Nova Scotia Archives

Footprints in the Sand

Pre‐1867 Government Records for Sable Island

The Report of Seth Coleman to Sir John Wentworth, Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia

1801. — 4 pages : 30 x 49 cm.

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their mode of feeding, they might, by rooting, do a greater injury to the soil, than the residents would derive advantage from introducing them. Goats would thrive well, and I am of opinion wou'd be profitable as well from their milk, as their flesh when young, and would maintain a great number of people upon the Island. There are a great number of Rats, there does not appear that there is any fishery worth pursuing excepting the Seal, which I suppose might be carried on to an extent sufficient to support two lights and to defray the Expences of [illegible]. This would be of considerable consequence, in case Light Houses should be established; for Seal oil is in point of goodness, next to the Spermaceti, and it would save the expence of transporting it from Halifax or any other nearer port. There are at present excepting the Lad from the wreck, only one man by the name of King, his wife, & three children, King informed me he was employed by the master of the ship, to save the property, and had allowed him a certain Salvage, and that he was then employed in Collecting and drying the cotton, which being confirmed by the American Lad, I thought under every circumstance, it was not at present prudent to remove King & his family from off the Island.
Having informed myself as well as thickness of Weather and my short stay would admit, and that weather appearing very wild, & threatened a Shift of Wind, with the Pilots advice we left the Island without delay.
Seth Coleman
July 4th, 1801


A report sent back to Lieutenant-Governor Sir John Wentworth from Seth Coleman which details his discoveries when sent to investigate the possibility of establishing a human presence on the Island. Coleman documents the American shipwreck he encounters upon arrival, some details of the Island’s flora (pea grass) and fauna (horses), its current residents (shipwreck survivors), makes a case for the potential and necessity of a lighthouse, and then continues to speculate on the success of a settlement on the island, believing it could support “several families”.

4 pages 30 x 49 cm

Date: 1801

Reference: Nova Scotia Archives RG 31 series 120 volume 2 number 2

Nova Scotia Archives — https://archives.novascotia.ca/sable/archives/

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