Mary Ann Patten

• Posted July 6, 2023

As Jane Austen wrote in Northanger Abbey, "...when a young lady is to be a heroine, the perverseness of forty surrounding families cannot prevent her. Something must and will happen to throw a hero in her way." Mary Ann Patten did not go out of her way to make a splash in the seafaring communities of America, but she did. Her reaction to an unexpected situation aboard her husband's ship puts her down in history as a brave woman who was willing to do whatever she needed to do to complete the task assigned her family. 

Mary Ann Brown was born on April 6, 1837 in Massachusetts. At the age of 16, she married the 26-year-old "Master Mariner," Joshua Patten. Only about a year after their marriage, Mary boarded Neptune's Car, the ship of which Joshua had recently been named captain, and they set off on a 17-month journey. It was on this journey that Mary Patten learned about maritime medicine and navigation, as well as how to use such nautical tools as compasses and sextants. 

The couple departed for another trip in July of 1856, a journey on which Mary was pregnant with her and Joshua's child. 

The voyage began on a rough note, with an already unwell Joshua being forced to fire the first mate out of necessity for a series of misdemeanors including sleeping on his watch. The first mate's actions slowed the ship's speed, which was unacceptable for the circumstances. Leaving the New York Harbor around the same time as Neptune's Car were various other ships heading for the same port as Patten. The motivation to beat these other ships to San Francisco was a prize of up to $3,000 (about $107,338 today). When the second mate, who had been appointed to replace the first, proved unqualified for the position, Joshua attempted to take over the tasks of first mate in addition to his regular tasks as captain. This feat took a great toll on the captain's health and it was not long before he was incapable of performing any of his duties.

With her husband's fever and illness rendering him incapacitated, Mary took control of Neptune's Car, using her prior knowledge of navigation to set its course for San Francisco. While doing this, she did her best to nurse her husband back to health.

Confined in the ship's hold for his prior misconduct, the first mate sent a letter to Mary telling her he would volunteer to act as captain if she would release him from the hold. When she refused his request, he attempted to organize a mutiny among the other crew members; an attempt which failed.

After a short amount of time, Joshua's health returned enough for him to resume his duties as captain. During this time, he returned the first mate to his position, removing him from the hold. It was not long, however, before Joshua realized that the first mate was not taking the ship to San Francisco as planned; he had redirected it to Valparaíso, Chile. Fearing the loss of his crew and the $300,000 ($10,733,894 today) worth of cargo onboard, Joshua made the decision to return the first mate to the hold. 

Following this event, Mary was forced to take over the position of captain again after her husband's condition worsened and he was, once again, rendered incapacitated.

The brave Mary Patten pulled the ship into San Francisco's port on November 15, 1856, becoming the first woman in history to captain a cargo ship. She later stated that she had not even been able to change her clothes for 50 days. While the trip had taken a total of 130 days, Neptune's Car beat all but one of her competitor ships to its destination. Mary's incredible feat shocked everyone as she disembarked the ship and became nationwide news. When the ship's insurance agency wrote to her to express their gratitude for her task, she humbly thanked them saying: 

"I feel very sensibly, gentlemen, that kindness which has prompted you to commend the manner in which I have endeavoured to perform that which seemed to me, under the circumstances, only the plain duty of a wife towards a good husband..."

She also made it a point to acknowledge the second officer, Mr. Hare, without whom, she said, the journey would not have been successful.

Sadly, Joshua Patten's health never returned to normal and he died in 1857 of what is assumed to have been tuberculosis. At the time of his death, he was blind and deaf, and still in a feverish state of mind, so much so that he was unaware even of the fact that Mary had given birth to their son.

In the years following, Mary Patten unfortunately fell into poverty. When she returned from the trip, she had received $1000 (about $34,957 today) from the shipping line, but struggled to obtain ever her own husband's due wages from the insurance company until the public got involved.  Aside from this, however, many people rallied together and gave donations to get her funding for her heroism as well as for the health of her son. Sadly, Mary Ann Patten died at the age of 23 on March 17, 1861.

Prior to her death, she was honored by Hon. Edward Everett who compared her to Florence Nightingale saying:

"...witness our own not less heroic country woman, Mary Patten, whose name is hardly known to the public, the wife of a merchant-ship master, who, far off on the lonely Pacific, with no eye to witness and no voice to cheer her, when her husband was taken down by illness, now tended him in his cabin, as none but a devoted wife can tend a stricken husband, now took his place on the quarter deck of his forlorn vessel; took her observation every day with the sextant, laid down the ship's course on the chart, cheered and encouraged the desponding crew, [and] arrested the mutinous chief mate...with a strong will and a stout heart, [she] steered her husband's vessel, through storm and through calm, from Cape Horn to San Francisco."

Credit for the information and images in this post goes to:

Image Citations:

"Mary Ann Brown Patten." National Portrait Gallery, 1857, https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_S_NPG.2006.55?destination=edan-search/default_search%3Fedan_local%3D1%26edan_q%3Dmary%252Bann%252Bpatten. Accessed 24 Nov. 2024.

Source Citations:

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“New York Daily Herald 25 Jun 1857, Page 1.” Newspapers.com, www.newspapers.com/image/466629737/?terms=Mary%20Patten&match=1.

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