I imagine the first question anyone will ask is what is a column called "Scottish Flotsam". I guess we will have to begin with what is "flotsam". Among the definitions of the word are "things washed ashore" or "miscellaneous trifles". Well, we believe you can find some great treasure on the ocean shore. But -- you will never know what you will find or its value. So we decided that is what this column is - flotsam. We wanted a place to put things that didn't fit anywhere else and might be of interest. Each item could be a column itself and might be some day but for now it will be the flotsam, which washes our way.

Captain Kidd (1645-1701

William Kidd was the son of a minister in Greenock and was born around 1645. He emigrated to New York and married there, earning his living as a sea captain and a trader in the Caribbean. He successfully defended American and English trade routes in the 1690s in the war between France and England.

In 1695 Kidd sailed to London where he obtained a royal commission to act as a privateer against pirates in the Indian Ocean, operating from bases in Madagascar. Reports came back to England, however, that he was attacking merchant ships as well as pirates.

After capturing the fully laden "Quedah Merchant" with cargo worth over $100,000 (at historical values) he returned to Hispaniola (now Haiti). He was offered a pardon for his surrender and he sailed to Boston. He was treacherously captured and taken to London. In a rigged trial, with little real evidence and despite his claim that his crew had mutinied and he had no alternative but to join them, he was found guilty and hanged. The treasure from the "Quedah Merchant" has never been found.

It is time to stop combing the library but we can not quit without some quotes from Quotable Scots another great History bookshelf resident. Let's see what quotes we can find.

PLACES

If thou wouldst view fair Melrose aright,
Go visit it by the pale moonlight.

Sir Walter Scott, The Lay of the Last Minstrel

0 Alva hills is bonny,
Tillicoultry hills is fair,
But to think on the Braes o' Menstrie
It maks my heart fu' sair.

Anonymous,

No bloody sport, no bloody game
No bloody fun: the bloody dame
Won't even give their bloody names
In bloody Orkney

Hamish Blair, Bloody Orkney, written in the Second World War

Luath no mall gun tig an Màigh, thig a chuthag.

Late or eary as May comes, so comes the cuckoo.

You can find more articles in the archive under Scottish Flotsam.