A Dune Adrift
The Strange Origins and Curious History of Sable Island
Sable Island lies off Canada’s Nova Scotian coast. A shape-shifting ghost of an island, it is in fact more a sandbar, adrift in the Atlantic, wandering to the east or west with the storms that so frequently batter it – but somehow never tipping over the nearby Continental Shelf.
The bane of sailors for many generations, it declines to stay exactly where it is on the sea charts, and is so low that it can often not be seen until an unfortunate ship is almost in its clutches. As a result, its beaches have been littered over the years by hundreds of shipwrecks. These have attracted both the notorious “wreckers,” who scavenged for whatever they could “salvage,” and were suspected of…
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February 28, 2006Born in South Africa, Marq de Villiers is the author of nine books on exploration, history, politics, and travel, including Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource, which won the Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction. With his wife, Sheila Hirtle, he is also the author of Into Africa: A Journey through the Ancient Empires, Sahara: A Natural History, and A Dune Adrift: The Strange Origins and Curious History of Sable Island. Formerly a nationally renowned journalist, and executive with the Key Magazine group, Marq now devotes himself to writing books from his home in the teeth of the weather in Port Medway, Nova Scotia.
Timbuktu
Marq de Villiers and Sheila Hirtle
A Dune Adrift
Marq De Villiers and Sheila Hirtle Sheila Hirtle