There have been numerous wrecks on the islets, many of them accounted for by fierce tides reaching 6–7 knots on springs, and a lack of landmarks in the area.

[5][6] A. C. Swinburne's poem Les Casquets is based on the Houguez family who actually lived on the island for 18 years.

The daughter falls in love with a carpenter from Alderney but, moving to his island, finds life there too busy.

She finds the "small bright streets of serene St Anne" and "the sight of the works of men" too much, and returns to Les Casquets.

[7] Victor Hugo, who lived on Guernsey, and who wrote much about the Channel Islands, says in his novel The Laughing Man (L'Homme qui Rit), published in 1869: To be wrecked on the Casquets is to be cut into ribbons; to strike on the Ortac is to be crushed into powder... On a straight frontage, such of that of the Ortac, neither the wave nor the cannon ball can ricochet... if the wave carries the vessel on the rock she breaks on it, and is lost...In this tenth published, but third chronologically, of C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower series of novels, the titular hero of Hornblower and the Hotspur[8] (published in 1962) is sent to reconnoitre the port of Brest in anticipation of war with France.