Sable Island is the world's most mysterious and notorious sandbar, situated 160 kilometers offshore of southeast Nova Scotia. The island is currently receiving much renewed attention because of proposals to make it a National Park, or a National Wilderness Area. Known for centuries as "The Graveyard of the Atlantic," its forty-kilometre length has claimed over five hundred ships since the earliest adventurers and fishing vessels sailed to North America. Even today Sable presents serious problems to navigators. The home of the world's last herds of wild horses, the island is a fragile, shifting crescent of sand and grass whose beauty and violence has fascinated and inspired countless adventurers, writers, artists and scientists for over three hundred years. Bruce Armstrong takes the reader on a personal journey to Sable. He brings to life the early shipwrecks, lifesaving establishments and settlement attempts that have marked the island's long and varied history. There are ghost stories, tales of exceptional bravery, and first-hand impressions of the island left by men and women such as Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Dorothea Dix and Alexander Graham Bell. Contemporary material about Sable is based on interviews with some of the people who live in this lonely place as lifesavers, wireless operators, conservationists, and scientific observers; their experiences contribute an immediate sense of Sable's spirit and power. Many new colour photographs by island researcher Zoe Lucas are featured in this new edition.
Sable Island is an imaginative and exciting journey to the world's northern Galapagos. It is also an eloquent plea for the preservation of a unique and timeless part of Nova Scotia.
Sable Island was awarded the Evelyn Richardson Prize, the pre-eminent award for non-fiction in Atlantic Canada.