The Mysterious Shipwreck Capital Of The World | Legends of Magdalen | Real History

This documentary film explores the marine mysteries of the Magdalen Islands, the Quebec archipelago in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, North America’s tempestuous inland saltwater sea. Over 700 sunken ships are documented by Leonard Clark and three generations of his family in the village of Old Harry

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Foreign Seeing dead people on the ice foreign lots of treasure around the island that’s for sure for sure there’s all sorts of amateurs walking all over the islands Oh just a dream I have a friend a diver you know uh Mario is here the Leonardo Oh My God The Magdalene Islands sit isolated in the Gulf of St Lawrence surrounded by sea and five Canadian provinces Beyond the Horizon Thank you wherever we stand the sea watches and speaks in Surf it gives and takes away turning Islanders into fatalists in the end the sea always decides Over 350 recorded shipwrecks surround the islands only 15 have been found Shaped like a fishhook the archipelago has caught many Mariners coming its way High winds and shallow Sands have been perilous to ships ever since the time of the Vikings thank you this underwater Cemetery hides its vessels buried deep in sand making archaeological missions both complex and expensive What secrets do these shipwrecks hold answers Treasures stories that haunted the mind of Leonard Clark My grandfather was from Finland he was right here my wife’s grandfather over the Shipwrecked he was from Jersey Island that’s why probably I got such an interest in ships my grandmother’s house was the meeting place for all of the old people I’d be sitting there listening and

It looked like a disease by closet correct research is one research that is very hard I had a good knowledge before I even went to any archive tell us what you know he’s always really loved history like he has bookcases full of books but all kinds of historic things whether it be

But the Indians but the war but sunken ships everything he has those maps that he did he worked a really long time on those he used to go around with his metal detector all the time I was more interested in the history of the islands than I was at that time

Leonard was definitely one of the first amateurs of that sort he definitely thought like a researcher like a scientist you know could contribute as much as any you know archaeologist who’d gone to grad school they got to meet him at first and then and then trying to see

How he went about his research uh in a very respectful way because he breathes that Maritime culture as all the actually Merino breathe it but he’s one of the safe keepers of the of the past so if it’s Equity is Fishing was never a lifetime career with him he was always into something different his greenhouses were extremely popular here then he got into strawberries he had a mink farm at one point in time I know in 1971 he was the mayor of Grosse Ile he was into everything uncle Leonard was

One of the few maglin Islanders who didn’t stop at any one thing is he spent too many hours at it and he researched almost basic worldwide as you know Leonard’s own family can be traced back to survivors of shipwrecks he talked a lot about you know what might lie buried in the sand

I have no doubt that there might well be something out in those areas Foreign is a commercial diver and world-renowned underwater cameraman he has worked on 130 documentaries in 54 countries Mario was born and grew up on the maglin islands listening to Leonard’s shipwreck stories Thank you come outside Foreign foreign my entire life at this work to find out the story of the magazines oh Foreign The salt domes created the islands and support today’s local economy however this natural resource is not What attracted the First Nations and Europeans why are there hundreds of shipwrecks surrounding the Magdalene Islands what were all these ships doing here what were they after Foreign here the Klondike is 18 11 17 14 20. wherever there’s perch we’ll put the flat fish we’ll use mostly Mac well two macro here see this one here is good and then you gotta check underneath for spawned you see that’s not a lot of taking that once

My great grandfather Alan Clark that’s the uh Leonard’s father he had his boat tied up to the uh Warfare in Old Harry and he loaded his boat with the cod fish they had wooden Wharf like coming over here you’ll see in the old footage of the 50s and that Long before Adam and Leonard Clark mcmacks and Europeans exploited fish seals and whales but it was another Marine creature that established settlements and propelled the economy of the islands Foreign Economy foreign Inland to The Killing area right here on this field here be several hundred at a time and they would have been shot with the musket and they would probably be three four hundred years old you can use metal detector and you could find a lot

Of musket balls all over the steel are you good I just found one there was really really flat must have been a direct hit or was born I bought a detector about 30 years ago about 33 years ago I used it a bit but nothing like the last three years my wife says it’s an obsession not a hobby yes I’ve known Leonard for 40 years yeah actually in 1979 yeah and uh we had it was ironic we

Both had the same type of detector you know and at that time Leonard had found numerous musket balls all together like I did but he had found more actually As far as treasure we’re not in the Caribbean so I don’t think the Spanish came this far up well not with their treasure ships anyway but again it depends on what you call treasure I’ve gotten like the old coins and the broaches and the Rings and The axes

This okay just a jungle lid but the significance of it is it was the cause of the extinction of the walrus and magma house last one they saw here was in 1799. foreign Throughout the 19th century human activity increased in the Gulf of St Lawrence Timber trade brought tremendous marine traffic from Europe Legions of ships sailed and sank around the archipelago perpetuating the cycle of disaster and New Beginnings oh foreign [Applause] Foreign I’ve always been interested in the people that come off these ships and the people that have helped the people that’s on the ship I’ve always been interested in the emotional side of these shipwrecks The miracle was a famine ship from Ireland and they had the fever on board it struck East Point and James Allen Clark was the first clerk on the islands and he settled at east cape with his wife Mary Goodwin when the ship wrecked they went down to try to save

People and she caught the fever and she died as well she’s buried in east cape I think it was 180 people are buried in the sand dunes like in the unmarked Graves everything that washed ashore had an impact on the evolution of the island sometimes it was the materials sometimes

It was the people you know there’s people who come ashore and they stayed ashore they stayed here in the islands Leonard my grandmother Rhoda and they had people brought in from shipwrecks when they’re younger they could still remember it my great grandfather from Honolulu was one of them my grandfather

Was rich in 1891. he was only a kid he ran away from home Belfast Ireland stood away aboard the slow boat that he thought was going to Sydney or Australia when the fact he was going to Sydney came right and on the way up it struck brine Island over here

And he and two other young fellows they stayed here on the island my great-grandfather whose name was Paul Chanel was Shipwrecked on Bryan island in the early 1800s around 1830 or so and he lived there he brought his family up Yeah this is Yeah everybody who has a long family history on the islands is linked to a shipwreck one way or another but in some cases for instance Leonard’s case some families are more deep into it it is living history basically that’s what it is and it is fascinating to engage somebody who

Not only knows about history but really transpires it and lives foreign The islands drastically change shape every season varying sea levels and shifting Sands unveil new territories new beaches emerge miles long new lands for wild foxes new Dunes for old ships Some of the lumber from the wrecks were sold at public auction a lot of them was probably stolen because they had a pile on the beach and then you know they didn’t have anybody watching that over the day and night the quangle off Bryan Island that went

Ashore with a million dollars worth of grade A Lumber headed for England to build homes that Lumber came ashore that built old Harry Church A lot of people got their homes built from that ship sheds barns Shipbuilding they got their boats the fishing boats so it’s nobody died on the ship but it really did it had a massive impact on the magnet Islands these were things that uh people at the time needed and

There’s no way they could afford so in many ways the study the shipwrecks is a study the history of the Magdalene Islands Oh you can find Driftwood on the beaches and different areas old wood there you could assume comes from a shipwreck as archaeologists you know we encourage people to always report archaeological sites both on ground and under water it’s in fact against the law to knowingly interfere or damage an archaeological site foreign Foreign Foreign Foreign I’m offensive seconds Madalenos continue to discover relics from the deep washed up on their beaches But what about out there under the sea sunken vessels trapped in a Sandy Cemetery how many Treasures are buried down there waiting to be discovered I went on with research I would take my spare time like on the weekends and I would go research that’s a belief that the shipping companies would be compelled by law to record right I made them Act I went to Lloyd to London and over to

The lady that asked him he said what field are you working in well I said I’m working in shipwrecks come on Sable Island and the Magdalene islands are two of our most important shipwreck sanctuaries foreign there’s a good chance that Leonard’s map is quite an accurate map in other words

We know where ships are around the islands we know where those wrecks are no problem is [Laughter] What you have in the Magdalene island is the potential of finding very old shipwrecks and very well preserved shipwrecks Department foreign when you find something say a Canon the thing to do is to leave it there and it’s obviously tempting to bring everything up when you find something

You want to show people right um and that’s the first inclination however you have to resist that and if you do find a shipwreck you have to report it to the provincial and to the federal authorities that’s the proper thing to do um Foreign Foreign Person about Videos Charles Cormier has discovered several shipwrecks Around the islands but his search for the Simcoe continues while shifting Sands cover and uncover new ruins underwater Thank you yeah it is wow all right Leonard was convinced is convinced that there’s a Viking ship somewhere in the sand at the tip of the islands the treasures that come through here would have been Timber the payroll ships women carrying paper money for me monetary value is totally irrelevant within a rack comes a sense of place

There’s nothing like seeing objects on the Shipwreck for me that’s the pure treasure the treasure you know for me is the fish is they say the Essex which was the first registered sunken ship here was carrying a load of gold coins that’s what’s fascinating about the whole Aura around shipwrecks it’s the

Stories the stories that are true but also the legends and for us it’s to try to make sense out of both I know where there’s a couple of good characters at maglings but I will tell them I said that one I know is very good and I know she’s there I got her coordinates everything I know where she is Leonard is uh Is Operations foreign Thank you Foreign Boats it creates new ecosystems for Life underwater some shipwrecks end up feeding the people of the sea While others rest in sand igniting their passions Leonard had that kind of optimism that not everyone needed to appreciate what he was doing or know about it What mattered is that it had to be done we knew of Leonard’s maps of course and you can only respect the amount of work that goes into one of those and more

Specifically the passion he was always very upset if he saw information come out that was incorrect that really bothered him oh he had great respect from Mario as a as a man as a diver but then Mario has always been interested in shipwrecks and

So who was the man to go to to find out a bunch of products people like Leonard as they leave we lose that connection to that generation who experience firsthand those stories of shipwrecks whose parents brought in shipwreck survivors whose families built things with material they had salvaged

From ships I think we’re lucky because Leonard has left us a great deal to work with in his research but there’s a lot more that has to happen thank you Foreign [Applause] 33 59 6 Foreign Foreign