl - Nellie Sable Bagley Hord.
In the middle of the 19th century, a new station building was built on the island, and the wooden whaleboat was replaced with an iron one. In 1893, an even more substantial building for rescuers was erected, but a strong storm destroyed it to the ground in one night.
The situation with the lighthouses on Sable was much worse. At first, the wooden structure of the only lighthouse tower rose in the middle part of the island. In 1873, when, despite numerous repairs, the tower completely fell into disrepair, the lighthouse was replaced by two new ones - metal, openwork design. The eastern lighthouse served safely for about a hundred years, but the western one had to be changed several times: the insatiable Sable “swallowed”... six of its lighthouses!
Ships still pass by the island every day - hundreds of merchant ships flying the flags of countries all over the planet. Captains, plotting a course on maps, try to miss the island at a considerable distance. And although these days Sable no longer poses such a danger as before, sailors do not like to approach him. What if?.. God knows, these shallows changing shape every day...
Two lighthouses send warning rays into the night. In clear weather, their light is visible over 16 nautical miles. Clear warning radio signals are heard on the air around the clock. It was thanks to them that shipwrecks off the coast of the island actually stopped. The last victim, a large American steamship called the Manhassent, was swallowed up by the island in 1947.
Sable now belongs to Canada. It is still inhabited: usually 15-25 people live here. These are specialists and workers of the Canadian Department of Transport who service the island's hydrometeorological center, radio station and lighthouses. Their duties also include rescuing people in the event of a shipwreck and providing assistance to them. For this purpose, they have undergone special training and have the most modern rescue equipment at their disposal. Canadian specialists live on the island with families.
There are only two real houses here - for the island manager and the head of the radio beacon. The rest are housed in “caravans” - trailer houses. These dwellings were specially designed to withstand the destructive effects of cutting sand. There is also a small power station.
Three hundred wild ponies still live on Sable. On those that are tamed, keepers travel around the coast of the island every day. They look to see if a yacht or fishing boat has washed up on the shallows, or if a bottle or plastic container with a note is lying on the sand, which is used to study sea currents.
For many centuries, Sable Island has struck genuine terror into the hearts of sailors. This dark, mysterious and mysterious place has gained such notoriety due to many shipwrecks that it has become known as the “ship devourer”, “ship graveyard”, “deadly saber” or “graveyard of the Atlantic”.
The island is located in the North Atlantic, 180 km southeast of Halifax (Nova Scotia), where the cold Labrador Current meets the warm Gulf Stream. It has the shape of an elongated crescent and is very small in size. Its length is only a little over 40 kilometers, and its width reaches one and a half kilometers at its widest point.
The island's topography consists of sandy hills and long dunes interspersed with small areas of grassy land. The highest hill on the island reaches a height of 34 meters and is called Riggin Hill. There are several lakes, the largest and deepest of which is Lake Wallace. Its depth reaches 4 meters. The water in it is brackish, since the reservoir is very close to the ocean. High waves during storms easily overcome a narrow stretch of land and sea salt dilutes the fresh water.
Under the influence of waves and currents, the western end of the island gradually erodes and disappears, while the eastern end erodes and lengthens. As a result, the island is moving at a speed of 230 meters per year, moving further and further into the open ocean. Over the past 200 years, the island has drifted almost 40 km from the mainland.
For passing ships, especially during waves, the island is almost invisible, since its height above ocean level is low. Only in clear weather, which happens here only in July, can one discern a narrow strip of sand on the horizon from the deck of the ship. Despite the fact that the ocean is quiet at this time of year, you can only approach the island by boat from the north side.
The sands of the island's shallows are quicksand and they tend to take on the color of ocean water. This is the main danger that awaits ships near Sable. The sands of the wandering island literally swallow up the ships that are captured by them. It is known that steamships with a displacement of five thousand tons and a length of 100-120 meters that found themselves on the Sable shallows completely disappeared into the “quagmire” within two to three months.
This piece of land, with its minimal height, rapid movement, and constant storms, seems to have been created for the destruction of sailors. The first “devouring” of a ship by Sable was recorded back in 1583. Then an English ship called “Delight”, part of Humphy Gilbert’s expedition, rammed the sands of the island due to poor visibility. The last disaster is considered to be a shipwreck in 1947 - the steamer Manhasset could not avoid a collision with the island. The entire crew was saved. There are only eight recorded cases where ships managed to escape from the island's quicksand and avoid death.
In recent years, there has not been a single case of the death of a large ship in the sands of Sable Island.
Moving under the influence of ocean waves, the sandbanks of the island sometimes reveal the remains of ships that disappeared a long time ago. So, in the late 70s of the 20th century, after another storm, the hull of an American ship was visible from the sand, which disappeared without a trace in the last century. Three months later, the sand again buried this ship in its thickness.
Nomadic Sable Island is undoubtedly a mystery.
Elena Krumbo, specially for the website “World of Secrets”
A very small piece of land in the Atlantic Ocean attracts with its mystery and uniqueness. Free and beautiful wild horses calmly approach and look into the eyes, as if they understand what the person is thinking about. Only here you can pet wild horses and think about what the captives of this island had to experience.
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Sable Island has been shrouded in mystery from its discovery to the present day. Even its name and the history of its discovery still do not have a clear definition. Scientists disagree about the island's discoverers. The word Sable in different interpretations means sand, black, saber, and arctic fox. Everyone likes their own translation. Most likely it is black sand, but not by the color of the latter, but by the properties that are attributed to the miracle island.
At the junction of two elements
The map of the World Ocean shows warm and cold currents that, for whatever reason, appeared in these endless waters. The Gulf Stream, for example, begins its warm run from the Gulf of Mexico, and the Labrador cold stream begins near icy Greenland, the homeland of Mr. Andersen’s snow queen. And here, where this ice and fire touch, Sable Island arose.
Many legends have been invented about him. In addition to the official name, it has others. For example, “ship devourer”, or “grave of the Atlantic”. These names were given to the island because many ships have found their end in its coastal quicksand, dating back to time immemorial.
Sable Island belongs to Canada, but its geographical location is so uncertain that in a few years it may reach the coast of Portugal. This is the Flying Dutchman. The unique ability of the island to move more than two hundred meters to the east in a year does not allow us to accurately determine its coordinates.
And all because two currents argue with each other. And at the site of their contention, this strip of sand appeared, where there is almost always a storm.
A clear sky at sunrise, a bright warm sun and a cloudless sky are suddenly replaced by clouds and wind.
Ships passing by this little monster are completely unaware of the fate in store for them. The sand that makes up Sable tends to take on the shades of the sea, and the island becomes completely invisible behind the huge waves. The captain leads his ship straight into the embrace of the quicksand of this island. And it’s not that it’s scary that the ship runs aground, but that it’s impossible to get out of here. Bottomless sands gradually take over the ship and the entire crew.
The first recorded shipwreck and death of a ship in the sands of the island was recorded in 1583. It was the British ship "Delight".
Sable's last victim was the passenger ship Manhasset in 1947. All passengers and crew of this ship were brought ashore by the rescue team, which permanently resided on the island specifically for this purpose.
Over the years, the island has taken about five hundred ships into its deadly embrace. No one knows how many there actually were. One day, after a very long storm, the sands parted and revealed their treasures. In this huge pit, the remains of eight ships were discovered, including a Roman galley.
In 1802, after several disasters in which England lost three beautiful ships and a large number of valuables transported on them in a year, it was decided to erect a lighthouse on the island and settle a rescue team. From that moment on, the island became permanently inhabited.
national park
In appearance, this strip of land does not inspire fear. Wild horses frolic on it, probably having escaped from some ship and having lived here for hundreds of years. The animals have adapted to their new home and feel quite comfortable here. Lush grass and flowers cannot be called sparse vegetation, so these cute animals are quite at ease here. The island is also favored by long-faced seals, which spend their mating season here. Common seals, ringed seals, harp seals, and hooded seals have settled in the coastal waters.
About 350 species of migratory birds use this land as a temporary shelter. And some of them leave their offspring here. Indigenous bird inhabitants include the Savannah Bunting and Roseate Tern. The only land mammals other than humans on this island are wild horses of a special breed. According to the latest data, there are about 300 of them here.
All this diversity of nature inspired the Canadian authorities to organize a national park here in 2010, called Sable Island National Park.
How to get there on your own
Now the island is practically safe for ships passing by, thanks to the 24-hour operation of the lighthouse and radio beacon. Getting here on your own is not easy. Authorization from the authorities is required. But all your efforts will pay off in spades once you set foot on the land of this mysterious piece of land.
The Robert Stanfield Airport in the capital of Nova Scotia, Halifax, accepts international flights from many airports around the world. There is a regular bus from the airport to the city, which will take you to the center in half an hour. There is a train from Quebec City or Montreal to Halifax.
To reach the destination of your journey - the mysterious island, helicopter or water options are offered.
Have a nice trip!
There are many more interesting places in Canada that include
There is an amazing Sable Island in the North Atlantic. You can meet it a hundred miles southeast of the Canadian port of Halifax. But an encounter with an anomalous drifting island often ends tragically. So it is better to avoid encounters with a curiosity. The mystery of the small /44 x 1.5 km / island is that in the North Atlantic it leads a nomadic lifestyle. This is an island that cannot sit in one place.
In addition, the indicated dimensions of the island are not entirely correct. For example, on the maps of navigators from the 16th century, the dimensions of the island were different. As Italian, French and English maps of that time indicate, the size of the island ranged from 280 to 370 km. Sable Island, which roams the sea, was a sandbank stretching from east to west. Which, over the course of thousands of years, with its wanderings across the Atlantic, has labeled this area as “dangerous for navigation.”
Speed drifting island Sable towards the east is 200m/year. And then, having reached a certain point visible to him alone, he returns. And it must be said that with its nomadic life, the island brought many disasters to sailors. After all, every meeting with a floating island meant someone's death. As was assumed back in the 19th century, the island would soon disappear under water. Because moving east, he reached greater depths, while himself plunging more and more under water.
However, the island of legend did not disappear into the depths of the sea. In addition, while staying afloat, the nomad even gained some size. As sailors talk about the island, it is very difficult to notice from the ocean even in the clearest weather and calm - it is almost impossible until you run into it. The reason for this is the almost flat surface of the island. And the height of 34 meters hides it from the eyes of sailors. Moreover, in these places, during autumn and winter storms, waves 15 meters high are common.
The sands of Sable Island also have another anomalous feature. According to sailors, the sand of the island can be painted in the color of the waters washing it, and is often shrouded in fog. This is what makes the nomadic island invisible to sailors. So there is too little time left to see the island in advance in order to avoid a collision.
But that's not all; another misfortune awaited the sailors who found themselves on the treacherous island. Sable's Quicksand. As legends tell, the island swallowed a considerable number of victims. Sailors, having hit the island, inevitably ran aground. And no one was able to help the ship in trouble.
As legends tell, the island swallowed hundreds of ships, and thousands of sailors died in the sands of Siebla. Less than three months passed before the ship, captured by the island, disappeared into the sands. And on the surface of the island, in the shape of a crescent, grass and low bushes still swayed. And the wild horses ran calmly. The island could easily drag ships 120 meters long and with a displacement of 5 thousand tons into its quicksands of oblivion. For this reason, among sailors, Sable is not called anything other than “Ship Eater”.
Sable took his last victim in 1947. It was the American steamship Manhattan, with a crew that had sailed the ocean more than once, knowing that these places were considered dangerous for navigation. And yet caught in the deadly embrace of the drifting Sable. This was the last dinner of the Ship Eater. Before that, he managed to arrange about 360 shipwrecks, ruining thousands of lives. For which it became known as the “Cemetery of the Atlantic”, and gained popularity like other “ Cemetery of the Atlantic", lying in the Cape Hatteras area.
Immediately after the sinking of the steamship Manhattan, on the island is installed beacon, and one radio beacon. And a team of 15 to 25 people settles on Sable, servicing the equipment and studying the island. From now on, the drifting island of Sable no longer devours ships.
Such an anomalous behavior of Sable Island is explained by the influence of the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and the cold Labrador Current on the sand of the mainland shallows found in these places. The combined actions of currents form huge whirlpools and complicate navigation in these places, which is what made Sable such an ominous place. And there is nothing anomalous in the behavior of the island at all. However …..
The island's staff, who live in houses specially prepared for quicksand, tell creepy stories about this cemetery drifting in the ocean. Often the island's caretakers see ghosts roaming the island at night. And in the 50s, one of the caretakers had to be urgently evacuated from the island; his mental state was deplorable. He was often visited at night by sailors with the dead “Sylvia Mosher”, who begged him to save them...
On that day in 1926, the island was destroyed by two American schooners, one of them was the Sadie Nickle and the other was the Sylvia Mosher. Powerful waves easily threw the first schooner over the “Ship Eater” spit from one side to the other, where it was destroyed by the cutting sands. And the schooner “Sylvia Mosher” was capsized by the waves at the island’s shallows, and she joined the “Graveyard of the Atlantic”.
Sable Island today.
In modern times, only a few families live on Sable Island, an unusual fact in the island's dramatic history, but since 1920, two people have been born on it. Of the old buildings, only the old lifeguard station has survived on the island, which has become a rarity here. It was built from the wreckage of the victims shipwreck ships whose remains were washed ashore by the waves.
Currently, Sable Island is declared a protected area, and access to the island is prohibited without special permission.
And the waves happen here often and reach considerable heights. Very rarely does the weather allow locals to swim and bask in the sun. On the contrary, very often hurricane winds rage on the island and storm waves rumble. At such moments, residents do not leave the house, so as not to tempt fate. Sometimes, after a strong storm, the island changes its shape. And on Saturdays, adhering to the turn schedule, they gather in the house of the family whose turn has come, and establish radiotelephone communication with relatives on the mainland.
It is now " Ship Eater" And " Cemetery of the Atlantic“He behaves calmly, and does not look for new victims - he is held in the hands of the station lighthouse keepers. But driving around the island's possessions on tamed ponies, the caretakers check what the waves bring them, and whether there are any traces of lost ships on the shore. And this is very hard work, including in the sense psychological load .
After all, those living on the island know that tens of thousands of people found their last refuge in these places. And very often, while examining the sands of Sable, people find old gold coins and other antiques. Many people already have an extensive collection of this kind. But at the same time, caretakers very, very often encounter human remains in the sands of Sable.....
