[edit]
Early history[edit]
The expedition of Portuguese explorer João Álvares Fagundes explored this region in 1520–1521 and his expedition was among the first Europeans to encounter the island. It is likely that he named the island "Fagunda" after himself. An island called Fagunda appears on later Portuguese maps placed to the southeast of Cape Breton, fairly near its present location; however, the identification of Sable Island with Fagunda is not certain. On the other hand, 16th-century Portuguese sources describe a fishing colony founded by the navigator in Cape Breton Island, farther north. It is also possible that Fagundes sighted the island while heading southwest, reaching the Bay of Fundy, as the 1558 map of Diogo Homem and later Samuel de Champlain suggested, but this is unclear. The island was inhabited sporadically by sealers, shipwreck survivors, and salvagers known as "wreckers".
Troilus de La Roche de Mesgouez attempted to colonize the treeless and stoneless Sable Island with a group of convicts and soldiers in 1598. Most of the settlers died in a mutiny, but a few managed to survive in mud dwellings for five years before being returned to France in 1603.
Shipwrecks[edit]
Sable Island is famous for its large number of shipwrecks. An estimated 350 vessels are believed to have fallen victim to the island's sand bars. Thick fogs, treacherous currents, and the island's location in the middle of both a major transatlantic shipping route and rich fishing grounds account for the large number of wrecks. The first recorded wreck was the English ship Delight in 1583, part of Humphrey Gilbert's expedition to Newfoundland. There were at least three incidents of shipwrecks in the 1700s. In 1736, a well-known Presbyterian preacher, the Irish-born Reverend Robert Dunlap (1715–1776), wrecked on the island on his way to America. Decades later, there were two major shipwrecks: In November 1760, Major Robert Elliot (1715 – after 1765) of the 43rd regiment was shipwrecked on Sable Island; he was rescued in January 1761. En route to Prince Edward Island under the command of Major Timothy Hierlihy, Lieutenant Anthony Kennedy and 25 men wrecked on the island in November 1778. The crew was stranded on the island for the winter. Two died, and the remainder were rescued and transported to Halifax the following April. It is likely that the construction of lighthouses on each end of the island in 1873 contributed to the decrease in shipwrecks.
The last major shipwreck was the steamship USS Manhasset in 1947. Her crew were all saved, the last significant rescue of the Sable lifesaving station. After the 1991 Perfect Storm, the commercial fishing vessel Andrea Gail's emergency position-indicating radiobeacon (EPIRB) was discovered on the shore of Sable Island on November 6, 1991, nine days after the last transmission from the crew. Other items found were fuel drums, a fuel tank, an empty life raft, and some other flotsam. No crew members have been found, and all are presumed to have perished. No further wrecks occurred until 1999, when the three crew members of the yacht Merrimac survived after their sloop ran aground due to a navigational error. Few of the wrecks surrounding the island are visible, as they are usually crushed and buried by the sand. On July 12, 2024, the bodies of Briton Sarah Packwood and her Canadian husband Brett Clibbery were found in a lifeboat that washed up on Sable Island; they had left Nova Scotia June 11, 2024, on their sail yacht Theros trying to sail to the Azores and had been reported missing June 18, 2024.
The Nova Scotia Rescue Station[edit]
A series of life-saving stations were established on Sable Island by the governor of Nova Scotia, John Wentworth, in 1801. The rescue station began the continuous human presence on the island which continues today. Wentworth appointed James Morris, a Nova Scotian veteran of the British Royal Navy as the first superintendent of the island. Morris settled on the island in October 1801 with his family. By the time Morris died on the island in 1809, he had built up the humanitarian settlement to include a central station, two rescue boat stations, several lookout posts and survivor shelters. The station's rescue equipment was upgraded in 1854 with the latest generation of self-bailing lifeboats and life cars through the fundraising efforts of social reformer Dorothea Dix who had visited the island in the previous year.
After Confederation and creation of a weather station[edit]
The island became property of the federal government during Canadian Confederation in 1867, with the Island being specifically referenced in an appendix to the British North America Act. The federal government later added two lighthouses in 1872: Sable Island East End Light (cylindrical skeletal tower built 1980s, replacing earlier iterations from 1873, 1888, 1917 and 1951) on the eastern tip and Sable Island West End Light (pyramidal skeletal tower built 1979 replacing earlier towers from 1873, 1903 and 1935) on the western end. Until the advent of modern ship navigation, Sable Island was home to the families of the life-saving crews and the lighthouse keepers. In the early 20th century, the Marconi Company established a wireless station on the island and the Canadian government similarly established a weather station. Several generations of island staff were born and raised families of their own on the island, although a decline in shipwrecks gradually reduced the size of the lifesaving community. Only two people have been born on Sable Island since 1920.
Improvements in navigation led to a dramatic drop in shipwrecks by the mid 20th century. As such, the rescue station on Sable was reduced and eventually closed in 1958. The Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) first automated in the 1960s and eventually decommissioned the West light station in 2004 leaving only the East lighthouse active. However, during this period, the island's role in science grew, first in weather research. The Canadian government expanded the collection of weather data originally started by the rescue station into a full meteorological station operated by Environment and Climate Change Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada. The station conducted routine atmospheric and meteorological studies from a permanently occupied station on Sable Island until August 20, 2019. In addition to weather studies, research on the island expanded to a range of ecological and wildlife studies due to its position in the Atlantic.
Sable Island is specifically mentioned in the Constitution Act, 1867, formerly the British North America Act 1867, Part 4, Section 91 as being the special responsibility of the federal government ("the exclusive Legislative Authority of the Parliament of Canada extends to ... 9. Beacons, Buoys, Lighthouses, and Sable Island"). For this reason it is considered a separate amateur radio "entity" (equivalent to a country for award credit), and with visiting operations using the special call sign prefix CY0. Because it is a separate radio entity, Sable Island is a popular DX-pedition destination.
Out of concern for preserving the island's frail ecology, all visitors to the island, including recreational boaters, require specific permission from Parks Canada. Sable Island's heliport contains emergency aviation fuel for search and rescue helicopters, which use the island to stage further offshore into the Atlantic. When the Sable Offshore Energy Project was active, the island was designated as an emergency evacuation point for crews aboard nearby drilling rigs. In 2017, ExxonMobil began the plugging and abandonment of the production wells in the Thebaud field (the Sable Offshore Energy Project wells closest to Sable Island); all facilities were removed by November 2020.
National Park Reserve[edit]
Sable Island National Park ReserveIUCN category II (national park)Sable Island horses grazingInteractive map of Sable Island National Park ReserveLocationHalifax, Nova ScotiaNearest cityHalifax, Nova ScotiaCoordinates43°57′00″N 59°54′57″W / 43.95000°N 59.91583°W / 43.95000; -59.91583Area30 km2 (12 sq mi)EstablishedJune 20, 2013Visitors806 (in 2022–23)Governing bodyParks Canada
On October 17, 2011, the Nova Scotia government entered into an agreement with the federal government to eventually protect the island as a national park. The news followed an announcement made by the federal government in May 2010, increasing the level of protection the island receives by transferring control from the Canadian Coast Guard to Parks Canada, which manages the island under the Canada National Parks Act. The establishment of the park reserve means that the island, and the surrounding area within one nautical mile (two kilometres), cannot be drilled for oil or natural gas.
Sable Island became a National Park Reserve on June 20, 2013, with approval of Mi'kmaq stakeholders. Full national park status has yet to be achieved, pending settlement of Indigenous land claims. The park is home to hundreds of species of flora and fauna including a breed of the Sable Island horse. The park is also a breeding ground for marine life.
In July 2016, a hike across Sable Island was added to Google Street View. Google worked with the park service to add the interactive views of Sable, as well as five national parks across the country. The imagery was collected in September 2015 by a Parks employee who carried a backpack version of the Street View car camera around an area on the centre of the island, part of Google's Trekker program which explores off-road scenic locations. The route follows a hiking route that the park service uses to escort adventure tourists.
