When I first heard of the concept of bride ships, I was utterly horrified and fascinated by the idea that women would willingly board ships, leave everything they’d ever known behind, and sail to a strange land, all for the purpose of marrying complete strangers. I couldn’t help but ask myself what kind of woman would do such a thing and why?

In the 1860s, several bride ships left England’s shores with the destination of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, which at that time were both separate colonies of England and not yet part of Canada. As I researched these ships and the women who took the voyages, I looked frantically for the answer to the question: What sort of desperation did these women face that would drive them to take part in one of the bride ships?

Indeed, most of the women were very desperate, particularly the poorest of the immigrants. In this first book in THE BRIDE SHIPS series, I hope I’ve given you a glimpse of the hopeless conditions that existed for the poor who lived in London’s slums. Many of the women on the first bride ship, the Tynemouth, were from London’s poorest areas and faced conditions very much like Mercy did. Without adequate food, lodging, and opportunity for employment, the future was bleak for many women, and often immigration wasn’t something they could afford.

At the same time that well-meaning people attempted to take action to help London’s poor, the colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia complained about a lack of women for the many men who lived and worked there. A missionary among the miners of British Columbia, Reverend Lundin Brown, wrote a letter to his sponsors in London, asking for Christian wives for the miners. As a result, the Columbia Mission Society soon began making arrangements for the transport of such women.

The Tynemouth was one of the bride ships to leave England for Vancouver Island and British Columbia. Most of the story of the voyage happened the way I’ve portrayed it. There were sixty women and two very strict chaperones, who cordoned off the women and didn’t allow them to mingle with any of the other passengers or to go ashore for the entire voyage.

The Tynemouth really did experience a gale while in the English Channel, which caused most on board to become terribly seasick. The Tynemouth also met with a hurricane-like storm in the South Atlantic and was nearly sunk by the large waves and high winds. And the Tynemouth experienced several mutinies. The mutineers were subdued, and subsequently the male passengers volunteered to help with the ship’s duties until more sailors could be taken on board.