In the North Atlantic Ocean, about 180 km southeast of the coast of Canada, the "nomadic" sickle island Sable (Sable Island) drifts. This island is considered one of the most dangerous and mysterious islands in the world. Geographic coordinates of Sable Island: 43 ° 55'57 ″ N 59 ° 52′48 ″ W.
Ever since this small island was discovered by Europeans, it has instilled fear into the hearts of even the bravest sailors. As soon as it was not called: "island of shipwrecks", "deadly saber", "eater of ships", "island of ghosts" …
Today, Sable Island is called the "cemetery of the Atlantic." By the way, its official name in English means black, mourning color (sable).
This land ringed with water received its infamous fame not by chance - shipwrecks did constantly occur here. Now it is difficult to say for how many ships it became the last harbor …
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The fact is that in the coastal waters of Sable, navigation is greatly complicated due to the two currents found here - the warm Gulf Stream and the cold Lambrador. Currents generate whirlpools, huge waves and the movement of the sandy island.
Wandering Sable Island
Sable Island is constantly moving in the waters of the ocean. The western end of the island, under the continuous action of currents and powerful waves of the Atlantic, gradually erodes and disappears, and the eastern end is washed over, lengthened, and thus the island is continuously moving eastward, gradually moving away from the shores of Nova Scotia.
It is estimated that Sable has walked nearly ten nautical miles in the past two hundred years. The current speed of its movement is also known - about 230 meters per year. Moreover, along with the position of the insidious island, which is poorly visible due to constant fogs and giant waves, its size is constantly changing.
If we look at the maps of the 16th century, we will see that its length was about 300 km, but now it has decreased to 42. It was assumed that the island would soon completely disappear, but over the last century, to the surprise of many inquisitive minds, on the contrary, it began to grow.
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 thunderclouds that has appeared obscures the sun, the sky turns black, and now the wind whistles thinly 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 on the island there is not a single tree, not even bushes. Only in the valley between two ridges of dunes do stunted grass and wild peas grow.
The main danger that lies in wait for ships at Sable is the quicksand of the shallows, a kind of "ocean bog". Sailors and fishermen seriously say that they tend to take the color of the ocean water. The swells of the insidious island literally swallow the ships captured by them. It is reliably known that the steamers with a displacement of five thousand tons and a length of 100-120 meters that ended up on the shallows of Sable Island completely disappeared from sight within two to three months. These sands have become a natural amulet for sunken treasures and an eternal grave for someone's remains.
The last victim of the insatiable and mysterious island was the American steamer "Manhassent" in 1947. After this tragedy, 2 lighthouses and a radio station were installed on Sable - since then the disasters have finally stopped.
Now on Sable Island there are about 20-25 people permanently living - all of them maintain lighthouses, a radio station and a local hydrometeorological center, and are also trained to conduct rescue operations in case of a shipwreck.
These people work in very difficult conditions, and not only because of strong fogs and hurricane winds - many of them say that sometimes they see the ghosts of dead sailors. Not surprising, because they literally live on bones.
One of the workers even had to be evacuated from the island, because every night he was begged for help by the ghost with the wreck of the schooner Sylvia Mosher here in 1926 …
Interesting facts about Sable Island
“More than one sailor who has sailed the waters of the Atlantic Ocean can tell the story of an extremely bright sunrise near Sable before a storm. But a few hours are enough, as the beautiful sunny weather turns into a real nightmare.
- People who are part of the staff serving the lighthouses and the meteorological station are constantly over the bones of the sailors who died on the island (we are talking about thousands of corpses). The very understanding of this requires a very stable psyche. The caretakers have told about ghosts more than once. Moreover, in the 50s. one of the lighthouse keepers had to be urgently returned to the continent. He claimed that the ghosts of the Sylvia Mosher were haunting him and asked to save them … Would you be able to live in such a place?
- Everyone who works at Sable has their own collection of relics from lost ships. Many have gold coins and rare antiques.
- Since 1920, only two people can boast that they were born in the “cemetery of the Atlantic”.
- Sable Island horses featured on 2005 Canadian stamps and coins.