The Sea Captain's Wife - by Tilar J Mazzeo (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Summer, 1856. Nineteen-year-old Mary Ann Patten and her husband Joshua were young and ambitious. Both from New England seafaring families, they had already completed their first clipper-ship voyage around the world with Joshua as captain. If they could win [a] race to San Francisco that year, their dream of building a farm and a family might be within reach. It would mean freedom. And the price of that freedom was one last dangerous transit--into the most treacherous waters in the world. As their ship, Neptune's Car, left New York Harbor and sailed down the jagged coast of South America, Joshua fell deathly ill and was confined to his bunk, delirious. ... With no obvious option for a new captain and heartbroken about her husband, Mary Ann stepped into the breach and convinced the crew to support her, just as they slammed into a gale that would last 18 days. ... Set against the backdrop of the California Gold Rush and taking us to the brink of Antarctica, [this book] finally gives Mary Ann Patten--the first woman to command a merchant vessel as captain--her due"--

Book Synopsis

The true story of the first female captain of a merchant ship and her treacherous navigation of Antarctica's deadly waters, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Widow Clicquot

Summer, 1856

Nineteen-year-old Mary Ann Patten and her husband, Joshua, were young and ambitious. Both from New England seafaring families, they had already completed their first clipper-ship voyage around the world with Joshua as captain. If they could win the race to San Francisco that year, their dream of building a farm and a family might be within reach. It would mean freedom. And the price of that freedom was one last dangerous transit--into the most treacherous waters in the world.

As their ship, Neptune's Car, left New York Harbor and sailed down the jagged coast of South America, Joshua fell deathly ill and was confined to his bunk, delirious. The treacherous first mate, confined to the brig for insubordination, was agitating for mutiny. With no obvious option for a new captain and heartbroken about her husband, Mary Ann stepped into the breach and convinced the crew to support her, just as they slammed into a gale that would last 18 days. Determined to save the ship, the crew, and their future, she faces down the deadly waters of Drake's Passage.

Set against the backdrop of the California Gold Rush and taking us to the brink of Antarctica, The Sea Captain's Wife finally gives Mary Ann Patten--the first woman to command a merchant vessel as captain -- her due. Mazzeo draws on new archival research from nineteenth-century women's maritime journals and on her own expedition to the Southern Ocean and Antarctica in search of Mary Ann's route. Thrilling, harrowing, and heroic, The Sea Captain's Wife is the story of one woman who, for love, would do what was necessary to survive.

Review Quotes

"What a breathtaking journey! The perilous ship race, the treacherous weather, a mutinous uprising, the life-threatening illness of the captain, and most of all, the heroic efforts of his wife, Mary Ann Patten, as she steps into his shoes to become the first female captain to traverse the Southern Ocean, all while pregnant. Tilar Mazzeo's The Sea Captain's Wife is a spellbinding triumph of storytelling and rewriting a valiant woman back into the historical narrative where she belongs. Everyone should read this book!" - Marie Benedict, New York Times bestselling author of Queens of Crime

"An epic tale of courage, fortitude, and grit, brilliantly narrated in this deeply researched and compelling account." - Siddharth Kara, Pulitzer Prize finalist and New York Times bestselling author of Cobalt Red and The Zorg

"Mary Ann, the captain's wife, nineteen and pregnant, is forced to take over her husband's ship mid-voyage. With no training, equipped only with nautical almanacs and how-to guides for sea navigation, and facing off a mutiny, she decides to put her cards on the table. The crew responds by anointing her their captain. It is the mid-1800s, and they are sailing straight into a monumental storm. Tilar J. Mazzeo has written a riveting story about a woman we might otherwise never know, and brilliantly sets it within a larger history about the upward mobility and wealth that the seas offered--and just as quickly took away. A fantastic read!" --Paulina Bren, author of She-Wolves: The Untold History of Women on Wall Street and The Barbizon: The Hotel that Set Women Free

"Once an international sensation, then slipping into the mist of history, the story of nineteen-year-old Mary Ann Patten's remarkable feat of seamanship has been rescued and brought to vivid life in Tilar Mazzeo's The Sea Captain's Wife--and powerfully informed by Mazzeo's own consummate knowledge of the sea."
-- Caroline Alexander, author of The Endurance and The Bounty

"Tilar Mazzeo's The Sea Captain's Wife expertly weaves together a touching love story and a gripping tale of survival. Mazzeo explores how passion, endurance, and a devoted partnership can overcome the odds, even in the most isolated and desperate circumstances. Through meticulous research and vivid descriptions, Mazzeo reveals how Mary Ann Patton's unwavering perseverance and brilliant navigation prevailed against the most formidable obstacles." -- Lydia Reeder, author of The Cure for Women

"Captivating and immersive...Propelled by evocative writing and painstaking research, you feel transported into the world at home and at sea with the captain's wife, Mary Ann, as she rises to the occasion under harrowing circumstances. A remarkable story that deserves this definitive narrative." -- Matthew Pearl, author of Save Our Souls: The True Story of a Castaway Family, Treachery, and Murder

"A rip-roaring, seafaring adventure with a twist. Mazzeo has fashioned a captivating role-reversal tale [about how], for the first time ever, a woman became captain of a merchant ship--with the crew's approval. A thoroughly entertaining, delightful story." -- Kirkus

"Mazzeo mines, to thrilling effect, the little-known 1856 story of a young, pregnant woman who navigates a clipper ship around Cape Horn when her sea-captain husband takes ill. Mazzeo turns exemplary research into nineteenth-century maritime history into a fascinating tale." - Booklist

"Immersive. [A] bracing high-seas adventure and a forgotten slice of women's history." - Publishers Weekly

About the Author

DR. TILAR J. MAZZEO is the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle bestselling author of numerous award-winning works of narrative nonfiction, including history and biography titles. Formerly the Clara C. Piper Associate Professor of English at Colby College and Professeur Associée in the Department of World Literatures at the University of Montreal, Dr. Mazzeo left the academy in 2019 to focus fulltime on writing. A fifth-generation sailor and tenth-generation Mainer (where the Patten story begins), she lives today on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, where, with her husband, she captains a Vancouver 42 offshore sailboat.