Canada's deadly shipwreck island populated by hundreds of abandoned wild horses
A tiny island populated by wild horses who have survived against the odds has claimed the lives of thousands of sailors.
For those who spent their lives navigating the harsh ocean waves before the invention of radar in the 20th century, Sable Island off Canada's east coast was feared. It had a reputation known far and wide as the 'graveyard of the Atlantic'.
Its flat, featureless landscape proved hard to make out in the dense, unusually common fogs which surround it for roughly a third of the year. Captains navigating through the murk often found themselves having to fight against the Gulf Stream, the Labrador Current and the Belle Isle Current.
If those could be successfully fought against, then the Ocean's most active storm path would often plough ships unable to resist the fertile fishing grounds into Sable's sandy banks.
Since 1583 there have been more than 350 recorded shipwrecks on Sable Island that claimed countless lives. Very little now remains of the vessels that were wrecked on the island beyond the odd shoe buckle, a few coins and bits of timber buried in the sand.
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The horses far outnumber the small human population (Getty Images/iStockphoto)One of the most enduring stories of catastrophe at sea was launched by the Francis, which came aground on the island. Rumours of the disaster spread to the mainland followed by word that the bodies had been looted and survivors murdered.
An officer was sent to the island to investigate and led calls for a Humane Establishment to be set up on the island, which would go on to save hundreds of lives in the years that followed.
It wouldn't stop a ghostly myth taking hold however. It is said by some that a phantom woman haunts Sable Island’s beaches looking for the severed finger of her hand, cut off by the looters to remove her wedding ring.
Those flung onto the shore with their life intact, if they managed to avoid the locals, would find themselves sharing the island with a few hundred wild horses. The flowing maned equines rule Sable's beaches and grasslands, outnumbering the lighthouse keepers who remain island to this day a hundred fold.
Over the years, their story has been embroidered with myths, including that they were the survivors of shipwrecks themselves. In reality, the horses were seized from Acadians expelled from Nova Scotia and put on the island in the 1700s by a Boston merchant.
The pigs, sheep and cattle he dumped there as well wouldn't survive, but against all odds, the horses did. They managed to keep themselves going by chomping on the grass and drinking from a handful of freshwater ponds.
Their isolation means they have diverged genetically from other populations and the herd has had little human interaction, meaning many researchers have made the pilgrimage to Sable to study the hooved beasts.
In the 1950s their occupation of the island almost came to an end when the Canadian government announced a plan to slaughter the older horses and put the younger ones to work in the mines. This prompted such a large outcry and public campaign the proposals were shelved and the horses left alone.
Over more recent years concern has grown about their place on Sable. A particularly harsh winter at the start of 2023 led to around 150 of 600 horses on the island die. Scientists have raised concerns about the harsh lifestyles they're forced to lead and the damage they're causing to an otherwise mostly untouched bit of land.
While hard, it is possible to visit Sable Island in its location at the edge of the Continental Shelf in the Atlantic Ocean, 290 km southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Visitor are welcomed in January and February and from June to October, but must have Parks Canada permission in advance of their visit. The island is accessible by air or by sea.
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