Voyages of Hope

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. Why did these shiploads of women leave everything behind in England and come to the west coast.The answers lie in the lusty turmoil of a gold-rush frontier, the horrible disruptions of industrial England and the conflicting aims of earnest Christians and early British feminists. Missionaries, worried about miners, souls, or, more precisely, their consorting with prostitutes-pleaded for virtuous young women to tame the frontier, and the surplus of women in England without jobs, both educated gentlewomen and girls of little schooling, seemed to be the perfect solution. But it wasn't that easy.Voyages of Hope details the misunderstanding, neglect and downright nastiness that plagued the bride-ships. It also shows how most of these optimistic women seized their chance to create a better life and contributed their courage to an adventurous new colony.