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November/December 2001 issue	In this issue Table of Contents Editor’s Notebook Inside Story Feature: Intruding on wild lives À la carte Reverberations

Treacherous waters
Nova Scotia’s geography, weather and seafaring ways make it one of the most shipwreck-prone coasts on the continent
By Steven Fick and Elizabeth Shilts

AT 2 A.M. ON APRIL 1, 1873, Captain James A. Williams of the SS Atlantic settled in for a brief nap, assured that his steamship — one of the largest of its day — was on course for an unscheduled stop in Halifax to take on fuel after fighting heavy seas en route from England to New York City. He was awakened about an hour later, just in time to see his ship run full speed into a reef near Lower Prospect.

Waves swept away lifeboats on the port side, and within minutes, the Atlantic keeled over. Some of the 933 passengers and crew made it to shore. But by dawn, 562 people, including all the women and all but one child, had perished.

Williams was far from the only captain to have run his ship off course in Nova Scotian waters, where treacherous conditions make the province one of the shipwreck capitals of North America.

The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, which recently launched a new permanent exhibit, "Shipwreck Treasures of Nova Scotia," estimates that there are more than 10,000 wrecks littering the sea floor around the province. Here (BELOW), each symbol represents a reported wreck as recorded in the museum’s database.

Nova Scotia is one of the stormiest regions in the country, sometimes battered for days at a time with gale-force winds and huge waves that can drive even the most powerful of vessels against an unforgiving shore. Deep, rocky channels line the coast, and submerged shoals and rocks present deadly obstacles. And with cool and warm currents colliding offshore, fog can often shroud the coast.

Combine its geographical character with bustling harbours, more than 300 years of primitive navigational aids and a proximity to busy international shipping lanes and rich fishing grounds, and it is no mystery why so many ships have gone to their watery graves off Nova Scotia.

— Click to enlarge —

• An artist’s rendition depicts passengers and crew of the foundering SS Atlantic inching their way along ropes secured to shore and others plunging into the icy waters, struggling to reach safety through the violent surf.
  
• Salvaged treasures from ships lost around Nova Scotia include (clockwise): an engine-room instrument from an unidentified ship; 18th-century coins from the Chameau (near Louisbourg, 1725) and the Feversham (Scatarie Island, 1711); what is believed to be the figurehead from the Saladin (near Country Harbour, 1844); and a bell from the HMS Tribune (entering Halifax Harbour, 1797).
  
• St. Paul Island is known as the "Graveyard of the Gulf." Ships heading for the St. Lawrence River shipping lanes are often blown toward the rocky shore by harsh storms off the Atlantic.
  
• The steep, rocky entrance to Halifax Harbour, along with its heavy traffic of warships, fishing vessels, freighters and ocean liners, made it a prime location for collisions.
  
• More than 350 wrecks litter 44-kilometre-long Sable Island, known as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic." It sits in the path of prevailing storms, averages 125 days of fog each year and lies at the junction of three major ocean currents, making it a navigational nightmare for the hundreds of vessels attracted to its rich fishing grounds. Shifting sandbars fingering out from the island also trap unsuspecting ships.
  

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Read more about shipwrecks in Nova Scotia in our CG In-Depth