Sable Island: Secrets, History, and Legends of the Graveyard of the Atlantic. Mysterious Sable Island

The oceans are rich in mysterious mysterious and dangerous places for people. These are little-studied plots of land in boundless waters, and killer waves, and the Devil's belt, and insidious whirlpools, and underground volcanoes, and huge tsunamis. It is simply impossible to enumerate all the diverse insidiousness of the mighty waters. Not last place Sable Island also occupies this sad row. It is located in North Atlantic, very close to Nova Scotia.

Nova Scotia is a peninsula containing the Canadian province of the same name. The above-named island is only 180 km from it. This piece of land is located northeast of Halifax, the capital of the administrative entity. It has the shape of an elongated crescent and very small sizes. Its length is only 40 kilometers, and the width reaches one and a half kilometers at its widest point.

The relief of the island - sandy hills and long dunes, alternating with small patches of land with grassy vegetation. The highest hill on the island reaches a height of 34 meters and is called Riggin Hill. There are no rivers or streams. There are several lakes. The largest and deepest of them is Wallace Lake. Its depth reaches 4 meters. The water in it is brackish, as the reservoir is very close to the ocean. High waves, during storms, easily overcome a narrow stretch of land and sea salt dilutes fresh water.

There are no trees or shrubs on Sable Island. The ball here is ruled by sand. It is he who is responsible for the fact that this curved narrow piece of land is constantly moving and gradually moving away from the Canadian coast. The speed of its movement is 230 meters per year. Over the past 200 years, the island has sailed almost 40 km from the mainland.

Of course, such "swimming" cannot be taken literally. The thing is that the western sandy part of the island is constantly washed away by sea waters. The sand is transferred to eastern part, which for this reason is constantly growing. As a result, it seems that the island is moving, moving further and further into the open ocean.

But Sable Island is remarkable not only for its “movement”. For several hundred years it has been called the "devourer of ships." Where did such a gloomy phrase come from?

The thing here is that this piece of land is very difficult to see from the deck of a sailing ship. The sand on the island has an amazing property to take on the color of a sea wave and merge with the ocean. This optical effect at all times led to the fact that ships plying the ocean near the Canadian coast, very often wedged their entire mass into the coastline of the insidious sandy land. Heavy ships ran aground and received holes. The sailors who were on them either drowned or got out to the island.

The further fate of the surviving people developed in different ways. But the fate of the damaged ships was unambiguous. The coastal sand began, in the truest sense of the word, to suck in wrecked ocean ships. And it happened very quickly. In less than a month, the ship was completely hidden in the sandy soil. Only the masts remained on the surface, which disappeared over the next couple of weeks.

This was observed 400, and 300, and 200 years ago. At first, the island devoured small wooden ships, then huge sailboats, and finally the turn came to ships with steel hulls. The size of ocean liners did not play any role. Everything was sucked into the sand, like into a bottomless swamp.

Caught in a fatal embrace, the ship at first sank into the quicksand slowly. The island seemed to be tasting new object and was in no hurry to swallow it. But every day the process of immersion accelerated. Within a couple of weeks, the huge ship was half hidden in the sand. Another 10 days, and the rest of the hull went into sandy soil. A month and a half later, there were no traces of the liner.

Nowadays, the sand is sometimes washed away and part of a hull is exposed. It can turn out to be a sailing ship of the 17th century, and a well-tailored ship of the 20th century. A little time passes, and the sand is washed again and hides the traces of their crimes.

It is still unknown who discovered Sable Island. Many researchers claim that the Vikings landed on it for the first time 1000 years ago. These eternal sea travelers plied the seas and oceans in all directions. They visited North America long before Columbus and naturally honored the mysterious island with their attention.

There are some serious arguments against this assertion. There is an opinion that this piece of land became an island only 500 years ago. Prior to that, it was part of the continental landmass. Then, for unknown reasons, a piece of land broke away from the mainland and began to move away into the ocean.

At first it was very large. The length of this formation was 370 km, and the width was 300 km. These figures are taken from nautical charts of the 16th century. That is, at that time they already knew about the island. It's not really clear what he was. It is not known what kind of relief it had and what kind of soil.

Some researchers believe that Jean de Lery discovered Sable Island. The same French traveler who lived for a long time in South America among the Indians. So this is the beginning of the second half of the XVI century. Other historians point to the British whalers. Allegedly, at the end of the 16th century, they first set foot on the sandy soil of the mysterious island. In short, the question of the discoverer or discoverers remains open.

The bloodthirsty essence of the island was not immediately understood by people. Shipwrecks happened all over the ocean, there was no radio communication in ancient times. More than a dozen years passed before the sailors began to guess that a small piece of land was fraught with mortal danger.

However, shipwrecked near unsteady sandy shores very often got out on land and felt quite at ease on it. Lakes with fresh water, some kind of vegetation, the remains of ship hulls - all this gave people the opportunity to somehow arrange their temporary life. Fur seals served as food. Their colonies settled on the island from time immemorial. True, after the end of the mating season, these eared seals swam into the sea and were absent for 6 months. This undoubtedly affected the condition of people if they got to the island when there were no living creatures on it.

At the end of the 18th century, horses appeared on a mysterious piece of land. They survived in harsh conditions and adapted to them quite well. How these artiodactyls got to the island is unknown. Most likely ended up on it in connection with a shipwreck. Currently, about 300 heads of wild horses live on Sable Island. As for people, they settled on sandy soil at the end of the 19th century. These were not settlers, but civil servants. Frequent shipwrecks forced the British, who at that time already owned the island after the French, to build a lighthouse on it. That is, the employees were the servants of this lighthouse, and were also considered a rescue team.

In the middle of the 20th century, 2 lighthouses and a radio beacon were installed on the treacherous land. In the 21st century, Sable Island became a nature reserve. Nowadays, it can only be accessed with a special permit. Here, fur seals and wild horses are protected by law.

This is Canadian soil. Employees live on it with their families. The total population does not exceed 30 people. The task of specialists is to maintain lighthouses, radio stations and the Hydrometeorological Center. Also, these people are rescuers, but over the past 65 years there have been no shipwrecks near the island.

Of all the buildings, there are two houses resting on a solid foundation. In addition to them, there are also trailer houses. There are no other buildings on the crescent-shaped patch of land, except for the hangar for rescue boats.

There is a kind of monument built from ship masts. It is all hung with boards with the names of the ships that died near the loose banks. This chronology has been conducted since 1800. Taking into account the previous centuries, we can safely say that hundreds of ships found their end near the insidious land.

There is a strong opinion that the values that lie in the sands are worth several tens of millions of dollars. This is expensive dishes, and works of art, and gold. All these items were once transported by ships and found their end near the unsteady shores.

Given the special status of the island, no work is being done on the extraction of marine treasures on it. The inhabitants themselves are more busy growing gardens than looking for some treasures. Fishing is also an integral part of life. There are a lot of fish in coastal waters.

Despite the fact that a person has settled this sandy piece of land for a very long time, he is the greatest mystery World Ocean. Even 40 years ago, the island was predicted to disappear completely. He "moved" into the ocean and by all laws should have disappeared. But nothing of the sort happened. Sable Island not only did not disappear, but even slightly increased in size. This contradicts all established judgments about the world around us, but the fact is there. So the solution to this natural phenomenon is yet to come.

It so happened that sable island(Sable Island) is one of the most dangerous and mysterious islands in the world. It is located in the Atlantic Ocean and belongs to Canada. 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 is ... no more than 1.5 km. From the air, Sable resembles some kind of huge worm. Although the size of the island is a relative thing ... The fact is that Sable - living island! Alive in the sense that it moves! No typo, the island really moves. If you look at the old nautical charts XVI-XVII centuries, you can see that the dimensions of Sable are much larger than today - 270-380 km.

For almost five centuries, the name of the island struck terror into the hearts of navigators, and, finally, it gained such a gloomy fame that it began to be called the "island of shipwrecks", "devourer of ships", "deadly saber", "island of ghosts", "graveyard of a thousand dead ships.

Refers to inhabited islands. There are 5 people living on Sable who work at the meteorological station and monitor the lighthouse. Note that earlier the staff was larger and consisted of 15-25 people. Since over time the danger from Sable ceased to emanate, the contingent was reduced.

Many call this place not just mysterious, but the most cursed. Believe me, there are reasons for this. No one can say with accuracy how many ships died here. Some call the figure 350, others - about 500. The important thing is that for many, Sable was the last thing they saw in their lives. " Cemetery of the Atlantic' Sailors call him. In an incomprehensible way, the sand on the shores of the "living island" tends to "adjust" to the color of the sea waves. This optical effect is main reason ship wrecks. Ships (especially in bad weather) crashed into the coastline at all speeds, and the crew thought until the very collision that there was only an immense ocean ahead ...

Some lucky ones managed to survive and for some time they lived on the island. But the ships that ran aground had the same fate - they were swallowed up by quicksand. For two months, not even a trace of large ships remained! (hence the phrase " ship eater»).

Until now, no one knows for sure 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 him, who even before Columbus walked the ocean in North America. The French believe that the discoverers of Sable were the fishermen of 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 vast possessions, declare that the island was discovered by their whalers, who settled on the shores of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

Some British geographers, speaking of this, refer to the name of the island itself: the first meaning of the word "SABLE" in English language- "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 tend to see a kind of historical incident in the name of the island. They believe that the island was previously designated by English maps the word "SABRE" and that some cartographer mistakenly replaced the "R" with the letter "L". By the way, "SABER", which means "saber", is the best fit for an island that really looks like a scimitar. The second meaning of the word "SABLE" (with a poetic touch) is black, gloomy, sad, terrible - as applied to the "island of shipwrecks" is also quite understandable and logical.

Most modern geographers and historians, however, agree that Sable was discovered by the French traveler Leri, 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 the supporters of this particular version are right, claiming that the navigator Leri gave the new island the French name "SABLE". After all, in French it means “sand”, and the island actually consists only of sand.

By the way, about poets. Sable's stories and "reputation" have inspired many writers, including Thomas-Chandler Haliburton, James MacDonald, Thomas H. Ruddal, and others.

Clickable

North Atlantic Cemetery

On the 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 is stormy here and shallow water, no harbors, the island has received a bad reputation as a place of constant shipwrecks.

Sable is located 110 miles southeast of Halifax, near the mainland - just in the area where the warm Gulf Stream meets the cold Labrador Current. It was this circumstance that led to the formation here of a giant crescent-shaped sandy mound, which once extended to Cape Cod. Geologists believe that Sable is nothing more than the top of this crescent protruding from under the water.

In its present state, the island stretches from east to west for 24 miles. The prevailing relief is dunes and sand hills. In places there are patches 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 Wallace Lake, no more than four meters deep. Although it does not communicate with the ocean, the waves still get into it, rolling over the dunes.

The western end of the island, under the continuous action of the currents and waves of the Atlantic, gradually erodes and disappears, while the eastern end is washed out, lengthened, and thus the island continuously moves east, gradually moving away from the coast of Nova Scotia. It is estimated that over the past two hundred years, Sable has "walked" the ocean for almost ten nautical miles. The current speed of its movement is also known - about 230 meters per year.

The height of Sable above the ocean level, as we already know, is small, and therefore it is almost imperceptible from the sea. Only on very fine days from the deck of a ship can one discern a narrow strip of sand on the horizon.

And clear weather happens 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 in the same way. beautiful sunset. But God knows where the veil of lead clouds has appeared, covering the sun, the sky turns black, and now the wind is whistling thinly in the dunes. It grows stronger, howls, tears off the 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 bushes. Only in the valley between two ridges of dunes grow stunted grass and wild peas.

The main danger that lies in wait for ships at Sable is the quicksands of the shallows, a kind of "ocean quagmire". Sailors and fishermen seriously say that they tend to take on color ocean water. The quicksands of the insidious island literally devour the ships that have been captured by them. It is authentically known that steamships with a displacement of five thousand tons, a length of 100-120 meters, which ended up on the shallows of Sable, completely disappeared from sight within two to three months.

The famous American scientist Alexander Graham Bell hurried to the aid of the French steamer La Bourgogne, which was in distress on July 4, 1898, near Sable. The scientist was sure that some of the people from the ship got to Sable, waiting for help there. Bell, using his own money, organized a rescue expedition, arrived on the island and carefully examined it. Alas, there were no survivors after the disaster. While waiting for the steamer, Bell lived on the island for several weeks, settling 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 unharmed, except for the fact that its hull was cracked in the middle. Today, the fishing lines have completely swallowed up the victim.”

According to the documents preserved at the island's lifeguard station, Johnson, the lighthouse keeper, plotted the places and dates of ship wrecks on the Sable map starting in 1800. And it turned out that every two years an average of three ships were wrecked here.

And what happened before 1800?

The moving and changeable Sable has been constant since the time of the ancient Vikings in only one thing: its irreconcilable hostility to passing ships.

Historical documents - for example, numerous volumes of the Chronicle of Shipwrecks, marine chronicles and other sources - suggest that in ancient times Sable served as a giant ship graveyard of the North Atlantic. Here, under many meters of sand, the sharp-breasted canoes of the brave Vikings, the clumsy carracks and galleons of the Spaniards and the Portuguese, the gulets of the fishermen of Brittany, the strong pine ships of the Nantucket whalers, the English smacks, the cutters from Ghoul, 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 sailing under the flags of all countries of the world. Some stumbled upon it, straying in the fog and a shroud of rain, others carried the current to the shallows, and most of the ships found their last refuge here during storms.

After each storm, Sable changes the terrain of his coastline. About a hundred years ago, storms washed out a channel in the northern part of Sable: a large harbor formed inside the island, which for many years served as a refuge for fishermen. But once another strong storm closed the entrance to the bay, and two American schooners remained in this trap forever. Over time, the former harbor turned into an inland fresh-salty reservoir seven miles long. Now Wallace Lake serves as a landing area for seaplanes that deliver mail and products 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. So, a quarter of a century ago, the solid teak hull of an American clipper ship, which went missing in the last century, “resurrected” from quicksands. 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 a non-existent museum of romantic relics of the past. The current inhabitants of the island find rusty anchors, muskets, sabers, grappling hooks and ancient coins in huge quantities in the dunes ... In 1963, the lighthouse keeper discovered in the sand a human skeleton, a bronze buckle from a boot, a musket barrel, several bullets and a dozen gold doubloons minted in 1760 . Later, a thick bundle of banknotes was found in the dunes - English pounds sterling of the middle of the last century - in the amount of ten thousand.

Some estimates show that the value of the valuables resting in the sands of Sable is almost two million pounds sterling at the modern rate. This is only if we take into account the ships, about which information has been preserved, that at the time of their death they were carrying valuable cargo on board.

The first "devouring" of the ship by Sable was recorded back in 1583. Then an English ship called "Delight" ("Delight"), which was part of the expedition of Humphrey Gilbert, rammed the sands of the island due to poor visibility. The last catastrophe is considered to be a shipwreck in 1947: the steamer "Manhasset" could not avoid a collision with the island. The entire crew was rescued. However, we managed to find information according to which in 1999 the Merrimac yacht “met” with the sands of the “living island” (navigation devices failed). The crew of three was not injured. The fate of the yacht is not known.

If you want to get to know the history of Sable Island in detail, we recommend reading books such as Sable Island: its History and Phenomena (1894, George Petterson); Sable Island, Fatal and Fertile Crescent (1974) and Sable Island Shipwrecks: Disaster and Survival at the North Atlantic Graveyard (1994) by Lial Campbell; "Dune Adrift: The Strange Origins and Curious History of Sable Island" (2004, Marc de Villers).

But there is a story that originates in the late 30s. the last century. Near our Sable, bad weather raged for several days in a row, storms were unusually strong even for these places. Giant waves literally “shaved” the island, removing balls of sand from it. God alone knows how many hundreds of tons were washed off the coast. When the ocean played enough, a scientific expedition arrived on the island. She discovered a huge pit in which there were eight ships, which in different times were buried in the sands of Sable. There was no end to the surprise of the researchers when, among other ships, the remains of ... a Roman galley were discovered! There were debates in scientific circles about where the ancient galley could have come from. The ocean put an end to the disputes: a new storm covered the “grave of ships” with sand. The question remains open to this day...

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. From the wreckage of ships scattered over the cemetery of ships, the unfortunate built dwellings. To their surprise, the first Robinsons saw cows in the valley of the island. These animals, for some unknown reason, were left behind by the Frenchman Leri when he first visited Sable. Animals bred and became feral. Distressed fishermen could also feed on fur seals, for whom the local sandbanks are still a favorite rookery. The tragedy of the sailors who got on Sable was aggravated by the fact that they had nowhere to wait for help: the ships avoided approaching scary island, even when they saw the smoke of signal fires above him. What else could they expect? For someone else's tragedy? The fact 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 trap merchant ships.

How many crimes were committed here and how many criminals Sable sheltered will forever remain a mystery. Until now, many superstitious residents of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia consider Sable a god-cursed place and the abode of evil spirits and ghosts. They call it that: "THE GHOST ISLAND" - "Ghost Island".

In 1598, Sable suddenly turned into ... hard labor. Here, 48 criminals were landed from the French ship of the Marquis de La Roche. The Marquis actually intended to establish a colony in Nova Scotia, but after a long storm, his ship began to leak. Never having reached the goal, De La Roche turned back to the shores of Europe. Seeing the island, the marquis did not think of anything else but to land the "extra cargo" on Sable, and so that the convicts did not starve to death immediately, 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 delivered eleven overgrown, dehumanized people dressed in sheep's skins to Cherbourg. The rest, unable to bear the 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 necessary. Thus 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 brought 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 navigators demanded from their governments the construction of a lighthouse and a lifesaving station on the island. But neither France, which owned Sable at that time and lost two ships of the D’Anville expedition here in 1746, nor England, the “mistress of the seas,” nor Holland wanted to mess with such a tiny territory. And if it wasn't for the occasion...

At the beginning of 1800, the British authorities found illegal valuables among the fishermen who lived 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 "things from Sable." It turned out that they received them in exchange for fish from the settlers of the island. This alarmed the British. In addition, the Francis ship did not come from Nova Scotia to London, and after all, the Duke of York’s personal belongings were transported on it!

The English Admiralty came to the conclusion that after the death of the Francis, the crew on board made it safely to Sable, 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 people from the dead 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 available.

Less than a year later, the English ship Princess Amelia sank in the quicksand of Sable. None of the more than 200 people 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 and decided the matter: the British finally set out to put a lighthouse on a dangerous island and create a rescue station. Her servants were charged with the duty to assist the shipwrecked and save property from sea robbers. And in England itself, at that time, announcements were posted, under pain of death, forbidding anyone, except for rescuers, to settle on the island without government permission.

What in 1802 bore the loud name "rescue station" was a well-knit barn about a hundred and fifty meters from the shore. In it, an ordinary whaling whaleboat rested on wooden skids. Nearby is a stable. No, horses were not specially brought here. 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 died 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 Revolutionary War. Sable 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 lifeguards on horseback rode around the island along the surf, following in pairs towards each other. They searched in the mist for sails, to see if the ocean had washed up the wreckage. Here a ship was seen dying near the island ... The sentinels rush at a gallop to the barn and sound the alarm. The rowers on duty harness four ponies to the team, they drag the whaleboat to the water. Skillfully overcoming 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 jumping to the scene by land. Then a rope is thrown from the sinking ship to the island: this is the only way to wrest people in trouble from Sable's mouth.

In modern sailing directions, an important note is preserved: “If the ship is stranded near Sable Island, the crew should remain on board until the rescue station provides assistance. Practice shows that all attempts to escape on the boats of the vessel invariably ended in human casualties.

Only eight cases have been registered when ships managed to get out of the island's tenacious embrace and avoid death. The English three-masted Myrtle, which was distinguished by a very strong construction, was found in the autumn of 1840 near the Azores without any signs of a team. An investigation revealed that the Myrtle was washed up in a storm on the Sable Shoals in January of that year. The crew apparently died while attempting to disembark. For two months, the ship remained captive to the sands, until another storm pulled it from the shallows to clear water. This "Flying Dutchman" sailed in the ocean for several months until he was near the Azores.

The American fishing schooner "Arno" under the command of Captain Higgins fished near the island in 1846. A squall that unexpectedly swooped in at night tore off most of the sails and almost capsized the ship. At dawn, the captain realized that the current and the wind had carried the Arno to the shallows of Sable. Hope remained only at anchor. They were given away, having etched 100 fathoms of rope from each hawse. By noon, the northwest turned into a 9-magnitude 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 put two experienced sailors on the forecastle at each side and, so that they would not be washed away by the wave, he tied them to the railings. He grabbed the steering wheel himself. The schooner with incredible speed rushed to the shore. Tied 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 grease, blubber or oil is often used by sailors today when it is necessary to bring down the excitement. The breakers tossed the schooner across the sandy bar of the island, and she found herself safe at the foot of the surf-drenched dunes. Although all the people escaped, the schooner died - the next day it was broken by a storm, and the wreckage of the Arno hid in the sandy belly of Sable.

And this was the only case when the team did not need the help of the islanders.

Perhaps the most dramatic shipwreck off Sable was the sinking of the American passenger steamer State of Virginia on July 15, 1879. This steamship with a registered capacity of 2500 tons, 110 meters long, sailed from New York to Glasgow, with 129 passengers and crew on board. During a dense fog, the ship was stranded south side islands. 120 passengers and crew were rescued by the island service. To the names of the smallest rescued girl, happy parents added a fourth - Nelly 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 solid building for rescuers was erected, but a strong storm destroyed it to the ground overnight.

With the lighthouses on Sable, things were much worse. At first, the wooden structure of the only lighthouse towered in the middle part of the island. In 1873, when, despite numerous repairs, the tower was completely dilapidated, the lighthouse was replaced by two new ones - metal, openwork construction. The eastern lighthouse successfully served for about a hundred years, but the western one had to be changed several times: the insatiable Sable "swallowed" ... six of his lighthouses!

Sable today

In the "recent" history of the insatiable womb, the year 1926 was especially mournful. In August of this year, two American schooners, the Sylvia Mosher and the Sadie Nickle, were lost on the same day off Sable. The first capsized on the shallows, her crew died. The second wave was thrown over the spit of the island from one side to the other, where it also capsized and was later covered with sand. In addition to other schooners, Sable's annual menu included two steamboats: the Canadian Labrador and the English Harold Kasper.

As before, ships pass by the island every day - hundreds of merchant ships under the flags of countries all over the planet. The captains, laying a course on the maps, try to pass the island at a considerable distance. And although today Sable is no longer such a danger as before, sailors do not like to approach him. What if? .. God knows them, these shallows that change shape daily ...

Two beacons send out warning beams into the night. Their light in clear weather is visible for 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 steamer called the Manhassent - was swallowed up by the island in 1947.

Sable is now owned by Canada. It is still inhabited: usually 15-25 people live here. These are specialists and workers of the Canadian Department of Transport, serving 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. To do this, they have undergone special training and have at their disposal the most modern life-saving equipment. Canadian specialists live on the island with their families.

There are only two real houses here - for the manager of the island and the head of the radio beacon. The rest are accommodated in "caravans" - cabins. These dwellings were specially designed in such a way as to withstand the destructive action of secant sand. There is also a small power plant.

A few years ago, a warehouse, a forge, a carpentry workshop, hostels for shipwrecked(in case such a nuisance happens) and a hangar, 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 can hardly 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 the former victims of the “ship eater”.

Three hundred wild ponies still live on Sable. On those that are tamed, caretakers go around the coast of the island every day. They peer to see if a yacht or a fishing boat has washed up on the shallows, if a bottle or a plastic container with a note is lying on the sand, which is allowed to study sea currents.

Modern Robinsons have learned to plant vegetable gardens and even orchards on Sable. The main problem is to protect the plants from the sands. If the weather permits, which is still rare, the inhabitants of the island swim and go fishing on whaleboats into the ocean.

Although the Canadian Department of Transportation, which includes Sable, has tried to create the maximum comfort for its residents, their work is not easy and dangerous. Prolonged hurricane-force storms often keep people out of their homes for weeks or more. But this is not considered the most difficult here. The question rests on something else - rather psychological, rather than physical stress. Indeed, living on a remote island, forever shrouded in fog and tormented by storms, is not easy. But it is even more difficult to get along with the idea that under you is an island-cemetery, where every now and then human skulls and bones come across in the sand. One of Sable's Robinsons, the 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 was an eyewitness to this drama. Together with other inhabitants of the island, he did everything possible to save those people.

In our time, the helicopter available on Sable can help those who die at sea, and the great "ship-eater" is practically neutralized. Over the past 30 years, not a single case of the death of a large vessel in its quicksand has been noted. But the sailors are still vigilantly peering into the fog, passing by a dangerous island. Not for a minute does the formidable warning of the radio beacon cease: "You are passing near Sable Island - the cemetery of the North Atlantic."

In the late 70s of the 20th century, after another storm passed, the bow of an American ship was visible from the sand, which disappeared without a trace back in the 19th century, along with the cargo and the entire crew. The wreck of the ship, for several days, was clearly visible from passing ships. As usual, after another strong 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 does the water in the center of the island come from - a mystery!

At the end of the 20th century, researchers anomalous phenomena, a rather original and bold hypothesis was put forward. According to this hypothesis, Sable Island is nothing more than an alien living organism that functions according to laws that are incomprehensible and unknown to terrestrial science. The basis of the vital activity of this organism is silicon, and not like our carbon. And silicon is sand! The main danger that awaits passing ships is the quicksands of the shoals, the so-called "quagmire of the ocean." The quicksands of the island literally absorb the ships that have fallen into them. It is known for certain that ships 100 - 120 meters long, and with a displacement of 5 thousand tons, completely disappeared from sight within 2-3 months.

Often this photo of a sand-covered ship on the Internet is associated with Sable Island. But it's not. Most likely, this is facilitated by the nickname of the island as the "cemetery of the ships of the Atlantic." But in fact, this ship lies in the sands of the Namib.

Edvard Bohlen is a German cargo and passenger ship weighing 2272 tons and 310 feet long, which ran aground off the coast Namib Desert September 5, 1909. The ship was built in Hamburg in 1891 and sailed along the route Hamburg - West Africa. However, the fast currents and thick fogs characteristic of the coast of the Namib Desert caused a disaster.

Attempts to save the ship, which had run aground, were unsuccessful, the steel cable for towing Edward Bohlen burst by the ship that came to the rescue. Passengers without injuries survived the accident and were evacuated.

Currently, the wreckage of the ship, rusty and partially buried in the sand, lies a few hundred meters from the coastline.

sources
http://www.vokrugsveta.ru/vs/article/5984/
http://islandlife.ru/ostrova-v-okeanah/82-sable.html
http://nepovtorimosti.ru/bluzhdayushhiy-ostrov-seybl/

Let me remind you about a few more interesting islands and their inhabitants: or here, and here is the sinister The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy is made -

A very small piece of land in the Atlantic Ocean attracts with its mystery and originality. Free and beautiful wild horses calmly approach and look into the eyes, as if they understand what the person is thinking. Only here you can stroke wild horses and think about what the captives of this island had to experience.

A nice bonus only for our readers - a discount coupon when paying for tours on the site until March 31:

AF500guruturizma - promo code for 500 rubles for tours from 40,000 rubles
AFT1500guruturizma - promo code for tours to Thailand from 80,000 rubles

Until March 10, the promotional code AF2000TUITRV is valid, which gives a discount of 2,000 rubles on tours to Jordan and Israel from 100,000 rubles. from tour operator TUI. Arrival dates from 28.02 to 05.05.2019.

Not far from civilization, literally at a distance of 200 kilometers from Nova Scotia, is the mystery of the planet Earth. This uncharted creature is Sable Island. The length of this saber-shaped island from west to east is now about 38 kilometers. Maximum Width this piece of land is only 1.5 kilometers. Why is today's size specified? Because tomorrow it will be different. Such is the property of the unsolved mysterious island.

Sable Island has been shrouded in mystery from its discovery to the present day. Even its name and history of discovery still do not have a clear definition. Scientists disagree about the discoverers of the island. The word Sable in different interpretations means sand, black, saber, and arctic fox. Everyone has 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

On the map of the World Ocean, warm and cold currents are indicated, which for some reason appeared in these endless waters. The Gulf Stream, for example, starts its warm run from the Gulf of Mexico, and the Labrador cold stream - near the icy Greenland - the birthplace of Mr. Andersen's snow queen. And here, where these ice and fire touch, Sable Island arose.

There are many legends about him. In addition to the official name, he has others. For example, "ship eater", or "grave of the Atlantic". These names are given to the island for the fact that many ships have found their end in its coastal quicksands, dating back to time immemorial.

Sable Island belongs to Canada, but its geographic location is so uncertain that in a few years it may reach the coast of Portugal. Such 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 the two currents are arguing with each other. And in the place of their discord, this sandy strip 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 their fate. The sand of which Sable is made tends to take on the shades of the sea, and the island behind the huge waves becomes completely invisible. The captain leads his ship right into the embrace of the quicksands 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. The bottomless sands gradually take the ship and the entire crew to itself.

The first recorded shipwreck and death of a ship in the sands of the island was recorded in 1583. It was the ship of the British "Delight".

Sable's last victim was the passenger steamer Manhasset in 1947. All passengers and crew of this ship were brought ashore by the rescue team, which specifically for this purpose permanently resided on the island.

Over the years, the island has taken about five hundred ships into its deadly embrace. How many there were in fact, no one knows. Once, after a very long storm, the sands parted and revealed their treasures. The remains of eight ships, including a Roman galley, were found in this huge pit.

In 1802, after several disasters in which England lost three beautiful ships and a large amount of valuables carried on them in a year, it was decided to put 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 escaping from some ship and living here for hundreds of years. Animals have adapted to their new homeland and feel quite comfortable here. Juicy grass and flowers cannot be called sparse vegetation, so these cute animals are quite at ease here. Also, the island was chosen for themselves by long-faced seals spending their mating season here. Common seals, ringed seals, harp seals, and hooded seals settled in coastal waters.

About 350 species of migratory birds use this land as a temporary shelter. And some of them leave their offspring here. Indigenous feathered inhabitants are savannah bunting and pink 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 individuals here.

All this diversity of nature inspired in 2010 the Canadian authorities to organize here national park, which is called Sable Island (Sable Island National Park).

How to get on your own

Now the island is practically safe for ships passing by, thanks to the round-the-clock operation of the lighthouse and radio beacon. Getting here on your own is not easy. You need permission from the authorities. But all efforts will pay off with interest, as soon as you set foot on the land of this mysterious piece of land.

Nova Scotia Capital Halifax Airport named after Robert Stanfield receives 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. From Quebec or Montreal, a train runs to Halifax.

Helicopter or water options are offered to the destination of your trip - the mysterious island.

Have a good trip!

Sable is located 110 miles southeast of Halifax, near the mainland - just in the area where the warm Gulf Stream meets the cold Labrador Current. Sable Island stretches like a giant tentacle for 24 miles from east to west. It's mysterious, dark and mysterious place experienced sailors call the tomb of the Atlantic. The mystery of the mysterious Sable has long interested scientists. As early as the beginning of the 20th century, they established that the western tip of the island was constantly exposed to strong sea currents. Therefore, waves driven by the wind with powerful monotonous blows, which do not stop for a minute, it is not known how many thousands of years, methodically wash away the coast. But on the eastern tip of the island, everything happens exactly the opposite: there, like a living tissue, new and new sand deposits are constantly growing, which, it would seem, according to the logic of things and the laws of physics, simply have nowhere to come from. But they are growing!

The most curious thing is that as a result of these processes, the essence of which remains a mystery to scientists, the length of the “Atlantic tomb” has practically not changed for hundreds of years! But the island itself, like a greedily sticking out giant tongue or a terrible sandy slug, slowly but surely, as if having a predetermined clear goal, is constantly moving towards eastbound. As the researchers managed to find out, over the past 200 years, the island has quietly and imperceptibly "creeped" through the restless expanses of the ocean for more than ten nautical miles! The average speed of the island is about 200 meters per year!

What surprised scientists? The fact is that any island is the top of an underwater mountain. The mountain itself is located on one of the giant tectonic plates, of which, like pieces of a mosaic, our entire planet consists. The speed of Sable's movement interested specialists because he should "drift" no faster than tectonic plate on which the island stands. And the average speed of their movement is measured by several millimeters (sometimes more) per year. In addition, its height above sea level remains insignificant and does not change at all - Sable is completely invisible from a distance from ships passing by him, especially when high waves. A mysterious and absolutely incomprehensible phenomenon of nature? But is it nature, and if nature, what kind? All this: the minimum height above sea level, constant, too fast movement, surprisingly treacherous sandbanks and reefs, and even unspeakably vile weather: most of the days of the year here are not complete without tedious, cold rains and thick fogs donated by the Gulf Stream - is far from a complete set of "charms" of a piece of land, as if specially created for the death of sailors. It is quite understandable why sailors immediately fall silent at the mention of its name and why all ports, seas and oceans of the island of Sable go gloomy. For centuries, sailors have tried not only not to mention it in conversations, but also to bypass the mysterious island far away. Unfortunately, not everyone is able to do this.

Terrible bad weather reigns over the “tomb of the Atlantic” for almost the entire year, and only for just one month - July, when the ocean, as if by someone’s unknown, but strict command, suddenly subsides and becomes gentle, the island is available for landing from boats. But only on the north side. However, there were always very few people who wanted to visit Sable. The biggest trouble that Sable treacherously hid, patiently watching for passing ships, is the shoals and sharp reefs next to them. It is surprising that only here they have a completely unique property to take on the color of sea water and remain almost invisible - the mysterious ability of mimicry, completely unusual for inanimate nature.

How many different ships found their inglorious end here, one can only guess. And the "island of lost ships" diligently keeps a lot of hidden secrets. Under the multi-ton layer of sand, Viking fighting drakkars, Spanish and Portuguese caravels and galleons, simple fishing boats, multi-gun military frigates, elegant high-speed clippers, unsightly whaling ships, yachts, etc. Before the outbreak of World War II, newspapers and radio waves spread the sensation around the world. Unusually strong storms raged for a long time that spring, and giant water whirlpools formed in the Sable area, which, like huge shrews or pumps, removed hundreds of tons of sand from the mysterious island. It formed a huge and very deep hole. It seemed that the sea itself or the sea gods decided to slightly open the impenetrable veil of secrecy that tightly enveloped the "island of shipwrecks". The expedition that went to Sable found the remains of eight ships. And what is most surprising - under the wreckage of the schooner "Saint Louise", experts were amazed to find the skeleton of an ancient Roman galley! And it's only a hundred miles off the coast of Canada?! While scientists were fiercely arguing how this could happen, another terrible storm suddenly broke out, raging for several days in a row. When it subsided, the place of the slightly opened tomb of ships in the bowels of the island was hidden by mountains of wet dirty sand washed up ocean waves. Already at the end of the 70s of the XX century, after another terrible storm, the nose of an American ship that disappeared without a trace together with all its crew and cargo back in the XIX century emerged from the sand. He was clearly seen and photographed from passing ships for several days. And then, as has already been customary, a violent storm came up, and soon inflicted sea waves the sand again buried the ship in its thickness.

Scientific expeditions have repeatedly landed here. However, the island was not so simple. "Tomb of the Atlantic" perfectly knows how to keep its secrets. As soon as people tried to carry out any work, and in particular "excavations" (this word involuntarily has to be quoted), dug holes were immediately filled with sea water. Where it came from in the very center of the island is a mystery! However, at the end of the 20th century, some Western researchers of anomalous phenomena put forward a rather bold and original hypothesis. In their opinion, Sable is nothing but a living alien organism! It functions according to laws completely unknown and incomprehensible to earthly science. The fact is that silicon is the basis of its life activity, and not carbon, as we have. And silicon is sand!

The main danger that lies in wait for ships at Sable is the quicksands 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 quicksands of the insidious island literally devour the ships that have been captured by them. It is authentically known that steamships with a displacement of five thousand tons, a length of 100-120 meters, which ended up on the shallows of Sable, completely disappeared from sight within two to three months.

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 formed inside the island, which for many years served as a refuge for fishermen. But once another strong storm closed the entrance to the bay, and two American schooners remained in this trap forever. Over time, the former harbor turned into an inland fresh-salty reservoir seven miles long. Now Wallace Lake serves as a landing area for seaplanes that deliver mail and products to the island.

Sable Island (eng. Sable island, French île de Sable) is a small island located in the northern part of Atlantic Ocean 180 km southeast of Nova Scotia (Canada).

It has the shape of a crescent, 42 km long and no more than 1.5 km wide at its widest part.

The meaning of the modern name of the island in Latin (Sable) has several options:

Translated from English, sable means black, a mourning color. In French, sable means sand. It is also possible that the island was originally called Saber (saber in English), but later, due to an error by an unknown cartographer, the island retained its name with the letter “l” instead of the letter “r”.

3. Lighthouse on about. Sable

The island is famous as a "ship eater", as about 350 shipwrecks have been recorded near it. Navigation in the coastal waters of the island is complicated by the presence of two opposite currents: the warm Gulf Stream and the cold Labrador Current, which generate whirlpools. Also, thanks to these currents, the island moves at a speed of 200 m/year, which can also be the cause of navigational errors.

Sable Island is recognized not only as dangerous, but even cursed. It is constantly hidden behind dense fogs, its relief is absolutely flat, and the sandy shores have the ability to change color, merging in color with the waters of the ocean. Captains, even in clear weather, often did not see the danger until the very moment of the collision.

The location and size of the island on maps become obsolete very quickly. If on French English, Italian maps of the 16th century the length of the island varies from 150 to 200 miles (278-370 km), then according to the latest data, Sable is a long shoal 44 x 1.5 km, elongated from east to west and moving in the direction to the East. The island is moving towards greater depth, and in the 19th century it was assumed that soon Sable, which had decreased almost tenfold over 3 centuries, would disappear altogether under water, however, for unknown reasons, this did not happen, and over the last century it even increased in size 2 miles.

The island is located within the continental shelf of the North American mainland, along which he travels. Most of all, it looks like a giant sand heap caught between two currents - one erodes the shore, the other deposits sand on the opposite shore. So sand island and moves. The sand is apparently brought here by the Gulf Stream and the Labrador Current. Over many millions of years, a huge mass of sand has accumulated.

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 the veil of lead clouds has appeared, covering the sun, the sky turns black, and now the wind is whistling thinly in the dunes. It grows stronger, howls, tears off the sand from the tops of the dunes and drives it across the island into the ocean... Because of this splitting sand, there is not a single tree on the island, not even bushes. Only in the valley between two ridges of dunes grow stunted grass and wild peas.

7. The wreck of the yacht Merrimack

The island, which has an almost flat surface (maximum height 34 m), is extremely difficult to see from the sea, especially during autumn and winter storms with 15-meter waves that are typical for this area. Sable's quicksands also have one more insidious property - they draw in any ship stranded or washed ashore in 2-3 months; it is reliably known that ships with a displacement of 5000 tons, up to 120 m long disappeared without a trace in the sands. How many hundreds of ships found their death on the shores of this small piece of land is still not known, but the sailors Sable received the stable nickname "Ship Eater". The last victim - the large American steamship Manhassent - was swallowed up by the island in 1947, after which 2 lighthouses and a radio beacon were hastily installed on the island, thanks to which maritime disasters in this area, declared dangerous for navigation, completely stopped.

They tried to excavate on the island, but the changeable weather does not allow for large-scale surveys - the excavations are immediately flooded with water and covered with sand.

8. Lighthouse on the island

9. Beacon on Sable

Sable is now owned by Canada. It is still inhabited: its population is usually 15 - 20 people. These are specialists and workers of the Canadian Department of Transport, serving the island's hydrometeorological center, radio station and lighthouses. Their duty also includes rescuing people in the event of a shipwreck and providing assistance to them. To do this, they have received special training, and they have at their disposal the most modern life-saving equipment. Canadian specialists live on the island with their families. The manager of the island and the head of the radio beacon occupy two two-story cottages, the rest are housed in the so-called "caravans" - cabins. These dwellings were designed in such a way that they could withstand the destructive action of secant sand.

10.

A power station was built on Sable, powered by a diesel generator. A few years ago, a large warehouse, a forge, a carpentry workshop, a hostel for the shipwrecked (in case it happens) and a hangar were built here, where metal whaleboats stand on rails, ready to be launched at any moment. These ships are not afraid of any waves, they are unsinkable and so stable that they practically cannot capsize. But if this happens, then the ship flooded with water is arranged in such a way that it again rises on an even keel.

11.

Of the old buildings on Sable, only the building of the old rescue station, a kind of landmark of the island, has been preserved. The station was built from ship masts, topmasts and yards thrown out by the ocean onto the island. To the walls of this building are nailed "name boards" with the names of ships. These boards also washed up on the island. These are, as it were, the remaining passports of the former victims of the "ship eater".

Modern Robinsons of Sable have learned to plant vegetable gardens and even gardens on the island. The main problem is to protect the plants from cutting sands. They have dogs, cats and chickens. If the weather allows, which, by the way, is very rare, the inhabitants of the island swim and go fishing on whaleboats into the ocean.

12.

Every Saturday, the inhabitants of Sable Island gather in turn in the house of one of the families, tune the radiotelephone station to the mainland and talk with their relatives living in Canada and the United States.
Although the Canadian Department of Transportation, which includes Sable, has tried to create the maximum comfort for its residents, their work is not easy and dangerous. The meteorological conditions here are so severe that people often get nervous. Long-lasting hurricane-force storms often keep the inhabitants of the island from leaving the shelter of buildings for weeks. But this is not what they consider the most difficult in their stay on the island. The question rests on another, rather psychological, rather than physical, tension. And indeed, living on a remote, forever shrouded in fog and tormented by a storm island is not easy.

13.

Until now, a herd of three hundred wild ponies lives on Sable. At the end of the 18th century, they were brought by the Acadians. In 1960 they came under state protection. On those that are tamed, caretakers go around the coast of the island every day. They look to see if a yacht or a fishing boat has washed up on the shallows, if a bottle or a plastic envelope with a note is lying on the sand - to study sea currents. Travelers of the island often meet the most curious finds in the sand. Each family living on Sable thus has a good collection of maritime relics. Ancient gold coins are still found in the sand.

14.

15.

Also on the island is the largest colony of tevyak seals. The island is a nature reserve, so its visit is possible only after obtaining permission.