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Graveyard of the Atlantic

Graveyard of the Atlantic is a nickname for the treacherous waters and area of numerous shipwrecks off the Outer Banks of North Carolina, United States, which are due to the coast's shifting sands and inlets. To a lesser degree, this nickname has also been applied to Sable Island off of Nova Scotia, Canada, as well as the waters off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, United States.

For the album by the Ataris, see The Ataris.

Sable Island[edit]

The title "Graveyard of the Atlantic" is also applied to Sable Island, a narrow crescent of sand that lies 300 km southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia. There have been over 350 recorded shipwrecks[12] since HMS Delight in 1583.[13]


People believe that the island was first discovered in the 1520s by the European explorer João Álvares Fagundes, who named it Fagundes, but the name was changed by the French at the end of the 16th century to île de Sable, which means Sand Island. The island is little more than a 40 km long sandbar, although it does have a number of fresh water ponds.[14] It is only 1.5 km wide at its widest; the highest point on the island is approx 30 metres tall.


Rev. Andrew Le Mercier was a French Huguenot priest from Boston who tried to colonize the island in 1738.[14] There are approximately 400–550 feral horses that are believed to be the descendants of survivors of those that were introduced by Le Mercier. These horses feed off the wild grass, plants and fresh water sources throughout the island. Sable Island is home to the largest grey seal colony in the world.[15] There are also many types of birds, including the Ipswich sparrow, who breeds only on Sable Island. In 2013, Sable Island was designated a National Park Reserve[16]


In the age of sail, the danger of Sable Island was due to the shifting sand bars that surround it, and the thick fog in the area due to the close proximity of the cold Labrador Current and warm Gulf Stream current. Ships were often pushed onto its shores during storms, resulting in a life-saving station being established there in 1801.[17] In 1872, the Canadian Government added two lighthouses[18] one on each end of island, which helped reduce the number of wrecks. The last shipwreck was the Merrimac, which occurred in 1999. With the many advances in modern navigation, the two lighthouses have been decommissioned.


Due to the strange (and mostly uninhabited) location of Sable Island, Guglielmo Marconi made it an outpost for radio communication experimentation. In 1901, Marconi thought this Atlantic island would be a good location for a wireless station for transatlantic communication.[19]

Graveyard of the Great Lakes

Graveyard of the Pacific

Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum website

National Park Service, Graveyard of the Atlantic webpage

NOAA Wrecks and Obstructions Database

WWII German UBoats

Wreck Diving in the Graveyard of the Atlantic

National Park Service

National Register of Historic Places

Chicago Tribune

Scientists Show Relics From Ship Fit For Pirate, Possibly Blackbeard