Tha e an-comhnaidh dùilich sgeul a sgrìobhadh mu aon tacharstas eachdraidh gun a bhith faireachdainn gu bheil thu tòiseachadh sa mheadhan is a' fagal air dhearmad mar a thàinig cùisean gu bhith sa chiad dol a-mach.  'Sann mar sin a tha e le sgeul a'Hector, long de 200 tunna, 111 troigh a chaidh a togal san Olaind. Carson a bha na daoine seo a' tréisinn Alba airson an dùthaich is beatha nach b'aithne dhaibh san t-soitheach thri chrannach gun druim seo.

Tha e follaiseach gu robh gnothach aig na Fuadaichean agus an aomach choitchean ann an cor beatha na Gaidhlteachd an déidh Bliadhna Theàrlaich ris an turas seo. Dh'fheuch mi ri smaoineachadh dé an cor inntinn agus dé an cor beatha a bh'aig an fheadhainn a rùnaich imrich a Alba nuair a leugh iad an sanas a chaidh a cur anns an Sannsair Dhùn Eidean le fear John Pagan an 1773 is e a'leigail fhaicinn gun biodh an long Hector a'deanamh air Cala Phictou. Dhen 200 pasaindear bha 25 nam fir shingilte, ach bha barrachd aire air agam dha na 33 teaghlach a chuir romhpa falabh cuideachd.

It is always difficult to write a story about one incident in history without feeling that you are are starting in the middle and leaving out reasons why things happened in the first place. And so it is with the story of the 200 ton, 110ft  Flute called the 'Hector' Why were these people leaving Scotland for an unknown country and an unknown future in this small three masted flat bottomed Dutch built vessel.?

Clearly this journey was connected with Highland Clearances and the general deterioration of living conditions in the Highlands after the disastrous defeat of Bonny Prince Charlie's army at Culloden in 1746. I tried to imagine the state of mind of those who chose to make this journey, and the circumstances surrounding them, as they stood looking at the advert inserted into the Edinburgh Advertiser by one John Pagan in 1773, announcing the intended departure of the ship 'Hector"  for Pictou Harbour in Nova Scotia, Canada. Of the 200 passengers, 25 were single men, but I thought only of the 33 families with young children who had also decided to go.

It seems that a number of individuals had been given grants to approximately 200,000 acres of land now known as Pictou county, and there was an understanding under the terms of the grants that these individuals make a serious attempt to settle the land. It came about that John Pagan, who had already brought Scottish Immigrants to Boston on his ship the Hector, had acquired some shares in this venture. He secured an agent by the name of James Ross to attract other tenant Scottish farmers, but this time not to the United States but to Canada. The deal included passage, a farm and a years provisions. 200 Highland passengers signed up for what was destined to be a tragic voyage. 

Under the command of John Speirs as Master, the Hector departed Loch Broom in Wester Ross in July 1773. Accommodation below decks was almost beyond our ability to visualize. Rows of six foot bunks in two tiers with curtains to provide meager privacy. Dozens of wooden buckets lay on the floor as the only means of sanitation, and smaller buckets were provided for those who would become sea-sick.

As the weather deteriorated they were forced to stay below decks for days on end and soon dysentery and smallpox struck the hapless passengers down. Of the 28 children under two years old only ten survived to see Pictou harbour - the rest were buried at sea. As the neared Newfoundland a severe storm arose, and the ship was forced to turn around to weather out the storm. It took two more weeks to regain their former position.   The food and water had been carefully calculated, and the extra two weeks became a desperate struggle for survival. Moldy scraps of food were collected from the bilge and eaten. Finally, after two months at sea, the Hector dropped anchor in Pictou harbour. There was no wharf there at that time, the passengers were rowed ashore on the ships' lifeboat and left on the shore. The survivors who had endured so much were now left to survive on a vast heavily treed  unsettled land. The supplies which they had been promised did not exist. They were on their own. But the Scottish Highlanders came from a wild desolate mountainous country and against all odds many of them survived to clear the land, and make Pictou a viable community. Soon they encouraged others, mostly relatives, to follow in their footsteps and from this seed came thousands of Highlanders to the new land. By 1805 there were 5,000 people in Pictou and thousands more came to spread throughout Nova Scotia. Many settled in Antigonish and Cape Breton Island, and from there to Prince Edward Island. All this from those hardy souls who had set out that day aboard the Hector.

see the launching of the replica Hector in Pictou