As Ladies’s Historical past Month involves a detailed, it appears a very good time to recollect Mary Ann Brown Patten, the primary lady to command an American service provider ship. An up to date repost.
The yr was 1856. The ship was the clipper ship Neptune’s Automobile, certain for San Francisco from New York Metropolis. Mary’s husband Captain Joshua had collapsed, affected by “mind fever.” For 56 days, Mary took over the command and navigation of the ship. She confronted down a mutiny and efficiently introduced the clipper into San Francisco. On her arrival, Mary was 19 years outdated and pregnant together with her first baby.
Mary was 16 when she married Captain Joshua Patten in 1853. He was 25 and a captain within the coastwise commerce. The subsequent yr he was provided the captain’s berth on the clipper ship Neptune’s Automobile after the earlier captain fell in poor health. He requested and was granted permission to carry his younger spouse on the voyage. With Mary at this aspect, Captain Patten made a quick passage from New York to San Francisco, then onward to China, London, and again to New York.
Mary Patten got here from an prosperous household in Boston. She was literate and spent her spare time throughout the voyage delving into the restricted shipboard library, together with her husband’s books on navigation.
The second voyage didn’t go effectively. Joshua Patten felt below the climate initially of the voyage. He additionally instantly had issues along with his first mate, who was insubordinate. When Patten discovered the mate sleeping on watch, he had him detained in his quarters. The second mate was not competent to navigate, so Patten took on the duties of the primary mate along with his tasks as captain. Then, simply over midway by means of the voyage, Captain Patten was struck down by what was known as “mind fever.”
With the primary mate locked up and the second mate incapable, Mary took over the command and navigation of the ship. She later stated that she didn’t change garments for 50 days. She break up her time commanding the ship and caring for her sick husband. As if she didn’t have sufficient on her fingers, the primary mate tried to foment a mutiny, which she efficiently confronted down.
Mary Patten was in command when the ship safely arrived in San Francisco after a voyage of 138 days. Whereas the voyage was comparatively sluggish, of the 4 clipper ships that had sailed from New York on the identical time, Neptune’s Automobile was the second to reach in San Francisco.
Mary and Joshua traveled again to Massachusetts by steamship the place Mary gave start to a son who she named Joshua. The shipowners granted her a $1,000 bonus for her service and the newspaper, the Boston Courier, arrange a fund to assist cowl the prices of caring for her husband. Mary was quoted as saying that she had executed “solely the plain responsibility of a spouse in direction of a very good husband.”
It might be good to say that the story of Mary and Joshua Patten had a contented ending, however that was not the case. Joshua by no means recovered from his sickness, which was possible tuberculosis. He died in July of 1857 at age 30. Mary died of tuberculosis on March 31, 1861, shortly earlier than her twenty fourth birthday. Their son Joshua by no means married and died in an unintended drowning on the age of 43.
The Patten Well being Care Clinic on the U.S. Service provider Marine Academy at King’s Level is called in her honor.
