Join the Tomkins family aboard the ship Brooklyn as it leaves New York Harbor to brave more than six long months on the high seas. Relive this treacherous adventure with them all the way around the Horn to California. This is the true story of what happened on that voyage.

In the winter of 1846, 238 men, women, and children, boarded a 125-foot sailing vessel bound for California and relative obscurity. It became a voyage nearly forgotten by history. This is the personal story of one family that made that voyage with a treasured heirloom, a feather bed. "Just baggage, " you might say, yet such baggage, if it could speak, could tell many a tale of adventure, intrigue, discovery, and courage.

The Feather Bed is historical fiction, woven with thread made from 100 percent pure historical fact. Author Durrone Schuler has taken all the historical events and people and recreated them in novel form. The real pioneering adventures of the Tomkins family are brought to life in this story about ordinary people living through great historical events. Just as importantly, the story relates the author's personal ancestry and is inspired largely from family historical records.