Five Ships sunk, Three thousand Scots dead.

Three Company ships sailed from Leith, and they picked up two more in Kirkcaldy. They sailed north, and round Scotland to avoid alerting English shipping in the English Channel. It took them three weeks to sail round Scotland.

You could have walked from Leith to Ayr in less time, and had better food on the way.

Just a small taste of the downright silly things the Scots did during that horrendous two years.

From ten ships involved, one returned to Scotland, the rest were sunk.

Of the 3000+ people who participated, less than 100 were ever to see their homeland again.

Some were shipwrecked, some turned to piracy, some abandoned in New York.

And those were the lucky ones.

Scots were sold into slavery in Jamaica.

Scots died in Spanish jails in Carthagena.

Before the voyage was two months old, cholera broke out on the ships, and at the worst point in the whole settlement, Scots were dying at the rate of more than TEN per day. There were no able bodied men to bury such a number, so some were just slipped over the side of the anchored ships.

And you try telling this to the kids today.....