More Ship Hector

Learn more about the Ship Hector, Scottish History, the official Tartan, and have a little fun too.

---

 Ship Hector Tartan

The Ship Hector Tartan was designed by Janice Gammon of Lyons Brook and registered in Scotland on June 15, 1999 with the Scottish Tartans Society. The purpose of creating this tartan was to commemorate the first Scottish settlers to arrive in Nova Scotia. They landed on the Pictou shore in 1773 after many hard weeks at sea, thereby giving Pictou it's title of "The Birthplace of New Scotland". Each of the colors in the Ship Hector Tartan has a significance: white- for the whitecaps and rough seas the Ship Hector endured; royal blue- for the settlers' loyalty to their homeland of Scotland; green- for the evergreen trees that grew to the waters edge when the Hector arrived; black- for the lives lost on the journey, and gold- for the rising golden sun of a new day in a new land.

 

---

Bless the Ship Hector Song

Written by Alistair MacDonald of Pictou, and performed by his brother John "Spyder" MacDonald, "Bless the Ship Hector" is the official commemorative song of the Ship Hector Launch, which took place in 2000 in Pictou. Bless the Ship Hector appears on John Spyder MacDonald's CD "By Sea, By Land" (2000).  It was recorded it at Dave Gunning's award-winning Wee House of Music in Pictou. Occasionally, as their schedules permit, John Spyder MacDonald and Alastair MacDonald can been seen in performance, live at the Hector Heritage Quay during special events.

Buy the CD www.skynetmusic.com/artists_mp.html 

---

"The Hector" Poem

Visitors to the Hector Heritage Quay are often so moved by the experience and history of the Hector that they are inspired to pay tribute to the story in their own way. Over the years, these visitors have constructed scale models of the Hector, composed songs, created artwork, and written stories and poems. In 2007, Iain MacDonald, who had visited Pictou from Aberdeen Scotland a few years before, wrote a poem in honour of the Hector and her 189 tough and resourceful Scottish passengers. 

Read the poem "The Hector" Iain MacDonald (2007) (PDF)

---

Ship Hector Fun & Games

Hector Crossword

Hector Word Search

---

Book List

Interested in learning more about Pictou, Scottish History, and the Hector? Here is a list of interesting books and reources for further research.

Book list