H- 38 1/4 in W- 30 1/2 in

Hector

A brutal legacy of the late 18th and early 19th centuries is still etched in the minds of the people of the Highlands today. During what became known as the ”Highland Clearances”, tens of thousands of men, women and children were evicted, often violently, from their homes to make way for large-scale sheep farming. The Hector was a transportation ship. 200 Scots sailing from Ullapool, West Ross-Shire, Scotland in the Highlands arriving in Pictou, Nova Scotia on Sept. 15, 1773.

By one count, between 1802 and 1807, during the Highland Clearances, twenty-five thousand people went to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia alone.

This wave of immigration from Scotland, which has contributed so much to the heritage of a large part of Nova Scotia and other parts of Atlantic Canada, began with these intrepid souls that sailed on “Hector” In some areas, whole glens were cleared, which today are as silent as they must have been when the landlord’s factors had finished ruthlessly carrying out the orders of their masters.
Homes were burnt and tenants were forced to leave at the point of a sword or musket, carrying little or nothing as they headed towards a life of poverty and hunger. There were two distinct types of ‘clearance’. The first was forced settlement on barren land usually near the sea.
This piece represents the sailing ship and the hope of those going to an unknown destination.
The end of one journey. The beginning of a new world. The cross represents the ship’s structure and the structure of the beliefs they took with them.

£12500