Sable island that moves. The Dark Secrets of Drifting Sable Island
Sable Island is located 110 miles southeast of Halifax, near the continental shelf, in the South Atlantic Ocean. This is where the warm waters of the Gulf Stream meet the cold Labrador Current.
In its shape, Sable Island really resembles a saber or tentacles, depending on what you see. It stretches from east to west for 24 miles. Experienced sailors nicknamed this mysterious and mysterious place “ tomb of the Atlantic».
Puzzles Saber Islands scientists have long been interested in. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was determined that the western part of the island was subject to a strong constant current. Multi-ton waves, driven by strong winds, hit the shore of this island without rest. But the eastern part of the coast, like an antipode, is always quiet and calm. New sand deposits are constantly growing there, which, logically, have nowhere to come from, but they keep coming and coming...
The most interesting thing is that the size of the island remains almost unchanged over the years. On the one hand, the island is eroded by waves, on the other, it grows due to sand deposits! And over the years, this island, like a tired snake, slowly moves eastward. Researchers were able to find out that over the past 200 years, Saber Island has quietly and unnoticed passed more than ten nautical miles of the world's oceans! The island is moving at speed 200 meters per year!
But this is not the only thing that surprised scientists so much. As a rule, any island is the top of a mountain. The mountain itself rests on one of the giant tectonic plates that form our planet. It would seem that Sable Island should drift at a speed no greater than the speed of movement of the tectonic plate. The average speed of movement of a tectonic plate is several millimeters per year. The movement of Saber Island is much faster. 
In addition to its high-speed movement, Saber Island is also famous as a kind of quagmire. The fact is that one part of the island is covered by quicksand. Sailors claim that these sands are practically indistinguishable from sea water, acquiring the color of a wave, they mislead sailors. The treacherous sands of this island swallow up approaching ships. It is known for certain that large ships (100-120 meters long, with a displacement of five thousand tons) approaching the shore of Saber Island were completely submerged in the sand within two to three months.
Throughout the year, there is terrible bad weather over Saber Island. There have been more or less good weather conditions here for just one month (July). During this period, the island is favorable for mooring ships and boats. True, there are not so many people who want to visit this island; there are too many shoals and sharp reefs in the area. Surprisingly, these dangers can also hide, taking on the color of sea water. 
Sable Island is now part of Canada. It is inhabited, 15-25 people live here. These are workers and specialists of the Canadian Department of Transport, monitoring the island's hydrometeorological center, radio station and lighthouses. Their responsibilities include rescuing people shipwrecked on the island.
Sable Island gained notoriety that it became known as the "Ship Eater", "ship graveyard", "deadly saber" or simply "shipwreck island". This island is located 110 miles southeast of Halifax. The continental shoal where the cold Labrador Current meets the warm Gulf Stream. Like a giant tentacle, the sword stretched from West to East for 24 miles. Seasoned sailors nicknamed this gloomy, mysterious and mysterious place the tomb of the Atlantic.
The mysterious island has long interested scientists. It has been established that the shores of the western tip of the island are being systematically eroded due to the strong sea current. The waves, which do not stop for a minute, driven by the wind, with monotonous powerful blows, methodically erode the western tip of the island. The most amazing thing is that, contrary to the laws of physics and the logic of things, the western tip of the island is constantly overgrown with new sand deposits. These sand deposits constantly grow, like living tissue. And they simply have nowhere to come from! However, they are growing!
It remains a mystery to scientists that, as a result of such processes, the length of this island has remained virtually unchanged for many hundreds of years! Sable Island, like a terrible sand slug, is slowly but surely moving, constantly, in an easterly direction. Over the past two hundred years, as researchers have found out, the island of bad luck has “crept”, quietly and imperceptibly, through the stormy expanses of the ocean for more than 10 nautical miles. The island moves at an average speed of approximately 200 meters per year! This is a mystery to scientists.
It is known that any island is the top of an underwater mountain, and the mountain is located on a tectonic plate. Tectonic plates cover our entire planet like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Sable Island is no exception. This means that this island must “Drift” at the same speed as the tectonic plate on which it stands moves. But the speed of its movement is several millimeters per year (sometimes more. Another surprising fact is that the height of the island above sea level does not change at all and is very insignificant. The Sable is absolutely invisible to passing ships, especially during waves. Absolutely mysterious and incomprehensible natural phenomenon. This piece of land, with its minimal height, rapid movement, constant fogs, as if created for the destruction of sailors, has gained a rather gloomy fame that has spread throughout all the oceans, seas and ports of the world. This is not a complete set of all the “Pleasures”. "It is clear why sailors fall silent even when mentioning this island.
For centuries, sailors have tried to avoid this wandering island. But not everyone can do this. Almost the entire year here there is terrible bad weather, and only by someone’s unknown command, in July, the sea suddenly becomes gentle, making it possible to land on the island from boats. Despite the calm weather, landing can only be done on the northern side of the island. There have always been few people who wanted to visit this island. An insidious nuisance for ships passing by are the sharp reefs and shoals surrounding the island, which have a unique property - they take on the color of sea water and remain completely invisible; the ability of mimicry is completely unusual for inanimate nature. One can only guess how many ships met their inglorious end near this island. Sable Island holds many hidden secrets.
Before the start of the Second World War, a sensation spread around the world. That spring, in the area of Sable Island, storms of unusual strength raged. Giant whirlpools, like huge pumps or shrews, removed hundreds of tons of sand from the mysterious island. A huge hole formed on the island. It was as if the sea itself had decided to lift the veil of secrecy that shrouds this island of bad luck. The expedition that landed on Sable discovered the remains of eight ships. And the main thing is that under the wreckage of the schooner "St. Louise" the skeleton of an ancient Roman galley was discovered! And this is some hundred miles from the coast of Canada! While scientists were arguing how this could happen, a terrible storm broke out and raged for several days. After the storm subsided, the slightly opened tomb of the ships was covered with tons of dirty, damp sand washed up by the waves.
At the end of the 70s of the 20th century, after another storm, the bow of an American ship was visible from the sand, which disappeared without a trace back in the 19th century, along with its cargo and the entire crew. The wreck of the ship was clearly visible from passing ships for several days. As it happened, after another severe storm, the sand again buried this ship in its thickness.
Sable Island has been repeatedly visited by scientific expeditions. It's not that simple. "Tomb of the Atlantic" knows how to keep its secrets. Attempts to start excavations on the island ended in failure. The holes dug on the island were immediately filled with sea water. Where the water in the center of the island comes from is a mystery!
At the end of the 20th century, researchers of anomalous phenomena put forward a rather original and bold hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, Sable Island is nothing more than an alien living organism that functions according to laws incomprehensible and unknown to earthly science. The basis of the life activity of this organism is silicon, and not, like ours, carbon. And silicon is sand! The main danger facing passing ships is the quicksand of the shallows, the so-called “Swamp of the Ocean”. The island's ripples literally swallow ships caught in them. It is reliably known that ships 100 - 120 meters long, and with a displacement of 5 thousand tons, completely disappeared from view within 2-3 months.
The wandering Sable Island is undoubtedly a mystery. Perhaps someday we will know all its secrets. Ezomir.
As soon as the ship touches the keel of Sable's quicksand, it is doomed to destruction.
David Johnson, lighthouse keeper
Sable, saber or sand?
This happened by accident when in the summer I was flying from Murmansk to Cuba. Our Tu-114, bypassing the southern coast of Greenland, was supposed to fly over Sable, then enter the route running along the eastern coast of the North American continent - to Havana. I asked the pilots to show me the island, about which I had been collecting information for many years in sailing directions and old maps, in geographical books and travel notes. It was a clear sunny day and there were no clouds under the plane. Through the wide windows of the cabin from a height of eight thousand meters - through the on-board binoculars that the pilots allowed me to use - I saw a narrow curved strip in the frozen blue of the ocean. Along the southern shore of the island, a wide white edge of surf was clearly visible.
An oblong lake, the metal roofs of five or six buildings and a dozen aluminum houses that looked like hangars flashed in the sun. One could make out a radio mast, two openwork beacons and a stationary helicopter. Thus, “at a high level,” my personal acquaintance with Sable Island took place.
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."
Until now, no one knows exactly who discovered this ill-fated piece of land, cursed by many generations of sailors. The Norwegians claim that the Vikings were the first to stumble upon it; even before Columbus, they sailed across the ocean to North America. The French believe that the discoverers of Sable were fishermen from Normandy and Brittany, who at the very beginning of the 16th century were already fishing for cod and halibut on the Newfoundland shallows. Finally, the English, who after the French added the island to their once extensive possessions, claim that the island was discovered by their whalers who settled on the shores of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.
Some British geographers, speaking about this, refer to the very name of the island: the first meaning of the word “SABLE” in English is “sable”. Strange, isn't it? After all, sables have never been found on this island. Maybe the fact is that the image of the island on the map resembles a jumping animal? Some etymologists are inclined to see the name of the island as a kind of historical incident. They believe that the island was previously designated on English maps by the word "SABRE" and that some cartographer mistakenly replaced the "R" with the letter "L". By the way, “SABRE”, which means “saber”, fits perfectly with the island, which really looks like a scimitar. The second meaning of the word “SABLE” (with a poetic connotation) is black, gloomy, sad, scary - when applied to the “shipwreck island” it is also quite understandable and logical.
Most modern geographers and historians, however, 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.
On maps of the 16th century, published in France, England and Italy, the length of the island is estimated at 150-200 miles, and already in 1633, the Dutch geographer Johann Last, describing Sable, reports: “... the island has a circumference of about forty miles, the sea The waters here are stormy and shallow, there are no harbors, the island has gained notoriety as a place of constant shipwrecks.”
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.
Sable's height above ocean level, as we already know, is small, and therefore it is almost invisible from the sea. Only on very fine days can one discern a narrow strip of sand on the horizon from the deck of the ship.
And clear weather occurs here only in July, when the fury of the ocean subsides, and you can approach the island from the north side by boat.
A storm on Sable is usually preceded by an unusually dazzling sunrise. It would seem that a wonderful morning should end with an equally beautiful sunset. But God knows where a veil of leaden clouds appeared from, covers the sun, the sky turns black, and now the wind whistles subtly in the dunes. It grows stronger, howls, tears sand from the tops of the dunes and drives it across the island into the ocean... Because of this cutting sand, there is not a single tree on the island, not even a bush. Only in the valley between two ridges of dunes do stunted grass and wild peas grow.
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 famous American scientist Alexander Graham Bell rushed to the aid of the French steamer La Bourgogne, which was in disaster on July 4, 1898 near Sable. The scientist was sure that some of the people from the ship had reached Sable and were awaiting help there. Bell, using his own money, organized a rescue expedition, arrived on the island and carefully examined it. Alas, there were no survivors there after the disaster. While waiting for the steamer, Bell lived on the island for several weeks, living in the house of the lighthouse keeper Boutilier and the lifeguard Smallcombe. In July 1898, Bell wrote: “The barque Crafton Hall ran aground in April of this year. The magnificent vessel seemed intact, except that its hull was cracked in the middle. Today the fishing lines have completely swallowed the victim.”
Based on documents preserved at the island's life-saving station, lighthouse keeper Johnson plotted the places and dates of shipwrecks on Sable's map starting in 1800. And it turned out that every two years an average of three ships were wrecked here.
What happened before 1800?
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, lie the sharp-chested canoes of the brave Vikings, clumsy carracks and galleons of the Spaniards and Portuguese, gulets of Brittany fishermen, strong pine ships of Nantucket whalers, English smacks, cutters from Goole, heavy three-masted ships of the West India Company, 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.
After each storm, Sable changes the topography of its coastline beyond recognition. About a hundred years ago, storms washed out a channel in the northern part of Sable: a large harbor was formed inside the island, which for many years served as a refuge for fishermen. But one day another strong storm closed the entrance to the bay, and two American schooners remained trapped in this trap forever. Over time, the former harbor became an inland fresh-salt body of water seven miles long. Nowadays, Wallace Lake serves as a landing site for seaplanes that deliver mail and food to the island.
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 coined gold doubloons 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.
Robinson convicts and rescue riders
The first settlers of Sable were shipwrecked: for them this meager piece of land, having become the cause of misfortune, served as a shelter. The unfortunate people built houses from the wreckage of ships scattered throughout the ship graveyard. To their surprise, the first Robinsons saw cows in the valley of the island. For some unknown reason, these animals were left behind by the Frenchman Lery when he first visited Sable. The animals multiplied and went wild. Fishermen in distress could also feed on fur seals, for which the local sandbanks are still a favorite rookery. The tragedy of the sailors who found themselves on Sable was aggravated by the fact that they had nowhere to wait for help: the ships avoided approaching the terrible island, even when they saw the smoke of signal fires above it. What else could they hope for? To someone else's tragedy? That the next doomed ship will bring them, along with the wreckage, essentials and - most importantly! - a few pounds of table salt? Yes, probably for that too.
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 unexpectedly 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, 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.
Years passed. News of shipwrecks near Sable Island began to reach Europe more and more often. The sailors demanded that their governments build a lighthouse and a rescue station on the island. But neither France, which at that time owned Sable and lost two ships of D’Anville’s expedition here in 1746, nor England, the “mistress of the seas,” nor Holland wanted to bother with such a tiny territory. And if not for chance...
At the beginning of 1800, the English authorities found unauthorized valuables among fishermen living on the shores of Nova Scotia: gold coins, jewelry, geographical maps with the coat of arms of the Duke of York, books from his personal library and even furniture with the same coat of arms. Simple-minded fishermen called these things “Sable things.” It turned out that they received them in exchange for fish from the settlers of the island. This alarmed the British. Moreover, the ship “Francis” did not come from Nova Scotia to London, but it was carrying the personal belongings of the Duke of York!
The British Admiralty came to the conclusion that after the death of the Francis, the crew on board reached Sable safely, but were killed by the Robinsons. And so a punitive expedition was sent to the island, the settlers were interrogated. However, it turned out that no one killed the people from the lost ship. They all disappeared into the depths of the sea, and the islanders were unable to help them, because they did not even have a lifeboat.
Less than a year had passed since the English ship Princess Amelia perished in the quicksand of Sable. Of the more than two hundred people, none escaped. Another English ship that came to the rescue again got stuck in the sands of the island, and everyone on it also died. Three ships lost on Sable decided the matter: the British finally decided 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 patrolmen galloped to 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.”
Only eight cases were recorded when ships managed to escape from the tenacious embrace of the island and avoid death. The English three-masted ship "Myrtle", distinguished by its very strong construction, was found in the autumn of 1840 near the Azores Islands without any sign of a crew. The investigation revealed that the Myrtle was driven ashore by a storm on the Sable Shoals in January of that year. The crew apparently died while trying to land on shore. The ship remained captive in the sands for two months, until another storm pulled it aground into clean water. This "Flying Dutchman" sailed in the ocean for several months until he ended up near the Azores.
The American fishing schooner Arno, under the command of Captain Higgins, fished near the island in 1846. A squall that suddenly came at night tore off most of the sails and almost capsized the ship. At dawn, the captain realized that the current and wind had carried the Arno onto the Sable Banks. Hope remained only in the anchors. They were given away, having removed 100 fathoms of rope from each fairlead. By noon, the north-west turned into a force nine storm. The ocean boiled over the shallows like water in a cauldron. The schooner was carried towards the deadly breakers. Higgis, not counting on the vigilance and vigilance of Sable's rescuers, decided to try his luck. To prevent panic on the ship, he locked the crew in the hold. He placed two experienced sailors on the forecastle at each side and, so that they would not be washed away by the wave, tied them to the railings. He grabbed the steering wheel himself. The schooner was rushing towards the shore with incredible speed. Tethered sailors poured fish oil from barrels into the water. The wind drove him in front of the bow of the ship towards the island. This ancient and reliable method of smoothing the crests of waves with fat, blubber or oil is often used by sailors today when they need to reduce the waves. The breakers pushed the schooner over the island's sandy bar, and she found herself safe at the foot of the surf-washed dunes. Although all the people were saved, the schooner died - the next day it was broken by a storm, and the wreckage of the Arno disappeared into the sandy belly of Sable.
And this was the only case when the team did not need the help of the islanders.
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!
Sable today
In the “modern” history of the insatiable womb, the year 1926 was especially sorrowful. In August of this year, two American schooners, the Sylvia Mosher and the Sadie Nickle, were lost off Sable on the same day. The first capsized on the shallows, its crew died. The second wave was thrown over the spit of the island from one end to the other, where it also capsized and was later covered with sand. Sable's annual menu, in addition to other schooners, included two ships: the Canadian Labrador and the English Harold Casper.
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. Their light is visible 16 nautical miles in clear weather. 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.
Several years ago, a warehouse, a blacksmith shop, a carpentry workshop, dormitories for shipwrecked people (in case such trouble should occur) and a hangar were built here, where metal whaleboats stand on rails, ready to be launched at any moment. The inhabitants of the island believe that these amazing ships are not afraid of any waves, they are unsinkable and so stable that they practically cannot capsize.
Of the old buildings on Sable, only one has survived - the building of the former rescue station, a kind of local landmark. The station was built from ship masts, topmasts and yards thrown onto the island. “Name boards” are nailed to the walls of the building, on which the names of the ships are displayed. These are, as it were, the remaining passports of former victims of the “ship devourer”.
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.
Modern Robinsons have learned to plant vegetable gardens and even orchards on Sable. The main problem is to protect plants from sand. If the weather permits, which is still rare, the island's residents swim and go out on whaleboats into the ocean to fish.
Although Transport Canada, which oversees Sable, has tried to create maximum amenities for its residents, their work is not easy and dangerous. Long-lasting storms of hurricane force often prevent people from leaving their homes for weeks, or even more. But this is not considered the most difficult thing here. The question rests on something else - psychological rather than physical stress. Indeed, living on a remote island, always shrouded in fog and tormented by storms, is not easy. But it’s even more difficult to get used to the idea that beneath you there is an island-cemetery, where every now and then you come across human skulls and bones in the sand. One of Sable's Robinsons, a lighthouse keeper, had to be removed from service and sent to the mainland. For many years, during his watch, he was invariably haunted by the ghosts of the schooner Sylvia Mosher, the same one that disappeared into the surf in August 1926. The old caretaker turned out to be an eyewitness to this drama. Together with the other inhabitants of the island, he did everything possible to save those people.
Nowadays, assistance to those dying at sea can be provided by the helicopter available on Sable, and the great “ship devourer” is practically neutralized. Over the past 30 years, there has not been a single case of the death of a large ship in its quicksand. But the sailors still vigilantly peer into the fog as they pass by the dangerous island. The formidable warning of the radio beacon does not stop for a minute: “You are passing near Sable Island - the cemetery of the North Atlantic.”
To the southeast of the Canadian port of Halifax, in the waters of the North Atlantic, there is the legendary Sable Island, which is notorious for many generations of sailors. It is believed that this island got its name from the French word saber, which means “sandy”. According to another version, Sable can be translated from English as “terrible”, “gloomy”. The sailors, in turn, nicknamed this piece of land "".
Sable Island barely protrudes above the surface of the ocean; its highest point (the Rigging Hills) does not exceed 34 meters above sea level. This area is characterized by storms and thick fogs, the waves can rise so high that they cover the entire island.
Scientists have noticed one strange feature - Sable is a “drifting” island; in a year it manages to move about 230 meters to the east. The island owes its ability to move to two powerful currents - the cold Labrador Current and the warm Gulf Stream. These two currents constantly influence the sandy structure of the island, “building up” its eastern shore and at the same time undermining the western one.
Why is Sable Island dangerous?
Usually, if a ship is smashed to pieces on the shore, and the crew is lucky enough to get to land, then we can talk about luck and salvation. However, this rule does not apply in the case of Sable Island. Sea vessels thrown onto its shore by powerful ocean waves became prisoners of Sable, ending up in vessels capable of swallowing not only a light sailing ship, but also a solid ship with a displacement of up to 5,000 tons.
Scientists and geographers have found that in addition to Sable Island, there are several other places on our planet that could be called quicksand reserves. First, there is Cape Gateras, located on the east coast of the United States, where shifting sands sometimes expose the rusty sides of steamships and the rotten hulks of sailing ships. Secondly, the Goodwin Shoals, located six miles southeast of England, are considered a “ship graveyard”. The Goodwin Shoals are all the more dangerous because the color of the sand here matches the color of the sea water.
But if the Goodwin Shoals are capable of swallowing a ship in literally a matter of minutes, then the quicksand of Sable Island can suck in its victim for quite a long time - for one to two months. It is also believed that some areas of the island are sinking faster than others.
The nature of quicksand
Physicists have developed a theory that explains the action of quicksand by peculiar electrical effects. According to their theory, grains of sand can be imagined as microscopic single-charge magnetic balls that have the ability to form free space around themselves.
Sand grains repel each other, thus acquiring the property of fluidity. Any object that impacts the surface of quicksand is surrounded by particles charged with positive ions. It sinks easily into the ground, experiencing virtually no friction. However, those who like to travel have nothing to fear - this is considered extremely rare.
video from the "dark" Sable Island
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 the shipwreck in 1947 - the steamship 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 vessel 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, especially for the “World of Secrets” website
