In 1856, nineteen-year-old Mary Ann Patten assumed command of the clipper ship Neptune’s Car after her husband, Captain Joshua Patten, collapsed from brain fever during a race to San Francisco. While pregnant with her first child, she navigated treacherous waters around Cape Horn for nearly two months, managed a restive crew with a history of mutiny, and nursed her delirious husband. She successfully brought the ship, crew, and cargo safely to port after 137 days at sea, establishing herself as one of America’s first female merchant vessel commanders and demonstrating extraordinary resilience under extreme circumstances.
In the autumn of 1856, a nineteen-year-old woman navigated a clipper ship through the treacherous waters off Cape Horn while simultaneously nursing her incapacitated husband and commanding a crew that included a confined mutineer. Mary Ann Patten had married Captain Joshua Adams Patten in 1853, just before her sixteenth birthday, and immediately departed on a seventeen-month voyage that became her education in seamanship and navigation.
At nineteen, Mary Ann Patten commanded a clipper ship around Cape Horn while nursing her incapacitated husband and managing a mutinous crew.
Born in Boston in 1837 to a relatively well-to-do East Boston family, Mary Ann had spent those early voyages learning chart work and celestial navigation. When Neptune’s Car departed New York in July 1856 as part of a wager against several other ships racing to San Francisco, she sailed as the captain’s wife on a vessel with a troubled history. The clipper had experienced a mutiny on an earlier voyage under Captain Forbes.
Captain Patten, already in poor health before departure, drove himself to exhaustion after the first mate was confined for sleeping on watch and the second mate proved incompetent at navigation. Attempting to perform the duties of both captain and first mate, Joshua Patten collapsed with what was termed brain fever, leaving him delirious and bedridden.
Mary Ann assumed practical command of the ship while pregnant with her first child. For fifty-six to fifty-nine days, she set the course, performed navigation calculations, and made critical decisions as Neptune’s Car sailed through storms, heavy seas, and ice fields. She studied medical texts to treat her husband’s fever, shaving his head and nursing him continuously. During rough weather, Joshua was tied into his bunk for safety while Mary managed the deck above.
She wore the same clothes for approximately fifty to sixty days late in the voyage, maintaining command despite exhaustion and pregnancy. Her persuasive leadership prevented the crew from supporting the confined first mate’s attempts to foment mutiny. She had learned to use the ship’s sextant from the small library aboard during her earlier voyages with Joshua. On November 15, 1856, Neptune’s Car arrived in San Francisco after a passage of roughly one hundred thirty-seven days. The ship, crew, and cargo reached port intact, fulfilling the commercial objectives of the voyage and establishing Mary Ann Patten’s place in maritime history. She later became recognized in later accounts for her remarkable skill with celestial navigation.
