Dirk Struan

Dirk Lochlin Struan is the fictional main character of James Clavell's 1966 novel Tai-Pan. The title comes from a Cantonese term that Clavell loosely translates as "supreme leader", and Struan is the taipan or head of his own trading company in China, Struan's. In Clavell's literary universe, moreover, Struan is presented as the Tai-Pan, and his company as the Noble House, the greatest private trading company in nineteenth-century Asia. A Scotsman, "the devil Struan" is portrayed as a tough and resourceful rogue, endowed with vision and determination. A man of extremity, he is capable of tremendous love and terrible hate. He will stop at nothing to protect his home, his family, and the Noble House.

In the back-story as revealed in the novel, Struan begins his nautical adventures as a powder monkey on a King's ship at the battle of Trafalgar, and he remains bound to the sea for life. At the age of fourteen he finds service on an East India Company merchant ship to China, under the command of his future nemesis Tyler Brock. He suffers ruthless punishment from Brock and makes a holy oath to someday destroy him. On a fateful night the ship runs aground on a reef and sinks. Struan swims ashore and finds his way back to the local Portuguese trading settlement of Macao.

Struan

Coordinates: 57°22′N 6°27′W / 57.36°N 6.45°W / 57.36; -6.45

Struan (Scottish Gaelic: An Sruthan) is a small village situated on the west coast of the island of Skye, on the shores of Loch Beag, itself an inlet of Loch Harport. "Struan" is the anglicized form (and approximate pronunciation) of the Scottish Gaelic word sruthan, meaning "small stream", or the flow at the point where a spring appears.

It has a population of around 300. While there are four different Protestant denominations represented in the area, church attendance has declined dramatically, and Sabbath keeping is largely forgotten.

The local economy, like most of Skye, is heavily supported by tourism. Fishing, crofting and to a lesser extent, large-scale farming also contribute. Struan has a small local grocery shop, four churches, a petrol station, an outdoor shop and a primary school. Buried in the old graveyard are the climber, J. Norman Collie and his longtime Skye guide, John Mackenzie of Sconser.

Near the village stands Dun Beag (Historic Scotland; no entrance charge), one of the best-preserved Iron Age brochs in Scotland. The small settlement of Ullinish is about 1 km to the west and Bracadale is just a few hundred metres to the east.

Struan (disambiguation)

Struan (Scottish Gaelic: An Sruthan) is a small Scottish village situated on the west coast of the island of Skye.

Struan may also be: