Voyages of Hope: The Saga of the Bride-Ships

By Peter Wilton Johnson

Book Overview

A line of nervous young women got off a ship in Victoria Harbour in 1862 and had to walk the gauntlet between two rows of jostling, eager men. One girl, proposed to on the spot, accepted equally... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0920663796
• ISBN13: 9780920663790
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: TouchWood Editions
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.5" x 0.8" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Pay no attention to the previous reviews - this book is good

Johnson, a native of England teaching high school English in Vancouver, has written an erudite and well-researched book-length treatment - the first - of the four bride ships that sailed from England to Victoria in the middle of the 19th Century. He deals with the politics of the era at some length because they dominated the culture in ways they no longer can. Not even George Bush has that kind of autocratic power now, nor would any woman born since WW II stand for being treated like that, confined aboard ship and not allowed off at any of the stops until a few days after they anchored in James Bay...and then they were led off to virtual imprisonment in a former Marine barracks still standing in Esquimalt (though at the time they were close to the parliament building). It's a good look inside the arrogant mind of 19th century religious leaders as well as the doctrinaire feminists of the day. The class consciousness is a little overwhelming at first, although it serves to show just how British British Columbia was. By the 1960's B.C. was still over 60% British ancestry. Ignore the paranoid delusions of the guy who sees some kind of communist plot in this, and the luke-warm well-intentioned mis-spellings of the first reviewer. It's a good historical account, with characters profiled by what they did as much as possible, but Johnson never seems to make anything up about his subjects though it would be easy. When no one including him knows what hapoened to someone or how things turned out, he admits it.

Good background detail.

Although this book deals alot with the political agenda behind the Bride Ships saga, it also gives insite and some humour as to the outcome of a few of the girls. It would have been nice - had the author focused on a bit more of the personal trials, tribulations and destinies of the various prospective brides. Overall, the book is well written for the political aspect of it.