1856. Both from seafaring families, Captain Joshua Patten and his wife, Mary Ann, dreamed of making their fortune, buying a farm in Maine, and building a family. They'd already made their first clipper ship voyage around the world, and if they could win the race to San Francisco this year, that dream could come true. The young couple thought that the only thing that stood in their way was traversing the most treacherous waters in the world at the tip of South America.
As their ship, Neptune's Car, neared the Cape, the weather worsened, and Joshua fell deathly ill. Confined to his bunk, the ship was in real danger, not only from the weather but from the treacherous first mate, locked in the brig for insubordination and now agitating for mutiny.
Nineteen-year-old Mary Ann Patten convinced the crew to support her, and together they survived a gale that lasted eighteen days, making it through Drake's Passage and on to San Francisco, a city still in the throes of the Gold Rush.
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Here's yet another story of an incredible woman who had become lost to history. The Sea Captain's Wife is a fascinating story, although the book did have its problems.
For one thing, the author spent so much time telling us about the couple's ancestry that my eyes kept glazing over. In my mind, I was shouting, "Enough already-- get to the mutiny!" Indeed, the absolute best part of the book describes the voyage of Neptune's Car through Drake's Passage and around Cape Horn, and I would love to wax poetic about just what nineteen-year-old Mary Ann Patten did, but I'm leaving it up to you to find out. A young girl, traveling aboard a clipper ship in an age when women aboard ships were frowned upon. A young girl whose husband was at death's door. A young girl who somehow managed to convince a crew of hardened sailors to believe that she could guide them through the most deadly waters in the world. It is the stuff of dreams.
Once back home in New England, Mary Ann became the world's darling, and this acclaim helped her through some very tough times; however, few records remain of her life after that voyage, and the book felt as though it ran out of steam and stuttered to a stop.
I applaud the author for all the research she did. (For example, she filled in the gaps in explaining how sea captains could become filthy rich.) It's not her fault that Mary Ann's story faded into obscurity once she was out of the limelight. But her story should be told and remembered. I only scratched the surface of what Mary Ann had to contend with during that voyage. All in all, I think The Sea Captain's Wife would be better told as a novel of historical fiction. Even thinking of Mary Ann Patten's story being told in that manner makes my eyes light up with joy. What a book that would be!
The Sea Captain's Wife: A True Story of Mutiny, Love and Adventure at the Bottom of the World
eISBN: 97812500352590
St. Martin's Press © 2025
eBook, 274 pages
Non-Fiction
Rating: C+
Source: Net Galley
What an incredible story, Cathy! And what a remarkable woman! It's a shame that the book didn't focus more on that, and that it sputtered at the end, but I'm so glad someone wrote her story. I've honestly never heard of her, but now I want to know more. Even if the book won't make your top-ten list this year, I'm glad you shared about it. What a woman!
ReplyDeleteExactly-- and I didn't even share all of the obstacles she faced! Hers is a story that needed to be told.
DeleteFascinating story. How many brave women's stories are never told. I'm glad this was somewhat informative and interesting. Too bad it got bogged down in ancestry.
ReplyDeleteI think the author was trying to make up for the fact that there was so little documented information about Mary Ann's later life.
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