Abstract
The year is 1773. Anne Grant cannot bear that her father has betrothed her to a man who is as cruel as he is wealthy. Instead, she persuades her life-long friend, Ian MacLeod, to help her flee to Ullapool and get aboard the Hector, a ship carrying Scottish settlers to the new colony of Pictou, Nova Scotia. The voyage begins well and the Scots look forward to a life of freedom in the New World. But as Anne adjusts to the Hector, she begins to realize that life at sea may be more than she bargained for: storms, smallpox and near famine threaten to tear the ship apart. Oatcakes and Courage, a tribute to the brave Scots who ventured across the North Atlantic Ocean in search of a better life, is told with harrowing realism.