Sable Island Lighthouse (Sable Island West End)

Sable Island, literally “Sand Island,” is a crescent-shaped ribbon of sand situated 175 kilometres southeast of the nearest point of mainland Nova Scotia. The island’s low profile and location near a major transatlantic shipping route, coupled with thick fogs, treacherous currents, and sandbars that extend a great distance from the north and south tip of the forty-three-kilometre-long island, have led to numerous shipwrecks. The island’s ever shifting sandbars have snagged an estimated 350 vessels over the years.
Concern for the fate of shipwrecked victims stranded on Sable Island led to a lifesaving station being built in 1801. The station was typically staffed by a superintendent with around fifteen men under his command. The superintendent was initially paid a salary along with a percentage from the net proceeds of wrecked property that his team saved. This humane establishment was staffed until 1958.

To offset the cost of maintaining the lifesaving operation, some of the island’s herd of wild, hardy horses were regularly taken ashore and sold, and the islands residents picked wild cranberries that were likewise sold on the mainland. Cattle were brought to the island’s fly-free environs and pastured on the grass along with a few sheep and pigs to provide fresh meat. Potatoes and other root crops, like turnips, carrots, and beets, were also raised for food. Four outposts distributed around the island were each staffed by a keeper and an assistant, who regularly patrolled the shores looking for any signs of trouble.
In 1835, Joseph Darby, superintendent of the island, noted that four vessels had been lost on the island that year. No lives were lost in three of the wrecks, but the entire crew of the American brig Abigail perished when it ran aground in October. That year, merchants and others concerned in navigation petitioned for the establishment of a lighthouse on the “dreaded island.”