The incomprehensible wandering island of sable. The dark secrets of the drifting Sable Island Sable Island that moves

It seems that the time when humanity sacredly trusted myths has gone forever. To explain something incomprehensible, we have science, thanks to which the place of the gods on the celestial chariots was taken by aliens, and the tambourines of shamans, who predicted the weather, were replaced by meteorological satellites. But, despite all the achievements of progress, human nature is still attracted by the incomprehensible and mystical.

On the verge of fiction

2012 - the film “Life of Pi” was released, based on the novel of the same name by Yann Martel. This adventure drama (which, by the way, won four Oscars) features a mysterious carnivorous island located somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. According to the plot of the book, during the day this island was a paradise, but at night it turns into a trap for all living things. After sunset, the algae that made up the island begin to secrete acid, and the lake located here becomes an acidic vat, digesting all living things. The only salvation was in the treetops, where they could wait out the night while the surface of the island bled gastric juice.

Fortunately, the movie predator island is a fiction, but, as you know, there is some truth in every fairy tale. For example, a thousand miles from Hawaii in Pacific Ocean located, which at first glance is a tropical paradise with lush vegetation, picturesque lagoons, reefs, white sand and everything else that attracts tourists. However, this island is uninhabited, and among those who have visited it, there is an opinion that Palmyra has a living and, without a doubt, black aura. External prosperity here is very deceptive: the weather changes instantly, calm lagoons are teeming with sharks, algae release toxic substances, and the surface of the island is full of poisonous insects. Even the fish that live in the creeks and lakes of the island are inedible, and a feeling of strange melancholy and hopelessness hangs in the air.

During World War II, the Americans used Palmyra as a springboard for an attack on Japan, but according to the soldiers who stayed there for several months, island life seemed like hell to them. The landing force was plagued by a series of mysterious suicides. The psychologically exhausted unit turned into a gang of deserters that wandered around the island and did God knows what. The reason for the unexpected soldiers' madness remained a mystery.

Ship Devourer

In the North Atlantic, one hundred and ten miles southeast of the Canadian port of Halifax, Sable Island is located, which is deservedly considered the most dangerous island ever marked on navigational charts. The peculiarity of Sable is that it is a sandbank, which, as a result of the meeting of the warm Gulf Stream and the cold Labrador Current, moves at a speed of 200-230 meters per year! Over the past two hundred years, Sable has “sailed” forty kilometers from Canada, although, of course, this “swim” should not be taken literally. The fact is that West Side The islands are constantly being washed away by waves, and the eastern one, on the contrary, is overgrown with sand, like living tissue. In fact it's quicksand in the ocean, and any ship washed ashore disappears without a trace after 2-3 months. The exact number of ships that hit the damned piece of land is unknown, but it definitely exceeded a hundred.

The island's main killer weapon is that it has an almost flat surface, and it is almost impossible to see it from the sea, especially during the storm season with fifteen-meter waves. According to legend, the sand that covers the island is like a chameleon, and even in clear weather is colored the color of the surrounding ocean. The ability to mimicry is characteristic only of living organisms, which led many sailors to think that the island, with its quicksand and sharp reefs, was “hunting” passing ships.

Sable was first depicted on official maps in the 16th century. At that time the length of the island was almost 200 miles. In the 19th century, scientists assumed that Sable, which had shrunk by almost 10 times over the previous 300 years, would soon completely disappear from the surface of the earth, but this did not happen. Moreover, over the past 100 years it has increased by two miles.

Almost every island on the planet is the surface part of a mountain, which, in turn, is located on tectonic plates. Islands cover our planet like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, moving at speeds of several millimeters per year. Sable's travel speed is 100,000 times greater, suggesting that the island has no physical connection to any of Earth's tectonic plates. Numerous questions, to which there are still no intelligible answers, have pushed some scientists to the sensational and, at first glance, completely crazy idea that Sable is something like a living organism, which is based on silicon, and not carbon, like all living beings on our planet. If you agree with this theory, then you can try to explain where the sand comes from on the eastern part of the island, while the western part is constantly eroded by a strong ocean current. It is possible that sand (aka silicon) is the waste product of an insatiable ship devourer, which is what Sable appears to be.

It is curious that shortly before the start of World War II, the island was given to researchers new riddle. In the spring of 1939, storms of unprecedented force raged in this area, removing hundreds of tons of coastal sand, as a result of which a hole with the skeletons of eight ships formed on the island. It was in this pit, a hundred miles from Canada, that the remains of a Roman galley from ancient times were found! While the members of the scientific expedition sent to the island were arguing about the find, another storm broke out, and the tomb, which had been opened for a short time, was again covered with tons of damp sand.

The Curse of Bulawan Island

Bulawan - a small piece of land in the Banda Sea, which belongs to Indonesia, has long gained fame as a bad and dangerous place. The island became widely known after the plane of American pilot Willy Van der Haage crashed in its vicinity in 1989. The pilot was able to eject, but for the next 3 years he had the opportunity to be in Robinson's shoes, making many amazing discoveries.

During his forced confinement, Van der Haage crawled the length and breadth of the tropical island; his attention was especially drawn to the deep wells, clearly of artificial origin, which led to dry underground caves. Having descended into one of these caves, the American discovered a truly priceless treasure of gold coins, which, as is known from legends and horror stories, rarely brings happiness and longevity.

The treasure, found by an unwitting researcher, was in four clay jugs sealed with natural asphalt. Inside the vessels were faceless, perfectly round coins, more like polished lenses. After the gold was delivered to America, an expert commission of numismatists and specialists in ancient culture could not determine the nationality of the coins, which gave reason to assume that these coins were a means of payment on the territory of some high-tech lost civilization, maybe even Atlantis.

The stay on the island ended as unexpectedly as it began: an Australian destroyer passing by saw a distress signal, thanks to which the missing pilot was finally rescued. Upon his return, the American gave a couple of dozen interviews in which he said that Bulavan is a powerful anomalous zone, and the cause of the plane crash, after which he became a prisoner of the island, was powerful geomagnetic deviations.

From newspaper articles, the public learned about the gold coins found, and detachments of black treasure hunters poured into Bulavan. The wells, adits, and caves of the island were repeatedly ransacked by lovers of quick money, and it should be noted that many did not return empty-handed. Only now treasure hunters came across not gold coins, but amazing silver bars in the shape of horse heads. These zoomorphic silver, according to scientists, were used in sacred rituals of a civilization unknown to us. But the most amazing thing is that there are no traces of artificial processing on the ingots, and we can say that this is nothing more than a masterpiece of the anomalous zone of Bulavan Island.

As for Willy Van der Haage, after undergoing retraining, he returned to his favorite job - flying, and, probably, this story would have had a happy ending if the pilot’s disfigured body had not been discovered in his own home in March 1993. The motive for the murder has not been fully clarified, but the police hastened to attribute everything to a banal robbery.

It is worth noting that since 1999, almost all the diggers who removed precious loot from the island were hanged, poisoned or shot! It’s simply ridiculous to talk about banal robberies here.

Drifting Nightmare

The islands of Palmyra, Sable, Bulavan are just a small list of mysterious, cursed islands fraught with danger for careless travelers. But the various anomalous zones that are shrouded in a fog of secrets and mysteries are nothing compared to the main island on this list, which is more than real, and whose appetite for absorbing living flesh is much worse than the figment of Yann Martel’s imagination.

As sad as it sounds, the first place in the list of damned killer islands is occupied by a man-made creation - Garbage Island, which drifts between America and Eurasia. Currently, a huge landfill in the North Pacific Ocean is twice the size of the United States and is rightfully called the “Eastern Garbage Patch.”

The basis of the giant floating landfill is plastic waste, which is thrown into the ocean in huge quantities. The weight of this garbage dump is already estimated at 100 mils. tons, and this figure continues to grow at a tremendous pace. At the same time, 70% of waste sinks to the bottom, so Garbage Island is just the tip of the iceberg.

Only two countries in the Pacific region are Australia and New Zealand– carry out effective control over plastic recycling, while advanced Asian states have designed and began serial production of equipment that processes all ship debris (plastic bottles, bags and other waste) into powder. Next, the shredded plastic, visually invisible to environmental services, is dumped into the ocean, saving enormous amounts of money.

The trouble is that over the past couple of decades we have become accustomed to such concepts as “humanitarian” and “ ecological catastrophy" It seems to us that if something like this happens not in the next block, then it is unlikely that the consequences will affect our own skin. However, Garbage Island is a disaster not of a local, but of a planetary scale. The worst thing is that this is no longer just a polluted aquatic environment, but a real cemetery of marine life. Every year, about a million birds and a hundred thousand mammals die from plastic waste dumped in the Pacific Ocean.

This happens according to the following scheme: under the influence of sunlight, plastic begins to disintegrate into small fractions without losing its polymer structure, then fish, jellyfish and other inhabitants of the ocean, confusing the waste with plankton, begin to eat it. Birds and mammals swallow larger things: lighters, bottle caps, syringes and toothbrushes. Of course, the “plastic diet” leads to death, but some of the commercial fish poisoned by chemicals still ends up on the average person’s plate.

How many of you would like to taste the meat of cattle raised on a farm near Chernobyl? Fish with a belly stuffed with plastic is little better, but the average consumer rarely thinks about what he puts in his mouth. Even when the obvious is explained to us, we pretend not to hear, or hope at chance, believing that misfortunes will affect anyone, but not us.

Similar garbage islands, albeit smaller ones, exist in all oceans. We can only admit that these drifting killers are already stretching their bony fingers far into the interior of the continents. And this is just the beginning...

As soon as the ship touches the keel of Sable's quicksand, it is doomed to destruction.

David Johnson, lighthouse keeper

Sable, saber or sand?

This happened by accident when in the summer I was flying from Murmansk to Cuba. Our Tu-114, passing South coast Greenland, was supposed to fly over Sable, then enter the track running along east coast North American continent - to Havana. I asked the pilots to show me the island, about which I had been collecting information for many years in sailing directions and old maps, in geographical books and travel notes. It was a clear sunny day and there were no clouds under the plane. Through the wide windows of the cabin from a height of eight thousand meters - through the on-board binoculars that the pilots allowed me to use - I saw a narrow curved strip in the frozen blue of the ocean. Along the southern shore of the island, a wide white edge of surf was clearly visible.

An oblong lake, the metal roofs of five or six buildings and a dozen aluminum houses that looked like hangars flashed in the sun. One could make out a radio mast, two openwork beacons and a stationary helicopter. Thus, “at a high level,” my personal acquaintance with Sable Island took place.

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

Until now, no one knows exactly who discovered this ill-fated piece of land, cursed by many generations of sailors. The Norwegians claim that the Vikings were the first to stumble upon it; even before Columbus, they walked the ocean in North America. The French believe that the discoverers of Sable were fishermen from Normandy and Brittany, who at the very beginning of the 16th century were already fishing for cod and halibut on the Newfoundland shallows. Finally, the English, who after the French added the island to their once extensive possessions, claim that the island was discovered by their whalers who settled on the shores of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

Some British geographers, speaking about this, refer to the very name of the island: the first meaning of the word "SABLE" in English 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 are inclined to see the name of the island as a kind of historical incident. They believe that the island was previously designated as English maps the word "SABRE" and that some cartographer mistakenly replaced the "R" with the letter "L". By the way, “SABRE”, which means “saber”, fits perfectly with the island, which really looks like a scimitar. The second meaning of the word “SABLE” (with a poetic connotation) is black, gloomy, sad, scary - when applied to the “shipwreck island” it is also quite understandable and logical.

Most modern geographers and historians, however, agree that Sable discovered French traveler Léry, who in 1508 sailed from Europe to the “Land of the Bretons” - a peninsula that the British later called Acadia and even later Nova Scotia. It is possible that supporters of this particular version are right, claiming that the navigator Léry gave the new island the French name “SABLE”. After all, in French it means “sand,” and the island actually consists only of sand.

On maps of the 16th century, published in France, England and Italy, the length of the island is estimated at 150-200 miles, and already in 1633, the Dutch geographer Johann Last, describing Sable, reports: “... the island has a circumference of about forty miles, the sea The waters here are stormy and shallow, there are no harbors, the island has gained notoriety as a place of constant shipwrecks.”

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

In its current state, the island stretches from east to west for 24 miles. The predominant terrain is dunes and sand hills. In some places there are areas of herbaceous vegetation. The highest “mountain” here is Riggin Hill, 34 meters high. Four miles from the western tip of the island is the semi-salty Lake Wallace, no more than four meters deep. Although it does not communicate with the ocean, waves still enter it by rolling over the dunes.

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

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

And clear weather occurs here only in July, when the fury of the ocean subsides, and you can approach the island from the north side by boat.

A storm on Sable is usually preceded by an unusually dazzling sunrise. It would seem that a wonderful morning should end with an equally beautiful sunset. But God knows where a veil of leaden clouds appeared from, covers the sun, the sky turns black, and now the wind whistles subtly in the dunes. It grows stronger, howls, tears sand from the tops of the dunes and drives it across the island into the ocean... Because of this cutting sand, there is not a single tree on the island, not even a bush. Only in the valley between two ridges of dunes do stunted grass and wild peas grow.

The main danger that awaits ships near Sable is the quicksand of the shallows, a kind of “swamp of the ocean.” 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 Sable shallows completely disappeared from view within two to three months.

The famous American scientist Alexander Graham Bell rushed to the aid of the French steamer La Bourgogne, which was in disaster on July 4, 1898 near Sable. The scientist was sure that some of the people from the ship had reached Sable and were awaiting help there. Bell, using his own money, organized a rescue expedition, arrived on the island and carefully examined it. Alas, there were no survivors there after the disaster. While waiting for the steamer, Bell lived on the island for several weeks, living in the house of the lighthouse keeper Boutilier and the lifeguard Smallcombe. In July 1898, Bell wrote: “The bark Crafton Hall ran aground in April of this year. The magnificent vessel seemed intact, except that its hull was cracked in the middle. Today the fishing lines have completely swallowed the victim.”

Based on documents preserved at the island's life-saving station, lighthouse keeper Johnson plotted the places and dates of shipwrecks on Sable's map starting in 1800. And it turned out that every two years an average of three ships were wrecked here.

What happened before 1800?

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

Historical documents - for example, numerous volumes of the Chronicle of Shipwrecks, maritime chronicles and other sources - allow us to judge that in ancient times Sable served as a giant ship graveyard of the North Atlantic. Here, under many meters of sand, rest the sharp-chested canoes of the brave Vikings, the clumsy carracks and galleons of the Spaniards and Portuguese, the gulets of the fishermen of Brittany, the strong pine ships of the Nantucket whalers, the English smacks, the cutters from Goole, the heavy three-masted ships of the West India Company, and the elegant American clippers. .. And this armada of sailing ships, which has sunk into oblivion, is crushed by the heavy hulls of sunken steamships that sailed under the flags of all countries of the world. Some stumbled upon it, lost in the fog and shroud of rain, others were carried to the shallows by the current, and most of the ships found their last refuge here during storms.

After each storm, Sable changes the terrain of its coastline. About a hundred years ago, storms washed out a channel in the northern part of Sable: a large harbor was formed inside the island, which for many years served as a refuge for fishermen. But one day another strong storm closed the entrance to the bay, and two American schooners remained trapped in this trap forever. Over time, the former harbor became an inland fresh-salt body of water seven miles long. Nowadays, Wallace Lake serves as a landing site for seaplanes that deliver mail and food to the island.

Sometimes the sandbanks and dunes of the island, having moved under the influence of ocean waves, reveal to the human eye the remains of ships that disappeared a long time ago. Thus, a quarter of a century ago, the durable teak hull of an American clipper, which had gone missing in the last century, “resurrected” from shifting fishing lines. And three months later, dunes 30 meters high again grew above the hull... From time to time, broken masts and yards are exposed sailing ships, steamship pipes, boilers, pieces of rusted ocean liners and even submarines.

Sable is one of the most conscientious and generous suppliers of unique exhibits to the defunct museum of romantic relics of the past. The current inhabitants of the island find rusty anchors, muskets, sabers, grappling hooks and huge quantities of ancient coins in the dunes... In 1963, a lighthouse keeper discovered in the sand a human skeleton, a bronze boot buckle, a musket barrel, several bullets and a dozen coined gold doubloons 1760. Later, a thick stack of banknotes - British pounds sterling from the middle of the last century - worth ten thousand was found in the dunes.

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

Robinson convicts and rescue riders

The first settlers of Sable were shipwrecked: for them this meager piece of land, having become the cause of misfortune, served as a shelter. The unfortunate people built houses from the wreckage of ships scattered throughout the ship graveyard. To their surprise, the first Robinsons saw cows in the valley of the island. For some unknown reason, these animals were left behind by the Frenchman Lery when he first visited Sable. The animals multiplied and went wild. Fishermen in distress could also feed on fur seals, for which the local sandbanks are still a favorite rookery. The tragedy of the sailors who found themselves on Sable was aggravated by the fact that they had nowhere to wait for help: the ships avoided approaching scary island, even when they saw the smoke of signal fires above him. What else could they hope for? To someone else's tragedy? That the next doomed ship will bring them, along with the wreckage, essentials and - most importantly! - a few pounds of table salt? Yes, probably for that too.

Sometimes “gentlemen of fortune” buried their treasures here. They burned false fires on the dunes to lure merchant ships into a trap.

How many crimes were committed here and how many criminals Sable hid will forever remain a mystery. Until now, many superstitious residents of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia consider Sable a place cursed by God and the abode of evil spirits and ghosts. That’s what they call it: “THE GHOST ISLAND” - “Ghost Island”.

In 1598, Sable unexpectedly turned into... hard labor. Here 48 criminals were disembarked from the French ship Marquis De La Roche. The Marquis actually intended to found a colony in Nova Scotia, but after a long storm his ship developed a leak. Having never reached his goal, De La Roche turned back to the shores of Europe. Seeing the island, the Marquis came up with nothing else but to land the “extra cargo” on Sable, and so that the convicts would not die of hunger right away, he left them fifty sheep. The exiles were remembered only seven years later, and the King of France signed a pardon for them. In the summer of 1605, a ship sent to Sable brought eleven overgrown people, who had lost their human appearance, dressed in sheep's skins, to Cherbourg. The rest, unable to bear the severe hardships, died. Surprisingly, five of those who returned to their homeland asked the king to allow them to return to Sable. Henry IV not only agreed, but also ordered to supply them with everything they needed. This is how a small French colony was formed. And when in 1635 a ship returning from Connecticut to England was wrecked on Sable, its crew was rescued and taken to the American mainland by these French Robinsons.

Years passed. News of shipwrecks near Sable Island began to reach Europe more and more often. The sailors demanded that their governments build a lighthouse and a rescue station on the island. But neither France, which at that time owned Sable and lost two ships of D’Anville’s expedition here in 1746, nor England, the “mistress of the seas,” nor Holland wanted to bother with such a tiny territory. And if not for chance...

At the beginning of 1800, the English authorities found unauthorized valuables among fishermen living on the shores of Nova Scotia: gold coins, jewelry, geographic Maps with the coat of arms of the Duke of York, books from his personal library and even furniture with the same coat of arms. Simple-minded fishermen called these things “Sable things.” It turned out that they received them in exchange for fish from the settlers of the island. This alarmed the British. Moreover, the ship “Francis” did not come from Nova Scotia to London, but it was carrying the personal belongings of the Duke of York!

The British Admiralty came to the conclusion that after the death of the Francis, the crew on board reached Sable safely, but were killed by the Robinsons. And so a punitive expedition was sent to the island, the settlers were interrogated. However, it turned out that people with lost ship no one was killed. They all disappeared into the depths of the sea, and the islanders were unable to help them, because they did not even have a lifeboat.

Less than a year had passed since the English ship Princess Amelia perished in the quicksand of Sable. Of the more than two hundred people, none escaped. Another English ship that came to the rescue again got stuck in the sands of the island, and everyone on it also died. Three ships lost on Sable decided the matter: the British finally intended to erect a lighthouse on the dangerous island and create a rescue station. Its servants were charged with the duty of providing assistance to shipwrecked people and saving property from sea robbers. And in England itself at that time, notices were posted that, on pain of death, prohibited anyone other than rescuers from settling on the island without government permission.

What in 1802 bore the loud name “rescue station” was a tightly built barn about one and a half hundred meters from the shore. In it, an ordinary whaling whaleboat rested on wooden runners. Nearby is a stable. No, the horses were not brought here on purpose. Horses have lived here since ancient times, although no one really knows where they came from on Sable. According to one version, these are the descendants of cavalry horses that sailed to the island from a certain French ship that once perished on the shallows. According to another version, they were brought to the island by Thomas Hancock, the uncle of the famous John Hancock, a famous American patriot during the War of Independence. Sable's horses are more like large ponies. They are very hardy, live in herds, feed on sedge, wild peas and some flowers that grow only on Sable.

Every day, four rescuers rode around the island on horseback along the surf, walking in pairs towards each other. They searched for sails in the fog and looked to see if the ocean had thrown up the wreckage of the ship. A ship was spotted dying near the island... The patrolmen galloped to the barn and sounded the alarm. The rowers on duty harness four ponies into a team, which drag the whaleboat to the water. Having skillfully overcome the first three waves of the surf, the rowers rush to where the ship is in distress. Meanwhile, the rest of the rescuers, including the lighthouse keeper, are already racing to the scene by land. Then a rope is thrown from the sinking ship to the island: this is the only way to snatch people in trouble from Sable’s mouth.

In modern sailing directions, an important note remains: “If the ship becomes stranded near Sable Island, the crew should remain on board until the lifeboat station provides assistance. Practice shows that all attempts to escape on the ship’s boats invariably ended in human casualties.”

Only eight cases were recorded when ships managed to escape from the tenacious embrace of the island and avoid death. The English three-masted ship "Myrtle", distinguished by its very strong construction, was found in the autumn of 1840 near Azores without any sign of a command. The investigation showed that the Myrtle was driven ashore by a storm on the Sable Shoals in January of that year. The crew apparently died while trying to land on shore. For two months the ship remained captive of the sands, until another storm pulled it aground. clean water. This “Flying Dutchman” sailed in the ocean for several months until he ended up near the Azores.

The American fishing schooner Arno, under the command of Captain Higgins, fished near the island in 1846. A squall that came unexpectedly at night tore off most of the sails and nearly capsized the ship. At dawn, the captain realized that the current and wind had carried the Arno onto the Sable Banks. Hope remained only in the anchors. They were given away, having removed 100 fathoms of rope from each fairlead. By noon, the north-west turned into a force nine storm. The ocean boiled over the shallows like water in a cauldron. The schooner was carried towards the deadly breakers. Higgis, not counting on the vigilance and vigilance of Sable's rescuers, decided to try his luck. To prevent panic on the ship, he locked the crew in the hold. He placed two experienced sailors on the forecastle at each side and, so that they would not be washed away by the wave, tied them to the railings. He grabbed the helm himself. The schooner was rushing towards the shore with incredible speed. Tethered sailors poured fish oil from barrels into the water. The wind drove him in front of the bow of the ship towards the island. This ancient and reliable method of smoothing the crests of waves with fat, blubber or oil is often used by sailors today when they need to calm the waves. The breakers threw the schooner over the island's sandy bar, and she found herself safe at the foot of the surf-washed dunes. Although all the people were saved, the schooner died - the next day it was broken by a storm, and the wreckage of the Arno disappeared into the sandy belly of Sable.

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

Perhaps Sable's most dramatic shipwreck was the death of the American passenger ship"State of Virginia" July 15, 1879. This ship, with a registered capacity of 2,500 tons and a length of 110 meters, was sailing from New York to Glasgow, carrying 129 passengers and crew. During a thick fog, the ship found itself on a sandbank on the south side of the island. 120 passengers and crew were rescued by the island service. The happy parents added a fourth to the names of the smallest rescued girl - Nellie Sable Bagley Hord.

In the middle of the 19th century, a new station building was built on the island, and the wooden whaleboat was replaced with an iron one. In 1893, an even more substantial building for rescuers was erected, but a strong storm destroyed it to the ground in one night.

The situation with the lighthouses on Sable was much worse. At first, the wooden structure of the only lighthouse tower rose in the middle part of the island. In 1873, when, despite numerous repairs, the tower completely fell into disrepair, the lighthouse was replaced by two new ones - metal, openwork design. The eastern lighthouse served safely for about a hundred years, but the western one had to be changed several times: the insatiable Sable “swallowed”... six of its lighthouses!

Sable today

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

Ships still pass by the island every day - hundreds of merchant ships flying the flags of countries all over the planet. Captains, plotting a course on maps, try to miss the island at a considerable distance. And although these days Sable no longer poses such a danger as before, sailors do not like to approach him. What if?.. God knows, these shallows changing shape every day...

Two lighthouses send warning rays into the night. Their light is visible 16 nautical miles in clear weather. Clear warning radio signals are heard on the air around the clock. It was thanks to them that shipwrecks off the coast of the island actually stopped. The last victim, a large American steamship called the Manhassent, was swallowed up by the island in 1947.

Sable now belongs to Canada. It is still inhabited: usually 15-25 people live here. These are specialists and workers of the Canadian Department of Transport who service the island's hydrometeorological center, radio station and lighthouses. Their duties also include rescuing people in the event of a shipwreck and providing assistance to them. For this purpose, they have undergone special training and have the most modern equipment at their disposal. life-saving equipment. Canadian specialists live on the island with families.

There are only two real houses here - for the island manager and the head of the radio beacon. The rest are housed in “caravans” - trailer houses. These dwellings were specially designed to withstand the destructive effects of cutting sand. There is also a small power station.

Several years ago, a warehouse, a blacksmith shop, a carpentry workshop, dormitories for shipwrecked people (in case such trouble should occur) and a hangar were built here, where metal whaleboats stand on rails, ready to be launched at any moment. The inhabitants of the island believe that these amazing ships are not afraid of any waves, they are unsinkable and so stable that they practically cannot capsize.

Of the old buildings on Sable, only one has survived - the building of the former rescue station, a kind of local landmark. The station was built from ship masts, topmasts and yards thrown onto the island. “Name boards” are nailed to the walls of the building, on which the names of the ships are displayed. These are, as it were, the remaining passports of former victims of the “ship devourer”.

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

Modern Robinsons have learned to plant vegetable gardens and even orchards on Sable. The main problem is to protect plants from sand. If the weather permits, which is still rare, the island's residents swim and go out on whaleboats into the ocean to fish.

Although Transport Canada, which oversees Sable, has tried to create maximum amenities for its residents, their work is not easy and dangerous. Long-lasting storms of hurricane force often prevent people from leaving their homes for weeks, or even more. But this is not considered the most difficult thing here. The question rests on something else - psychological rather than physical stress. Indeed, living on a remote island, always shrouded in fog and tormented by storms, is not easy. But it’s even more difficult to get used to the idea that beneath you there is an island-cemetery, where every now and then you come across human skulls and bones in the sand. One of Sable's Robinsons, a lighthouse keeper, had to be removed from service and sent to the mainland. For many years, during his watch, he was invariably haunted by the ghosts of the schooner Sylvia Mosher, the same one that disappeared into the surf in August 1926. The old caretaker turned out to be an eyewitness to this drama. Together with the other inhabitants of the island, he did everything possible to save those people.

Nowadays, assistance to those dying at sea can be provided by the helicopter available on Sable, and the great “ship devourer” is practically neutralized. Over the past 30 years, there has not been a single case of the death of a large ship in its quicksand. But the sailors still vigilantly peer into the fog as they pass by the dangerous island. The threatening warning of the radio beacon does not stop for a minute: “You are passing near Sable Island - the cemetery of the North Atlantic.”

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 experienced 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, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, cover our entire planet. 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 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.
The wandering Sable Island is undoubtedly a mystery. Perhaps someday we will know all its secrets. Ezomir.

Recently there were reports that in Atlantic Ocean An entire island was discovered, which was formed due to the fact that all the ocean debris is picked up by large currents and knocked down in one place. But if this garbage island is the work of human hands, then another find was discovered in another, the largest ocean on the planet - the Pacific. This island is an area of frozen volcanic pumice, the area of which is 26 thousand kilometers (square). This can be compared with the size of Belgium.

This formation in the Pacific Ocean was discovered during a flyover of the area by a New Zealand Air Force aircraft. This island was discovered at a distance of 157 kilometers from Raul Island. Scientists believe that the formation of this island is associated with the activity of an underwater volcano, which has no direct connection with Tongariro, which recently began to be active on the islands of New Zealand. It only caused the release into the atmosphere large quantity dust to great heights. In addition, volcanologists have concluded that the island, discovered last week, will not interfere with shipping.

CBCNews reports that a research team made up of geologists from the government company GNS Science is currently analyzing what the origin of the this island. For this purpose, analyzes of pumice were taken from the surface of the island and from its underwater parts. It is important to understand how the formation of this island took place. The Russian Institute of Geodynamics and Volcanology of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, represented by its representative Heinrich Steinberg, express their own opinion regarding the origin of the island and its future fate. As they assume, this island will not last long, due to the fact that pumice is not a very durable material by nature. But this phenomenon is the largest in scale that has happened in the last 20 years. But for underwater eruptions, the formation of such pumice islands is, in fact, a fairly common thing. This is precisely the opinion expressed by Steinberg himself. It is by the amount of ejected product that volcanologists are able to determine the intensity of the earthquake that occurred. Volcanic pumice floats up in pieces only in the area where the eruption occurred, provided that the depth of the natural disaster was small.

So, as it is already known that the size of the island is several thousand square meters and is easily visible from an airplane, this can only mean one thing - the volcanic eruption under water occurred very intensely or for a long time. This volcano, apparently, was active in the region of the Pacific Ridge. This eruption, which could not be seen on the surface, caused great damage underwater world and caused the appearance of this short-lived island.

It just so happened that Sable Island(Sable Island) is considered one of the most dangerous and mysterious islands in the world. It is located in the Atlantic Ocean and belongs to Canada. It lies southeast of Halifax (Nova Scotia). The area of the island is small, but for the sake of uniqueness, let’s say that its length is 42 km, and its width... no more than 1.5 km. From the air, Sable resembles some kind of huge worm. Although size is a relative thing for an island... The fact is that Sable is 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 size of Sable is much larger than today - 270-380 km.

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

Many call this place not just mysterious, but damned. Believe me, there are reasons for this. No one can say with certainty how many ships were lost here. Some put the figure at 350, others about 500. The important thing is that for many Sable was the last thing they saw in their lives. " Cemetery of the Atlantic"- the sailors call him. Inexplicably, the sand on the shores of the “living island” has the property of “adjusting” to the color of the sea waves. This optical effect is the main reason for the death of ships. Ships (especially in bad weather) crashed into the coastline at all speeds, and the crew, until the collision, thought that there was only an immense ocean ahead...

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

Until now, no one knows exactly who discovered this ill-fated piece of land, cursed by many generations of sailors. The Norwegians claim that the Vikings were the first to stumble upon it; even before Columbus, they sailed across the ocean to North America. The French believe that the discoverers of Sable were fishermen from Normandy and Brittany, who at the very beginning of the 16th century were already fishing for cod and halibut on the Newfoundland shallows. Finally, the English, who after the French added the island to their once extensive possessions, claim that the island was discovered by their whalers who settled on the shores of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

Some British geographers, speaking about this, refer to the very name of the island: the first meaning of the word “SABLE” in English is “sable”. Strange, isn't it? After all, sables have never been found on this island. Maybe the fact is that the image of the island on the map resembles a jumping animal? Some etymologists are inclined to see the name of the island as a kind of historical incident. They believe that the island was previously designated on English maps by the word "SABRE" and that some cartographer mistakenly replaced the "R" with the letter "L". By the way, “SABRE”, which means “saber”, fits perfectly with the island, which really looks like a scimitar. The second meaning of the word “SABLE” (with a poetic connotation) is black, gloomy, sad, scary - when applied to the “shipwreck island” it is also quite understandable and logical.

Most modern geographers and historians, however, agree that Sable was discovered by the French traveler Léry, who in 1508 sailed from Europe to the “Land of the Bretons” - a peninsula that the British later called Acadia and even later Nova Scotia. It is possible that supporters of this particular version are right, claiming that the navigator Léry gave the new island the French name “SABLE”. After all, in French it means “sand,” and the island actually consists only of sand.

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 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 here is rough and shallow water, there are no harbors, the island has gained notoriety as a place of constant shipwrecks.”

And clear weather occurs here only in July, when the fury of the ocean subsides, and you can approach the island from the north side by boat.

The main danger that awaits ships near Sable is the quicksand of the shallows, a kind of “ocean quagmire.” Sailors and fishermen seriously say that they tend to take on the color of ocean water. The swells of the treacherous island literally swallow the ships that are captured by them. It is reliably known that steamships with a displacement of five thousand tons and a length of 100-120 meters that found themselves on the Sable shallows completely disappeared from view within two to three months.

What happened before 1800?

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

Historical documents - for example, numerous volumes of the Chronicle of Shipwrecks, maritime chronicles and other sources - allow us to judge that in ancient times Sable served as a giant ship cemetery of the North Atlantic. Here, under many meters of sand, rest the sharp-chested canoes of the brave Vikings, the clumsy carracks and galleons of the Spaniards and Portuguese, the gulets of the fishermen of Brittany, the strong pine ships of the Nantucket whalers, the English smacks, the cutters from Goole, the heavy three-masted ships of the West India Company, the elegant American clippers... And this armada of sailing ships, which has sunk into oblivion, is crushed by the heavy hulls of sunken steamships that sailed under the flags of all countries of the world. Some stumbled upon it, lost in the fog and shroud of rain, others were carried to the shallows by the current, and most of the ships found their last refuge here during storms.

After each storm, Sable changes the topography of its coastline beyond recognition. About a hundred years ago, storms washed out a channel in the northern part of Sable: a large harbor was formed inside the island, which for many years served as a refuge for fishermen. But one day another strong storm closed the entrance to the bay, and two American schooners remained trapped in this trap forever. Over time, the former harbor became an inland fresh-salt body of water seven miles long. Nowadays, Wallace Lake serves as a landing site for seaplanes that deliver mail and food to the island.

Sometimes the sandbanks and dunes of the island, having moved under the influence of ocean waves, reveal to the human eye the remains of ships that disappeared a long time ago. Thus, a quarter of a century ago, the durable teak hull of an American clipper, which had gone missing in the last century, “resurrected” from shifting fishing lines. And three months later, dunes 30 meters high again grew above the hull... From time to time, broken masts and yards of sailing ships, steamship pipes, boilers, pieces of rusted ocean liners and even submarines are exposed.

Sable is one of the most conscientious and generous suppliers of unique exhibits to the defunct museum of romantic relics of the past. The current inhabitants of the island find rusty anchors, muskets, sabers, grappling hooks and huge quantities of ancient coins in the dunes... In 1963, a lighthouse keeper discovered in the sand a human skeleton, a bronze boot buckle, a musket barrel, several bullets and a dozen gold doubloons minted in 1760 . Later, a thick stack of banknotes - British pounds sterling from the middle of the last century - worth ten thousand was found in the dunes.

The first “devouring” of a ship by Sable was recorded back in 1583. Then an English ship called “Delight”, part of Humphy Gilbert’s expedition, rammed the sands of the island due to poor visibility. The last disaster is considered to be a shipwreck in 1947: the steamship Manhasset could not avoid a collision with the island. The entire crew was saved. However, we managed to find information according to which in 1999 the yacht Merrimac “met” with the sands of the “living island” (the navigation instruments malfunctioned). The three-person crew was not injured. The fate of the yacht is unknown.

If you want to get acquainted with 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 Leal Campbell; Dune Adrift: The Strange Origins and Curious History of Sable Island (2004, Marc de Villiers).

But there is also a story that dates back to the late 30s. last century. Near our Sable, bad weather raged for several days in a row; the storms were unusually strong even for these places. Giant waves literally “shaved” the island, removing balls of sand from it. Only God knows how many hundreds of tons were washed away from the shores. When the ocean had played enough, a scientific expedition arrived on the island. She discovered a huge pit in which there were eight ships that at different times were buried in the sands of Sable. The surprise of the researchers was endless when, among other ships, the remains of ... a Roman galley were discovered! There has been debate in scientific circles about where the ancient galley could have come from here. The ocean put an end to the dispute: 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. The unfortunate people built houses from the wreckage of ships scattered throughout the ship graveyard. To their surprise, the first Robinsons saw cows in the valley of the island. For some unknown reason, these animals were left behind by the Frenchman Lery when he first visited Sable. The animals multiplied and went wild. Fishermen in distress could also feed on fur seals, for which the local sandbanks are still a favorite rookery. The tragedy of the sailors who found themselves on Sable was aggravated by the fact that they had nowhere to wait for help: the ships avoided approaching the terrible island, even when they saw the smoke of signal fires above it. What else could they hope for? To someone else's tragedy? That the next doomed ship will bring them, along with the wreckage, essentials and - most importantly! - a few pounds of table salt? Yes, probably for that too.

Sometimes “gentlemen of fortune” buried their treasures here. They burned false fires on the dunes to lure merchant ships into a trap.

In 1598, Sable suddenly turned into... hard labor. Here 48 criminals were disembarked from the French ship Marquis De La Roche. The Marquis actually intended to found a colony in Nova Scotia, but after a long storm his ship developed a leak. Having never reached his goal, De La Roche turned back to the shores of Europe. Seeing the island, the Marquis came up with nothing else but to land the “extra cargo” on Sable, and so that the convicts would not die of hunger right away, he left them fifty sheep. The exiles were remembered only seven years later, and the King of France signed a pardon for them. In the summer of 1605, a ship sent to Sable brought eleven overgrown people, who had lost their human appearance, dressed in sheep's skins, to Cherbourg. The rest, unable to bear the severe hardships, died. Surprisingly, five of those who returned to their homeland asked the king to allow them to return to Sable. Henry IV not only agreed, but also ordered to supply them with everything they needed. This is how a small French colony was formed. And when in 1635 a ship returning from Connecticut to England was wrecked on Sable, its crew was rescued and taken to the American mainland by these French Robinsons.

At the beginning of 1800, the English authorities found unauthorized valuables among fishermen living on the shores of Nova Scotia: gold coins, jewelry, geographical maps with the coat of arms of the Duke of York, books from his personal library and even furniture with the same coat of arms. Simple-minded fishermen called these things “Sable things.” It turned out that they received them in exchange for fish from the settlers of the island. This alarmed the British. Moreover, the ship “Francis” did not come from Nova Scotia to London, but it was carrying the personal belongings of the Duke of York!

The British Admiralty came to the conclusion that after the death of the Francis, the crew on board reached Sable safely, but were killed by the Robinsons. And so a punitive expedition was sent to the island, the settlers were interrogated. However, it turned out that no one killed the people from the lost ship. They all disappeared into the depths of the sea, and the islanders were unable to help them, because they did not even have a lifeboat.

Every day, four rescuers rode around the island on horseback along the surf, walking in pairs towards each other. They searched for sails in the fog and looked to see if the ocean had thrown up the wreckage of the ship. A ship was spotted dying near the island... The watchmen galloped towards the barn and sounded the alarm. The rowers on duty harness four ponies into a team, which drag the whaleboat to the water. Having skillfully overcome the first three waves of the surf, the rowers rush to where the ship is in distress. Meanwhile, the rest of the rescuers, including the lighthouse keeper, are already racing to the scene by land. Then a rope is thrown from the sinking ship to the island: this is the only way to snatch people in trouble from Sable’s mouth.

Only eight cases were recorded when ships managed to escape from the tenacious embrace of the island and avoid death. The English three-masted ship "Myrtle", distinguished by its very strong construction, was found in the autumn of 1840 near the Azores Islands without any sign of a crew. The investigation showed that the Myrtle was driven ashore by a storm on the Sable Shoals in January of that year. The crew apparently died while trying to land on shore. The ship remained captive in the sands for two months, until another storm pulled it aground into clean water. This “Flying Dutchman” sailed in the ocean for several months until he ended up near the Azores.

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

Perhaps Sable's most dramatic shipwreck was the sinking of the American passenger steamer State of Virginia on July 15, 1879. This ship, with a registered capacity of 2,500 tons and a length of 110 meters, was sailing from New York to Glasgow, carrying 129 passengers and crew. During a thick fog, the ship found itself on a sandbank on the south side of the island. 120 passengers and crew were rescued by the island service. The happy parents added a fourth name to the names of the smallest rescued girl - Nellie Sable Bagley Hord.

Sable today

Sable now belongs to Canada. It is still inhabited: usually 15-25 people live here. These are specialists and workers of the Canadian Department of Transport who service the island's hydrometeorological center, radio station and lighthouses. Their duties also include rescuing people in the event of a shipwreck and providing assistance to them. To do this, they have undergone special training and have the most modern rescue equipment at their disposal. Canadian specialists live on the island with families.

There are only two real houses here - for the island manager and the head of the radio beacon. The rest are accommodated in “caravans” - trailer houses. These dwellings were specially designed to withstand the destructive effects of cutting sand. There is also a small power station.

Nowadays, assistance to those dying at sea can be provided by the helicopter available on Sable, and the great “ship devourer” is practically neutralized. Over the past 30 years, there has not been a single case of the death of a large ship in its quicksand. But the sailors still vigilantly peer into the fog as they pass by the dangerous island. The formidable warning of the radio beacon does not stop for a minute: “You are passing near Sable Island - the cemetery of the North Atlantic.”

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 visited several times by scientific expeditions. It's not that simple. Tomb of the Atlantic knows how to keep its secrets. Attempts to start excavations on the island ended in failure. The holes dug on the island were immediately filled with sea water. Where the water in the center of the island comes from is a mystery!

At the end of the 20th century, researchers of anomalous phenomena put forward a rather original and bold hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, Sable Island is nothing more than an alien living organism that functions according to laws incomprehensible and unknown to earthly science. The basis of the life activity of this organism is silicon, and not, like ours, carbon. And silicon is sand! The main danger facing passing ships is the quicksand of the shallows, the so-called “ocean quagmire.” 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.

This photo of a sand-covered ship is often linked on the Internet to Sable Island. But that's not true. This is most likely due to the island's nickname as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic". But in fact, this ship lies in the sands of the Namib.

Edward Bohlen was a German cargo and passenger ship weighing 2,272 tons and 310 feet long, which ran aground off the coast of the Namib Desert on September 5, 1909. The ship was built in Hamburg in 1891 and sailed on the route Hamburg - West Africa. However, fast currents and thick fogs characteristic of the coast of the Namib Desert caused the disaster.

Attempts to save the stranded ship were unsuccessful; the steel cable used to tow Edward Bolen by the ship that came to the rescue broke. The passengers survived the accident without injuries and were evacuated.

Currently, the wreck, rusted and partially buried in the sand, lies several 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 of a few more interesting islands and their inhabitants: or here, and here is the ominous The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy was made -