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One of the earliest emigrant ships was the Hector, a rotting Dutch hulk,
which, on an 11 week journey, took the first settlers to Pictou, Nova
Scotia. A reconstruction of the vessel now sits at the quay in Pictou
as a memorial and tourist attraction. These extracts are from Alexander
MacKenzie’s “Highland Clearances” (Inverness, 1883)
| ‘The
Hector was owned by two men, Pagan and Witherspoon, who bought
three shares of land in Pictou, and they engaged a Mr John Ross
as their agent, to accompany the vessel to Scotland, to bring
out as many colonists as they could induce, by misrepresentation
and falsehoods, to leave their homes. They offered a free passage,
a farm and a year’s free provision to their dupes.... Calling
first at Greenock, three families and five single young men joined
the vessel at that port. She then sailed to Lochbroom, in Rosshire,
where she received 33 families and 25 single men, the whole of
her passengers numbering about 200 souls.’
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| ‘This
band, in the beginning of July, 1773, bade a final farewell to
their native land, not a soul on board having ever crossed the
Atlantic except a single sailor and John Ross, the agent. As they
were leaving, a piper came on board who had not paid his passage;
the captain ordered him ashore, but the strains of the national
instrument affected those on board so much that they pleaded to
have him allowed to accompany them, and offered to share their
own rations with him in exchange for his music during the passage.
Their request was granted....’
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| ‘The
ship was so rotten that the passengers could pick the wood out
of her sides with their fingers. They met with a severe gale off
the Newfoundland coast, and were driven back by it so far that
it took them about fourteen days to get back to the point at which
the storm met them. The accommodation was wretched, small-pox
and dysentery broke out among the passengers. Eighteen of the
children died.... Their stock of provisions became almost exhausted,
the water became scarce and bad; the remnant of provisions left
consisted mainly of salt meat, which, from the scarcity of water,
added greatly to their sufferings. The oatcake carried by them
became moldy, so much of it had been thrown away before they dreamt
of having such a long passage.... Hugh MacLeod, more prudent than
the others, gathered up the despised scraps into a bag, and during
the last few days of the voyage, his fellows were too glad to
join him in devouring this refuse’.
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On September 15
1773, the Hector arrived in the harbour opposite where the town of Pictou
now stands. The Hector Heritage Quay and Ship Hector Replica are a testament
to these first settlers courage and Nova Scotia's ties to the culture
of Scotland. |
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