The Morris County chronicle., 1900-03-09
GRIM SABLE ISLAND.
THIS WRECK sTREwN SAND BAR is
DOOMED BY THE SEA.

One of the Weird Legends of This
Ocean Graveyard "A Woman In
white, Bleeding ForeAnger ana
a Ring Sold In Halifax
Sable island belongs to Nova Scotia,
is l45 miles from Halifax and S5 miles
east Of Cape Canso," writes Gustav
Kobbe in Ainslee's. "It is a treeIess.
shrubless waste, scanned by wind and
wave and of(ever changing aspect. A
cone shaped hill near the east end.
once mere undulation of sand, is now
over 100 feet high and is still growing
Other hiIlocks are gradually being
moved away by storms. The hillocks
are liable to be undermined so swiftly
and swept out of existence that they
are carefully watched from the various
stations on the island, there being
no certainty how far an inroad of the
sea will extend after each successful
attack Even the coarse grass of the
island grows in different manner
from that of the mainland. 1t does not
bear seed, but shoots up from roots
which run along under the sand Dur
ing the winter the sand is blown over
the grass and buries it sometimes three
or four feet deep. but the hardy blades
grow up next season as if the island
sands had protected them from the
cold of winter in order to make them
all the stronger.
The island itself is lighting for self
Il,
ships into it's fatal embrace as rallying
points for its loose and shifting sand
thus to protect itself by bulwark of
wrecks against annihilation by the sea
Tradition says that when Sable island
was discovered by Cabot in 1447 1t was
so miles long and 10 miles wide In
1902. when a rescue station was estab-
lished there, it was only 40 miles long
Since then it has sllrunk 10 but little
more than 20 miles in length, aud in
width 1t is only mile at its widest
Within % years the western end lost
seven miles. Shoals over which the
ocean now surges are pointed out az
former sites of lighthouses. One of
these was so swiftly undermined by
the sea that it had to be abandoned
with the greatest precipitation. The
spot where once stood the superintend-
ent's house is now under two fathoms
of water.
"The island rapidly diminishing at
its western end is slightly gaining at
its eastern. Slowly, like a ship drag
ging its anchor. it is moving eastward
VIII 1t ever reach the edge of the
shoals. stand tottering on the brink of
the abyss till it receives its coup de
grace and plunge over the submarine
bank forever into the depths? Unfor-
tunately its end will probably be less
dramatic There is good ground for
believing that this gray sand bar will
slowly wear away until ii becomes an
other submerged shoal added to an am
buscade already some go miles in
length. for a line of breakers extends
16 miles from one end of the island and
2S miles from the other.
I'm the space of single year Sable
island claimed more than 200 lives. In
fact. SO many wrecks line the shoals
of this ocean graveyard that the new
pile up on the old. like bodies heaped
in one ditch The Crofton Hall. an iron
sailing ship wrecked few years ago
OH the northeast bar broke in two
about amidships. The pieces have
drifted together again. and the island
ers suppose that she struck crosswise
upon an old submerged wreck and is
settling over il, which accounts for the
two parts coming together Nor is the
island satisfied with the awful tribute
which it exacts from the living. The
same informant who writes me about
the Crofton Hall adds that the bark
John Mcleod. which was wrecked off
Devils island at the entrance to Hall
fax harbor. drifted ashore on Sable is
land bottom up. wreck of wreck.
One of the grimmest legends of Sa-
bic island dates from the wreck of the
Amelia, and there is enough evidence
of truth connected with it to show
what bloody deeds were added on that
occasion to the terrors of shpwreck
Captain Torrens, who commanded the
gunboat which was dispatched to Sable
island after the wreck of the Amelia.
was one of the survivors of the second
disaster. A passenger on the lost trans
port was Lady Copeland, on her way
TO join her husband The captain of
the gunboat Aad been told that she
wore on her forefinger a ring of pecul-
lar artifice.
THE story has 1t that Captain Tor
rens, wandering over the island one
night in search of possible survivors,
was attracted by the piteous whining
of his dog in front of a small. open
shelter known to have existed at that
time, but long since toppled to pieces
Approaching the shelter he was star
tied to see the figure of woman all in
white and holding toward him the
bleeding stump of forefinger While
he was gazing at the apparition it rose,
silently glidcd past him and dived into
the sea. But time and again thereafter
the white woman with bleeding fore
finger was seen wandering over the
sand hills.
1T is probably only part of the weird
legend that Captain Torrens. feeling
sure that shocking crime had been
committed, tracked the guilty pirate
until he discovered his family on the
coast of Labrador and learned that the
ring had been sold in Halifax. 1t is a
fact, however. that many years after
the disaster Lady Copeland's ring was
discovered in a jewelry store in Hall
fax and was returned to her family.
From that nour her ghost has ceased
et. Ee.l~ "A