Case file · Haunting
Sable Island, graveyard of the Atlantic
The shifting sandbar of Sable Island, about 300 km off Halifax, has wrecked hundreds of ships since at least 1583, when Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Delight was lost there, and its sands carry many ghost stories.
1583 CE · 43.94, -59.91 · status: legend
The account
Lighthouse keepers and lifesaving crews told of drowned sailors walking the dunes. The island is now a Parks Canada reserve famous for its wild horses.
The sceptical view
The wrecks are history; the ghosts are the folklore that any lonely, deadly coast collects.