Sable Island Shipwrecks

by Lyall Campbell

Over 300 ships have gone down on Sable Island. The first known wreck was in 1583. This best selling book tells the stories of disaster, danger, rescue and survival.

Genres: Nonfiction

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 25, 2001

Reviews

[Forrest Orser]

This book is about shipwrecks but because of that it is also a history of human interaction with Sable Island.

At first people just got shipwrecked on it but then there were a number of attempted settlements. The first permanent settlement was established so there would be someone to rescue shipwreck victims and to salvage cargo. Over the years, the settlement grew and became better equipped. We learn about the people who lived there and about what it was like on this very isolated island. I enjoyed the book.

I’ve been fascinated in Sable Island for decades. I have books, clippings of newspaper and magazine articles, and documentaries on video tape. In fact Sable Island plays a major role in my short story, “Wild Horses on an Island,” which was published in The Fiddlehead: https://sites.google.com/site/forrest...

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t know much beyond the fact that Sable Island is a shifting sandbar, about 500 hundred horses live there and it’s the graveyard of the Atlantic. I learned a lot more about the island’s history from this book and I thoroughly enjoyed.