The drifting island of Sable is the last refuge of thousands of sailors, the northern Cemetery of the Atlantic. Wandering Sable Island. Bad luck island Sable island that moves

In the waters of the North Atlantic, or rather if you sail from the Canadian port of Halifax to the southeast, you can stumble upon the legendary Sable. The island has gained a very bad reputation among many generations of sailors. And that's why.

It is generally accepted that the island owes its name to the French word “sable,” which translates as “sandy.” According to another version, Sable is translated from English as “gloomy”, “creepy”. And the last option most likely has more rights to exist. Sailors simply call this sandy piece of land a “ship devourer.”

The sword barely appears above the surface of the water. The Rigging Hills are his most high point barely reaches 34 meters above sea level. This area is characterized by weather conditions such as dense fog and storms. By the way, during the latter, the waves sometimes rise so high that they cover the entire island.

Sable's researchers noticed one peculiarity - this island is not just an island, but a drifting one. It constantly changes its location, and within a year it moves east by almost 230 meters. The reason for this phenomenon is two powerful currents - the warm Gulf Stream and the cold Ladrador. These same flows constantly change the relief of Sable, “building up” the banks from the east and eroding them from the west.

The danger of Sable Island

When a ship navigating the ocean breaks into pieces on a rock, and the crew members manage to get to the island land, this is considered salvation and great luck. This does not apply to Sable. The fact is that ships thrown onto the island become prisoners quicksand, which can swallow not only a light boat, but even a solid ship weighing 5 thousand tons.

Geographers have found that in addition to the insidious drifting Sable, there are other places on our planet that can be considered real reserves of quicksand. In particular, such dangers await visitors to Cape Hatteras, which rises on east coast States. If you peer into the shifting sands, you can see the rotten skeleton of a sailboat or the rusty timber of a steamship. Another “ship graveyard” is located on Goodwin Shoals, 6 miles southeast of England. It's more dangerous place, since the color of the sand here matches the shade of sea water.

And if the Goodwin Shoals swallow ships in a matter of minutes, then Sable Island likes to stretch out the “pleasure”, sucking in its victims very slowly and for a long time - a month, or even two.

If you are wondering whether a gelatin hair mask helps, keep in mind that gelatin contains proteins, collagens and amino acids. A gelatin mask nourishes the hair with beneficial substances, retains moisture inside the hair, and protects against the aggressive effects of external factors. Gelatin masks are especially useful for dry, brittle, thin and split hair, but are also suitable for any hair type, making it strong, elastic, shiny, giving more volume to the hairstyle and even accelerating hair growth.

In the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately 180 km southeast of the coast of Canada, the “nomadic” crescent-shaped Sable Island drifts. This island is considered one of the most dangerous and mysterious islands in the world. Geographical coordinates Sable Islands: 43°55′57″ N 59°52′48″W

Since this small island was discovered by Europeans, it has struck genuine terror into the hearts of even the bravest sailors. As soon as they called it: “shipwreck island”, “deadly saber”, “ship devourer”, “ghost island”...

These days, Sable Island is called the “Graveyard of the Atlantic.” By the way, its official name in English means black, mourning color (sable).

It was not by chance that this land ringed by water received its notorious fame - shipwrecks actually happened here all the time. Now it’s difficult to say for how many ships it became the last harbor...

The fact is that in the coastal waters of Sable, navigation is very difficult due to two currents found here - the warm Gulf Stream and the cold Lambrador. Currents create whirlpools huge waves and the movement of the sand island.

Sable Island is constantly moving in the ocean waters. The western end of the island, under the continuous action of currents and powerful 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. Moreover, along with the position of the treacherous island, which is poorly visible due to constant fog and giant waves, its size is constantly changing.

If we look at 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, it, on the contrary, began to increase.

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 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 color 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 shallows of Sable Island completely disappeared from view within two to three months. These sands became a natural talisman for sunken treasures and an eternal grave for someone's remains.

The last victim of the insatiable and mysterious island became the American steamship Manhattan in 1947. After this tragedy, 2 lighthouses and a radio station were installed on Sable - since then, disasters have finally stopped.

Now about 20-25 people permanently live on Sable Island - all of them maintain lighthouses, a radio station and a local hydrometeorological center, and are also trained to carry out rescue operations in case of a shipwreck.

These people work in very difficult conditions, and not only because of heavy fog and hurricane winds - many of them say that they sometimes 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 a ghost with the schooner Sylvia Mosher that was wrecked here in 1926...

• More than one sailor who has plied the waters of the Atlantic Ocean can tell the story that before a storm, an extremely bright sunrise is often observed near Sable. But just a few hours are enough for the beautiful sunny weather to turn into a real nightmare.
• People who are part of the personnel servicing 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 spoken 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 he was haunted by the ghosts of the ship "Sylvia Mosher" and asked to save them... Could you live in such a place?
• Everyone who works at Sable has their own collection of relics with lost ships. Many have gold coins and rare antiques.
• Since 1920, only two people can boast that they were born in the "Graveyard of the Atlantic."
• Sable Island horses are featured on 2005 Canadian stamps and coins.

Photo - Sable Island

Video - the mystery of Sable 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. It's dark, mysterious and mysterious place seasoned sailors called it 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, slowly but surely moves, and constantly, in east 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 in waves. Absolutely mysterious and incomprehensible a natural phenomenon. This piece of land, with its minimal height, rapid movement, constant fogs, as if created for the destruction of sailors, has earned itself a rather gloomy fame, spreading across all the oceans, seas and ports of the world. This is by no means a complete set of all the “Pleasures”. It is understandable 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 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 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.
Wandering Island The sword is undoubtedly a mystery. Perhaps someday we will know all its secrets. Ezomir.

For many centuries, Sable Island has struck genuine terror into the hearts of sailors. This dark, mysterious and mysterious place has gained such notoriety due to many shipwrecks that it has become known as the “ship devourer”, “ship graveyard”, “deadly saber” or “graveyard of the Atlantic”.

The island is located in the North Atlantic, 180 km southeast of Halifax (Nova Scotia), where the cold Labrador Current meets the warm Gulf Stream. It has the shape of an elongated crescent and is very small in size. Its length is only a little over 40 kilometers, and its width reaches one and a half kilometers at its widest point.

The island's topography consists of sandy hills and long dunes interspersed with small areas of grassy land. The highest hill on the island reaches a height of 34 meters and is called Riggin Hill. There are several lakes, the largest and deepest of which is Lake Wallace. Its depth reaches 4 meters. The water in it is brackish, since the reservoir is very close to the ocean. High waves during storms easily overcome a narrow stretch of land and sea salt dilutes the fresh water.

Under the influence of waves and currents, the western end of the island gradually erodes and disappears, while the eastern end erodes and lengthens. As a result, the island is moving at a speed of 230 meters per year, moving further and further into the open ocean. Over the past 200 years, the island has drifted almost 40 km from the mainland.

For passing ships, especially during waves, the island is almost invisible, since its height above ocean level is low. Only in clear weather, which happens here only in July, can one discern a narrow strip of sand on the horizon from the deck of the ship. Despite the fact that the ocean is quiet at this time of year, you can only approach the island by boat from the north side.

The sands of the island's shallows are quicksand and they tend to take on the color of ocean water. This is the main danger that awaits ships near Sable. The sands of the wandering island literally swallow up the ships that are captured by them. It is known that steamships with a displacement of five thousand tons and a length of 100-120 meters that found themselves on the Sable shallows completely disappeared into the “quagmire” within two to three months.

This piece of land, with its minimal height, rapid movement, and constant storms, seems to have been created for the destruction of sailors. The first “devouring” of a ship by Sable was recorded back in 1583. Then an English ship called “Delight”, part of Humphy Gilbert’s expedition, rammed the sands of the island due to poor visibility. The last disaster is considered to be a shipwreck in 1947 - the steamer Manhasset could not avoid a collision with the island. The entire crew was saved. There are only eight recorded cases where ships managed to escape from the island's quicksand and avoid death.

In recent years, there has not been a single case of the death of a large 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

The world's oceans are rich in mysterious, mysterious and dangerous places for people. These include little-explored areas of land in boundless waters, rogue waves, the Devil's Belt, treacherous whirlpools, underground volcanoes, and huge tsunamis. It is simply impossible to list all the varied treachery of the mighty waters. Sable Island occupies not the last place in this sad row. It is located in the North Atlantic, very close to Nova Scotia.

Nova Scotia is a peninsula on which the Canadian province of the same name is located. The above-mentioned 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 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 no rivers or streams. There are several lakes. The largest and deepest of them 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.

There are no trees or shrubs on Sable Island. Sand rules the show here. 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 shores. Its movement speed is 230 meters per year. Over the past 200 years, the island has drifted 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 eroding sea ​​waters. Sand is transferred to eastern part, which for this reason is growing all the time. As a result, it seems that the island is moving, moving further and further into the open ocean.

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

The whole point 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 the amazing property of taking on the color of a sea wave and merging with the ocean. This optical effect has always led to the fact that ships plowing the ocean near the Canadian coast very often wedged their entire mass into coastline treacherous sandy land. Heavy ships ran aground and received holes. The sailors on them either drowned or made it to the island.

The further fate of the surviving people was different. But the fate of the damaged ships was clear. Coastal sand began, in the literal sense of the word, to suck in the wrecked ocean ships. And this happened very quickly. Less than a month passed before the ship was completely hidden in sandy soil. Only the masts remained on the surface, which disappeared over the next couple of weeks.

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

The ship, caught in the fatal embrace, sank slowly into the shifting soil at first. The island seemed to be tasting a 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 remaining part of the hull sank into sandy soil. After a month and a half, there were no traces of the liner.

Nowadays, the sand sometimes washes away and part of a hull is exposed. It could be a sailing ship from the 17th century or a well-built ship from the 20th century. A little time passes, and the sand washes up again and hides the traces of its crimes.

It is still unknown who discovered Sable Island. Many researchers claim that the Vikings first landed on it 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 indeed serious arguments denying this statement. There is an opinion that this piece of land became an island only 500 years ago. Before that, it was part of the continental landmass. Then, for reasons still unknown, a piece of land broke away from the mainland and began to move 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 XVI century. That is, at that time they already knew about the island. It's really unclear what he was. It is unknown what kind of relief it had and what kind of soil it was.

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

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

However, those shipwrecked near the shaky sandy shores very often made it to 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. The food was seals. Their colonies have settled on the island for centuries. True, after the end of the mating season, these eared seals swam to the sea and were absent for 6 whole months. This undoubtedly affected the condition of people if they ended up on the island when there was no living creature on it.

At the end of the 18th century, horses appeared on a mysterious piece of land. They survived in harsh conditions and fully adapted to them. How these artiodactyls got to the island is unknown. Most likely they ended up on it due to a shipwreck. Currently, about 300 wild horses live on Sable Island. As for people, they settled on the sandy soil back in late XIX century. These were not settlers, but government employees. 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 staff 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, you can only get to it by obtaining special permission. Here, fur seals and wild horses are protected by law.

This is Canadian soil. Employees and their families live on it. The total population does not exceed 30 people. The specialists' task includes servicing beacons, radio stations and the Hydrometeorological Center. These people are also 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 piece of land, if you do not take into account the hangar for rescue boats.

There is a unique monument built from ship masts. It is all hung with boards with the names of ships that perished near the dry banks. This chronology has been carried out since 1800. Taking into account the previous centuries, we can safely say that hundreds of ships found their end near the treacherous land.

There is a strong opinion that the valuables that rest in the sands are worth several tens of millions of dollars. These include expensive dishes, works of art, and gold. All these items were once transported on ships and found their end near the unstable shores.

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

Despite the fact that man has inhabited this sandy piece of land for a very long time, it is the greatest mystery of the World Ocean. Even 40 years ago, the island was predicted to completely disappear. It “moved” into the ocean and, by all laws, should have disappeared. But nothing of the kind happened. Sable Island not only did not disappear, but even increased slightly in size. This contradicts all established opinions about the world around us, but the fact is obvious. So the solution to this natural phenomenon is still ahead.