British North America and Canada Residents of the isolated communities along the outer banks of North Carolina and the Islands of Hatteras, Ocracoke, and Portsmouth and in Newfoundland and the islands and coastline of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and engaged in wrecking for many years. In Nova Scotia, Seal Island and especially Sable Island were known for wrecking. Reports of violent wreckers on Sable helped spur efforts by the colony of Nova Scotia to establish a rescue station in Sable Island in 1801. Wrecking in Europe Britain Wrecking was well known in Devon and Cornwall where the rocky coastline, and strong prevailing onshore winds helped wreck many merchant ships and warships. It is rumoured that ships were sometimes deliberately attracted: false lights on the shore were said to be used sometimes to lead ships into disaster. However, there is no evidence to support these ideas. In 1735 a law was passed to make it an offence to make false lights, but no one was prosecuted as a result. In 1769 William Pearse was hanged at Launceston in Cornwall for stealing from a wreck. It was not until after a case in the Court of Appeal in 1870 that rewards were made for rescuing people. Wrecking was a major industry in the 19th century, and as far back as the 16th century, especially of ships returning from the New World using the Gulf Stream, which passes by the south west of England. This would help to speed these ships on their way to France and Spain and put them out of position. Wreckers would attempt to frighten off the curious, suspicious or unwanted visitors, by spreading wild rumours concerning supernatural activity, ghosts and cannibals (as occurred in Clovelly) near their wrecking sites. Wrecking was a major activity of the inhabitants of Stroma Island in the Pentland Firth off the north of Scotland. It was also well known on the Goodwin Sands off the south east of England where over 2000 wrecks have occurred. The boatmen of Deal, who took supplies to ships at anchor off the coast, would plunder any wrecked vessel. Another area where wrecking was prevalent was the Wirral Peninsula, near Liverpool, where wrecking continued to be reported into the early twentieth century. A 2005 BBC documentary, Coast, successfully replicated the conditions of false light wrecking in an experiment which suggested that a single-candle lantern onshore would be