On International Women’s Day, it seems a good time to remember Mary Ann Brown Patten, the first woman to command an American merchant ship. The year was 1856. The ship was the clipper ship Neptune’s Car, bound for San Francisco from New York City. Mary’s husband Captain Joshua had collapsed, suffering from “brain fever.”  For 56 days, Mary took over the command and navigation of the ship. She faced down a mutiny and successfully brought the clipper into San Francisco. On her arrival, Mary was 19 years old and pregnant with her first child.

Mary was 16 when she married Captain Joshua Patten in 1853. He was 25 and a captain in the coastwise trade. The next year he was offered the captain’s berth on the clipper ship Neptune’s Car after the previous captain fell ill. He asked and was granted permission to bring his young wife on the voyage. With Mary at this side, Captain Patten made a fast passage from New York to San Francisco, then onward to China, London and back to New York.

Mary Patten came from an affluent family in Boston. She was literate and during the voyage developed into the limited shipboard library, including her husband’s books on navigation. 

The second voyage did not go well.  Joshua Patten felt under-the-weather at the beginning of the voyage. He also immediately had problems with his first mate who was insubordinate. When Patten found 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 first mate in addition to his responsibilities as captain. Then, just over halfway through the voyage, Captain Patten was struck down by what was referred to as “brain fever.” 

With the first mate locked up and the second mate incapable, Mary took over the command and navigation of the ship. She later said that she didn’t change clothes for 50 days. She split her time commanding the ship and in caring for her sick husband. As if she did not have enough on her hands, the first mate attempted to foment a mutiny, which she successfully faced down. 

Mary Patten was in command when the ship safely arrived in San Francisco after a voyage of 138 days. While the voyage was relatively slow, of the four clipper ships that had sailed from New York at the same time, Neptune’s Car was the second to arrive in San Francisco.  

Mary and Joshua traveled back to Massachusets by steamship where Mary gave birth to a son who she named Joshua. The shipowners granted her a $1,000 bonus for her service and the newspaper, the Boston Courier, set up a fund to help cover the costs of caring for her husband. Mary was quoted as saying that she had done “only the plain duty of a wife towards a good husband.” 

It would be nice to say that the story of Mary and Joshua Patten had a happy ending, but that was not the case. Joshua never recovered from his illness, which was likely tuberculosis. He died in July of 1857 at age 30. Mary died of tuberculosis on March 31, 1861, shortly before her 24th birthday. Their son Joshua never married and died in an accidental drowning at the age of 43.

The Patten Health Care Clinic at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at King’s Point is named in her honor.