After the deadly smallpox epidemic, Victoria dealt with the influx of tens of thousands of miners and undesirables searching for gold. The city was ill-prepared to handle this volume, with limited accommodations, eating places, water or sewage systems, so the result was a wild scramble to satisfy the varied appetites of both body and spirit. It had a reputation over the entire west coast as a licentious city, known for its gambling halls and the largest selection of saloons, opium dens and whore houses.

As the city grew and began to manage these demands, these new settlers became impatient with the shortages of the city and began to move out, exploring further afield. Once they crossed the Strait of Georgia, the entire lower mainland opened up for them, from the beautiful natural harbour of Burrard Inlet, where the settlements of Hastings Mill and Granville grew into what is now the great city of Vancouver. These settlements created their own heroes and notorious characters like “Gassy Jack Deighton” a steamboat captain turned Saloon owner in the area of Vancouver known as “Gastown”. Further south, the rich delta lands of the Fraser River and the wide expanses of the Fraser Valley provided multiple opportunities for farming and small settlements over thousands of acres. All of this required more efficient transportation as they moved throughout this area seeking more land and more opportunities. In this volume, we meet Sean McKintry, a steam engineer and sole heir to a Scotch Whisky empire who decides to meet the challenges of this new territory with a sternwheeler riverboat. He joins forces with Amy Russel, a beautiful domestic servant imported from England on a bride-ship who ended up working in one of Victoria’s houses of ill repute.

This is part of their story.