Blonde Rock is a

shoal In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material and rises from the bed of a body of water to near the surface. It ...

off the south-eastern tip of

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. It is located at position 43° 20′ 28″ N, 65° 59′ 10″ W, and roughly south-southeast of Seal Island. At a low

spring tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables ca ...

, only two feet of the rock are above water. The shoal was named after British Royal Navy frigate , which was wrecked on the shoal on 21 January 1782. The 60 American prisoners on board HMS ''Blonde'' made their way to

Seal Island, Nova Scotia Seal Island (also known as Great Seal Island) is an island on the outermost extreme of Southwestern Nova Scotia, Canada, in the Municipality of the District of Argyle in Yarmouth County. It is approximately long and wide and is surrounded on i ...

. American privateer

Noah Stoddard Captain Noah Stoddard (1755–1850) of Fairhaven, Massachusetts was an American privateer who distinguished himself during the American Revolution by leading the Raid on Lunenburg (1782). In the raid, Stoddard led four other privateer vessels and a ...

in the Scammell rescued them and controversially allowed the British crew to return to Halifax in HMS ''Observer'', (which was involved in the

Naval battle off Halifax The Battle off Halifax took place on 28 May 1782 during the American Revolutionary War. It involved the American privateer ''Jack'' and the 14-gun Royal Naval brig off Halifax, Nova Scotia. Captain David Ropes commanded ''Jack'', and Lieut ...

en route), leading to his later exile in Nova Scotia as a

Loyalist Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cro ...

.Thomas Head Raddall. "Adventures of H.M.S. ''Blonde'' in Nova Scotia, 1778–1782". ''Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society''. 1966.

References

{{coord, 43, 20, 28, N, 65, 59, 10, W, type:isle_region:CA-NS, display=title Landforms of Nova Scotia Shoals of Canada