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A Dune Adrift: The Strange Origins and Curious History of Sable Island
Sable Island lies off Canada’s Nova Scotian coast. A shape-shifting ghost of an island, it is in fact more a sandbar, adrift in the Atlantic, wandering to the east or west with the storms that so frequently batter it – but somehow never tipping over the nearby Continental Shelf.
The bane of sailors for many generations, it declines to stay exactly where it is on the sea charts, and is so low that it can often not be seen until an unfortunate ship is almost in its clutches. As a result, its beaches have been littered over the years by hundreds of shipwrecks. These have attracted both the notorious “wreckers,” who scavenged for whatever they could “salvage,” and were suspected of occasionally doing away with any witnesses who had the temerity to survive, and the employees of the Humane Establishment, set up for the rescue of shipwreck victims.
Anchored roughly by tough vegetation, surprisingly supplied with fresh water in the middle of salt, inhabited by hardy wild horses descended from Acadian ponies left on the island in 1756, Sable is an amazing place, and the authors have done it justice in this engaging and often lyrical book.
From the Hardcover edition.
The bane of sailors for many generations, it declines to stay exactly where it is on the sea charts, and is so low that it can often not be seen until an unfortunate ship is almost in its clutches. As a result, its beaches have been littered over the years by hundreds of shipwrecks. These have attracted both the notorious “wreckers,” who scavenged for whatever they could “salvage,” and were suspected of occasionally doing away with any witnesses who had the temerity to survive, and the employees of the Humane Establishment, set up for the rescue of shipwreck victims.
Anchored roughly by tough vegetation, surprisingly supplied with fresh water in the middle of salt, inhabited by hardy wild horses descended from Acadian ponies left on the island in 1756, Sable is an amazing place, and the authors have done it justice in this engaging and often lyrical book.
From the Hardcover edition.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
4 people are currently reading
95 people want to read
About the author
Marq de Villiers
29 books16 followersBorn in South Africa, Marq de Villiers is a veteran Canadian journalist and the author of thirteen books on exploration, history, politics, and travel, including Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource (winner of the Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction). He has worked as a foreign correspondent in Moscow and through Eastern Europe and spent many years as editor and then publisher of Toronto Life magazine. More recently he was editorial director of WHERE Magazines International. He lives in Port Medway, Nova Scotia. [Penguin Canada]
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
February 2, 2017
Authors Marq de Villiers and Sheila Hirtle have produced an interesting book on the history of the Canadian island known as Sable Island. One could be forgiven I believe for thinking the place uninteresting and unworthy of a nearly 250 page book, the island described by some as a "desolate and barren and storm-swept sandbank in the North Atlantic." A crescent shaped island, with arms at east and west reaching to the north, the center bulging towards the south, it is the last lonely outpost of land between Canada and Europe (or Bermuda). Located a hundred miles south of Nova Scotia, it is a mere thirty miles long and at its widest less than a mile wide. A treeless place, it is an island of dunes - some bald, most covered in vegetation - and small ponds. Not a particularly high island, on the north beach dunes reach 85 feet in height, but on the south beach they are rarely more than 8 feet high, considerably shorter than some of the waves that occur during the many gales and storms of the region (though waves that rarely reach the island directly - at least at that height - owing to numerous sand bars miles out to sea around the island). What fame the island has is generally not from it scenery; located on major shipping lands, in an area that is frequently prone to storms and fog, and often not very visible far out to sea, the island has been described as the deadliest piece of real estate in Canada, with hundreds of wrecks having taking place in its waters, fully ten wrecks for every mile of coastline. An additional dangerous feature of the island are its spits located out to the east and west (washed over too often for much in the way of vegetation) which extend between four and nine miles out, as well as the submerged east and west bars, which extend out to eighteen miles - though a massive storm can radically change the size of the spits and bars overnight.
The authors spent a great deal of time discussing the geology of the island, introducing many concepts of that science. Sable Island is an island of sand - not rocks, shale, slate, boulders, or really much in the way of soil - as indeed the name Sable is the French word for sand. Geologists have pegged the island's age at around 15,000 years and they believe the island represents a by-product of the glaciers that once covered Canada, that originally Sable Island was the terminal moraine of a glacier's advance (though much of that original sand has since been moved by wind and wave). The island has not been a static one, changing in size and shape numerous times over human history. Many believe that the island will eventually vanish, its sand vanishing into the depths of the Gully, a huge canyon cut in the continental shelf that almost touches the tip of the island's eastern bar, massive in size (largest submarine canyon in the western North Atlantic at 25 miles long, 10 miles wide, and 8,000 feet deep). There is a great deal of debate over whether the island is moving east, moving west, growing, or shrinking, a subject covered a length.
Meteorology and oceanography around the island are very well covered, with much discussion of global currents and wind systems. The island is very windy, with average winds at 16 miles an hour, gales of up 85 miles an hour routine, and winds of over 120 mph recorded during hurricane-strength storms. It is also wet - annual precipitation is 55 inches, mostly rain, monthly averaging between 3.6 and 5.7 inches - and foggy (July routinely boasts upwards of 20 foggy days and one June had 126 straight hours of fog).
Numerous animals call the island home. For decades the island was known for cattle that had been let loose on the island, though they were all harvested by the 1630s. More famous -and still present - are the ponies of Sable, owing their existence to the politics of the Expulsion (or in French the Grand Derangement or Great Upheaval) of the Acadians in the 1750s. The authors go into a great deal of detail on horse genealogy, firmly showing that the horses bear genetic (and historical) relationships to horses from Acadia. At various times rats, rabbits, cats, dogs, and foxes plagued the island though all have since been removed. Native animals include many species of insects (including three endemic moths and a beetle), a unique nematode, an endemic freshwater sponge which lives in the island's numerous ponds, the Ipswich Sparrow (a subspecies of the Savannah sparrow, breeds only on Sable), numerous nesting seabirds (mostly gulls, terns, and sandpipers), and seals (mostly gray and harbor). The walrus once occurred on the island but has been extinct since the mid 17th century though for many decades afterward their tusks were collected from the shifting sands.
Much of the book (I would say over half) dealt with the human history of the island. It was comprehensive, going all the way back to debates over whom first saw and may have landed on the island, whether they were Viking, Basque, or Portuguese. There was much confusion in early maps over where the island was, its exact shape and size, and indeed who owned it. At various times the island was called Fagunda Island, Santa Cruz, and Isola della Rena (rena being Italian for sand) before the name became Sable Island (or Isle de Sable) in 1601. Unfortunately, most of the human history of the island is associated with the numerous shipwrecks, many of them with few if any survivors and at times hundreds of lives were lost, leading eventually to life saving services and lighthouses being set up on the island. Much of this made for exciting reading, with many first person accounts quoted of shipwrecked sailors and those involved in life saving.
An interesting book, I would have liked some pictures though.
The authors spent a great deal of time discussing the geology of the island, introducing many concepts of that science. Sable Island is an island of sand - not rocks, shale, slate, boulders, or really much in the way of soil - as indeed the name Sable is the French word for sand. Geologists have pegged the island's age at around 15,000 years and they believe the island represents a by-product of the glaciers that once covered Canada, that originally Sable Island was the terminal moraine of a glacier's advance (though much of that original sand has since been moved by wind and wave). The island has not been a static one, changing in size and shape numerous times over human history. Many believe that the island will eventually vanish, its sand vanishing into the depths of the Gully, a huge canyon cut in the continental shelf that almost touches the tip of the island's eastern bar, massive in size (largest submarine canyon in the western North Atlantic at 25 miles long, 10 miles wide, and 8,000 feet deep). There is a great deal of debate over whether the island is moving east, moving west, growing, or shrinking, a subject covered a length.
Meteorology and oceanography around the island are very well covered, with much discussion of global currents and wind systems. The island is very windy, with average winds at 16 miles an hour, gales of up 85 miles an hour routine, and winds of over 120 mph recorded during hurricane-strength storms. It is also wet - annual precipitation is 55 inches, mostly rain, monthly averaging between 3.6 and 5.7 inches - and foggy (July routinely boasts upwards of 20 foggy days and one June had 126 straight hours of fog).
Numerous animals call the island home. For decades the island was known for cattle that had been let loose on the island, though they were all harvested by the 1630s. More famous -and still present - are the ponies of Sable, owing their existence to the politics of the Expulsion (or in French the Grand Derangement or Great Upheaval) of the Acadians in the 1750s. The authors go into a great deal of detail on horse genealogy, firmly showing that the horses bear genetic (and historical) relationships to horses from Acadia. At various times rats, rabbits, cats, dogs, and foxes plagued the island though all have since been removed. Native animals include many species of insects (including three endemic moths and a beetle), a unique nematode, an endemic freshwater sponge which lives in the island's numerous ponds, the Ipswich Sparrow (a subspecies of the Savannah sparrow, breeds only on Sable), numerous nesting seabirds (mostly gulls, terns, and sandpipers), and seals (mostly gray and harbor). The walrus once occurred on the island but has been extinct since the mid 17th century though for many decades afterward their tusks were collected from the shifting sands.
Much of the book (I would say over half) dealt with the human history of the island. It was comprehensive, going all the way back to debates over whom first saw and may have landed on the island, whether they were Viking, Basque, or Portuguese. There was much confusion in early maps over where the island was, its exact shape and size, and indeed who owned it. At various times the island was called Fagunda Island, Santa Cruz, and Isola della Rena (rena being Italian for sand) before the name became Sable Island (or Isle de Sable) in 1601. Unfortunately, most of the human history of the island is associated with the numerous shipwrecks, many of them with few if any survivors and at times hundreds of lives were lost, leading eventually to life saving services and lighthouses being set up on the island. Much of this made for exciting reading, with many first person accounts quoted of shipwrecked sailors and those involved in life saving.
An interesting book, I would have liked some pictures though.
June 17, 2017
This book was more science than history, but I was expecting it to be the opposite. That was why I picked this up from the library. This book was mostly oceanography and meteorology. While I enjoy reading about science, this book was very dry and read like a textbook.
January 22, 2025
This book does give a good overview of Sable Island. However the presentation is sometimes overwhelming - there are so many facts to absorb. I'm, however, glad I read it.
April 26, 2022
I am from the east coast of North America and I had never heard of Sable Island until I read this book. I’m not sure how because it is pretty damn interesting.
Sable Island is a sandbar which is completely shaped by its location. Because it exists near the drop off of a continental shelf, it is constantly moving as sand is pulled from one side while the other side has sand deposited. It is also far north in the Atlantic and has frequent fog. It is just under 27 miles long but no more than ¾ of a mile wide. It also happens to be in the middle of a frequented shipping lane used for centuries.
What do you get when you add all that up? At least 350 shipwrecks in recorded history and probably more. Sable Island is one of the most dangerous things in the Atlantic Ocean. If you don’t know where it is then you may end up wreck on it.
The book covers way more than just geography and shipwrecks. It’s worth checking out.
Sable Island is a sandbar which is completely shaped by its location. Because it exists near the drop off of a continental shelf, it is constantly moving as sand is pulled from one side while the other side has sand deposited. It is also far north in the Atlantic and has frequent fog. It is just under 27 miles long but no more than ¾ of a mile wide. It also happens to be in the middle of a frequented shipping lane used for centuries.
What do you get when you add all that up? At least 350 shipwrecks in recorded history and probably more. Sable Island is one of the most dangerous things in the Atlantic Ocean. If you don’t know where it is then you may end up wreck on it.
The book covers way more than just geography and shipwrecks. It’s worth checking out.
February 19, 2019
We read this book out loud while travelling and found the information very interesting. There was too much detail, however, and we abandoned it at page 40. I have ordered some less detailed volumes.
March 12, 2019
The book is a great view of the island and its history.
Some chapters go too deeply into detail about the forming of the island, waves etc but can be skipped.
March 12, 2011
I found this while experimenting with the library snooks software, but it's pretty interesting so far. A nice mix of geology and history, and sufficiently well written to pull me along. I still prefer handheld books over electronic, tho.
Finished. I wish my brain could hold the information about tides and winds and sand drift. I'm always musing about these things when I beachcomb.
I'm not sure why the writer felt the need to write this book: it seems a pastiche of other accounts, although I'd have to read them to be sure. But I can understand the fascination with this island. It's situated at the edge of the Grand Banks, and the Gully (Grand Canyon of the Atlantic), hidden sandbars stretching out, iceberg-like, to trap the unwary ship. That puts it in the center of all sorts of human interests: in the early days it was cod-fishing, now it's oil-drilling. Adjunct to the commercial is the non-profit activity of life-saving and environmental/scientific activity. So, the story of this island is a microcosm of North-American history, with the added allure of shipwrecks, wild horses, and hermits. I'd love to visit this island, just as I'd like to live in a lighthouse or some other out-of-the way place.
Finished. I wish my brain could hold the information about tides and winds and sand drift. I'm always musing about these things when I beachcomb.
I'm not sure why the writer felt the need to write this book: it seems a pastiche of other accounts, although I'd have to read them to be sure. But I can understand the fascination with this island. It's situated at the edge of the Grand Banks, and the Gully (Grand Canyon of the Atlantic), hidden sandbars stretching out, iceberg-like, to trap the unwary ship. That puts it in the center of all sorts of human interests: in the early days it was cod-fishing, now it's oil-drilling. Adjunct to the commercial is the non-profit activity of life-saving and environmental/scientific activity. So, the story of this island is a microcosm of North-American history, with the added allure of shipwrecks, wild horses, and hermits. I'd love to visit this island, just as I'd like to live in a lighthouse or some other out-of-the way place.
January 5, 2009
De Villiers, Marq. 2004. Sable Island: the strange origins and curious history of a dune adrift in the Atlantic. Walker & Company, New York. ISBN: 0-8027-1432-3. Hardback, (Ordered through ABE Books: around $5)
Sable Island decreases and increases its size as Atlantic storms toss sand on its beaches to and fro. Its surrounding sand bars and reefs make it a treacherous spot for fishing and other ocean going vessels. For that reason rescue, weather, and research stations have been on the island for several hundred years. Animals, particularly, horses have been established. Feral horses are the only animals that have maintained a sustainable population. Depressing, is the fact that Sable Island's beaches are littered with human created debris and garbage illustrating that there is no place on earth free of human environmental consequences.
The book is interesting, though not an easy read.
Sable Island decreases and increases its size as Atlantic storms toss sand on its beaches to and fro. Its surrounding sand bars and reefs make it a treacherous spot for fishing and other ocean going vessels. For that reason rescue, weather, and research stations have been on the island for several hundred years. Animals, particularly, horses have been established. Feral horses are the only animals that have maintained a sustainable population. Depressing, is the fact that Sable Island's beaches are littered with human created debris and garbage illustrating that there is no place on earth free of human environmental consequences.
The book is interesting, though not an easy read.
May 6, 2013
A detailed factual book about Sable Island, it's residents, the horses and the physiological makings of the dune. There were a few laugh out loud moments I admit, and lots that I could glass over (geological stuff) but learned much about its history and some of the East Coast history of Canada. I was most interested in the history of the wrecks and why they happened so often as well as of course, the lives of the wild ponies. The silliest part of the whole book is the embarrassing lack of any photographs (cost saving measures by Publisher). Too bad really as it would have upgraded the reading experience though I am not sorry I read it as I now want to know more about Trixie Boutillier who moved to the Island when she was 5 in 1895 and lived there until she was 30, and I want to read a novel set on the Island by Thomas Raddall.
May 19, 2016
It is always entertaining and enlightening to read non-fiction accounts about places, people or events that I know very little about. I found this book in my local library and was looking forward to it. All-in-all an interesting work about (the title says it) a curious island in the north Atlantic. I enjoyed the book, yes, but it fell short in engaging me the way, say, a Bryson book does. It had its moments, thought, and I learned quite a bit. I think I will try another book by the same author(s) just to see. They have some intriguing titles out there.
July 20, 2008
Ok, so I just enjoy reading know-it-all books about largely unknown-about-at-all places.
That a spit of sand, a sort of global erratic, could inspire so much linkage to the past, to weather, to humanity. And, well, that it may not be there for all that much longer...what's not to like in a read that's nifty & thrifty with both its poindexter & lyrical touches.
That a spit of sand, a sort of global erratic, could inspire so much linkage to the past, to weather, to humanity. And, well, that it may not be there for all that much longer...what's not to like in a read that's nifty & thrifty with both its poindexter & lyrical touches.
May 19, 2011
This was an interesting book, but it was sort of a collection of thematic essays rather than a coherent book. It's a Canadian island I knew very little about (although I got Buck 65's "Blood of a Young Wolf" playing in my head on repeat), so it was interesting, but I found it a little frustrating. I wanted some sort of way to tie all this disparate stuff together. Quick read, though.
July 9, 2011
If you are interested in the natural world and particularly, some of its natural oddities, here is a good book for you to read. Marq de Villiers & Sheila Hirtle wrote an easy to read, well documented book about a naturally strange island off the coast of Nova Scotia. They are two of my favorite authors of natural history books.
August 17, 2012
There must be thousands of stories of human drama and survival from that island from its many shipwrecks. This had hardly any of that. Definately not a history book of any quality, but good if you want a general science overview of the island.
August 13, 2014
What a fascinating history this island has -- and although the natural history bits of this book are perhaps told a tad more coherently than the human history bits, this is still a very enjoyable read.
February 26, 2010
I've always had a fascination with Sable Island, and this book certainly satisfied much of my curiosity. Not a novel...
March 3, 2014
Lots of good, interesting information, unfortunately, presented in a dry, uninteresting way.
January 17, 2014
A pretty cool book but not something that I would read again.
September 7, 2015
Photos would have made a better book
Kept waiting to see early and historic photos with recent updates but not to be had
Overall to scientific for many readers
Kept waiting to see early and historic photos with recent updates but not to be had
Overall to scientific for many readers
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews