"Fast Sailing and Copper-Bottomed": Aberdeen Sailing Ships and the Emigrant Scots They Carried to Canada, 1774-1855

Gordon Turner is the author of Empress of Britain: Canadian Pacific’s
Greatest Ship and the editor of SeaFare, a quarterly newsletter on sea
travel.

For some people it is almost an article of faith that their
ancestors—those who survived—reached Canada after sea voyages that
subjected them to almost unendurable conditions. Tales of sailing ships
with unspeakable overcrowding, outbreaks of often-fatal typhoid fever,
drastic shortages of food and water, and loutish behavior by crews have
long been documented. But the coin has another side, which Dr. Campey
surveys in her thoroughly researched book. She writes of the
Aberdeen-based sailing ships that year after year carried immigrants to
Canada with due consideration for their well-being. Shipowners were
local men whose reputations depended on reports their passengers sent
back from Canada to their relatives in Scotland. Captains—they, too,
were usually local men—had an obligation to take proper care of their
passengers. Agents who scoured northeast Scotland for prospective
emigrants were respected members of their communities. This is not to
say that these emigrants crossed the Atlantic in comfort. They did not,
but their passages were typically less arduous than those faced by most
emigrants from elsewhere in Britain and Ireland. As to why Aberdeen, on
Scotland’s east coast, played a prominent role in the emigrant trade,
the author explains that the city was a major importer of Canadian
timber, and rather than send their ships westbound empty, the owners
decided to carry Scots who were hoping for a better life in Canada. The
introduction of steamships brought the Aberdeen emigrant trade to an
end.

The author describes the efforts of immigrants to establish themselves
in the Maritimes and in Upper Canada, but her main thrust is the ships
and their passengers. She provides detailed tables, informative
appendixes, and comprehensive notes. It is a scholarly book, but it is
also a very readable one with a long-neglected story to tell.