Mary Ann Brown Patten

Mary Ann Brown Patten

Mary Ann Brown Patten (born April 6, 1837 in Boston , † March 18, 1861 ibid) was an American navigator and sailor, as well as commander of a fast cargo sailing ship for 56 days .

Life

Mary Ann Brown was born in Boston in 1837 to George and Elizabeth Brown. She grew up in a fairly wealthy family and enjoyed a good education. She was very interested in mathematical calculations. In April 1853, at the age of 16, she married Captain Joshua Adams Patten, who was 25 at the time.

First journey

Neptune's Car in Hong Kong Harbor

Joshua Adams Patten received in 1854 the offer to take over the ship Neptune's Car at short notice as captain for a trip to San Francisco , because the originally intended captain had become ill. Because Patten did not want to leave his young wife alone, he received permission to take her on the trip. On this trip she became interested in life at sea and learned from her husband the basics of navigation , meteorology , ropes and sails and the duties of other seafarers. The trip was successful.

Journey 1856

In July 1856 Joshua Patten started again as captain of the Neptune's Car to San Francisco, this time Mary Ann Patten was on board and she was pregnant. Her husband announced in advance that she would be able to complete this trip in less than 100 days, which resulted in a competition with other captains. In 1851, Captain Josiah Cressey had set a record of just 89 days which was a challenge for other captains. A captain could make $ 3,000 on a successful voyage, but up to $ 5,000 on less than 100 days.

The shortest possible travel time was an important feature for the cargo sailors. Shortly before the start of the trip, the first officer had an accident , broke his leg and was unable to start the trip. Since the ship's owner, the Foster and Nickerson Company, insisted that the voyage commence immediately, they sent another man named Keeler onto the ship as first mate.

After Joshua Patten repeatedly caught his first officer falling asleep while on watch and slowing the ship by reflowing the sails , Patten ordered the officer to be locked below deck. Since the second officer did not have the necessary nautical knowledge, Joshua Patten had to take over the work of the first officer. During the most dangerous part of the voyage, after not leaving the deck for several days and nights, Joshua Patten collapsed on deck and developed a severe fever.

Crew members found him and put him in his bunk. Patten struggled with a severe fever, suffered from blindness and deafness. As the ship rolled in heavy seas, Mary Patten had her husband tied to the bed so he would not be thrown through the cabin. She tried cold water to lower the fever and searched the ship's medical books to help her husband.

From his jail below deck, the first officer also noticed that the ship needed an experienced navigator. He tried to get the crew to mutiny against the captain and Mary Patten. Mary Patten heard of this, gathered the crew on the quarterdeck and explained her husband's condition to them. She appealed to the crew to stand by her and follow her command. At the age of 19 and pregnant, she was the first woman to take command of a merchant ship, its crew and a cargo worth $ 300,000.

The owner of the ship, the Foster and Nickerson Company, had planned a stay in New York so that the Neptune's Car would pass Cape Horn in spring and avoid the winter storms. However, the storms continued when the Neptune's Car wanted to pass Cape Horn in heavy seas. Mary Patten ordered a change of direction away from the west to the southeast, and the next day, when the weather calmed down, she determined the location of the ship. They were way off course and the lookout reported icebergs. Patten maneuvered through the icebergs, circled Cape Horn and sailed north until about 10 days before San Francisco the wind died down and there was a calm . When Mary Patten was not on deck, she looked after her husband, who had a severe fever that she could not bring down. The ship reached San Francisco on November 15, 1856. The trip had taken 136 days. Captain Patten was taken to the hospital on a stretcher. Mary Patten was six months pregnant at the time and was accompanying her husband.

Return to Boston and death

Her story spread to San Francisco and newspapers around the world picked it up. Mary Patten, at the age of only 19, pregnant and in charge of her sick husband, had sailed a merchant ship with cargo worth $ 300,000 and crew, Cape Horn and navigated 5000 kilometers in the open sea. In addition, she only had to surrender to one of three other ships that had left New York at the same time as the Neptune's Car . As a reward, she received $ 1,000, a sum that was criticized in the press and public because her performance was far higher.

The owners of Neptune's Car hired another captain to sail the ship back to New York; the Pattens traveled two months later by steamboat, across the Isthmus of Panama and by rail via New York to Boston. The owner of the ship had taken no further care of the family and only with the support of the Freemasons , to whom Joshua Patten belonged and who provided them with a companion and helper for the trip, they could reach Boston in a two-month trip. Joshua Patten did not recover. Blind and deaf, he never learned that Mary had given birth to a son in Boston two weeks after arriving on March 10, 1857, and died of tuberculosis on July 25, 1857 . The Boston Courier set up a fundraising fund for Mary Patten and her child. Mary Patten died almost four years later on March 18, 1861 at the age of 23 in Boston, also of tuberculosis. Their son Joshua remained unmarried and drowned in 1900.

Appreciation

Douglas Kelley wrote the novel The Captain's Wife about the life of Mary Ann Brown Patten .

The United States Merchant Marine Academy hospital at Kings Point was named after her.

literature

• Douglas Kelley: The Captain's Wife . Dutton, 2001, ISBN 978-0-525-94619-9 ( books.google.de ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dr Regina Marchi: Legendary Locals of East Boston . Arcadia Publishing, 2015, ISBN 978-1-4396-5240-4 , pp. 27 ( books.google.de ).
2. ↑ Patten, Mary Ann Brown. In: Anb.org. Retrieved April 21, 2019 . 
3. ^ ^{A b c} Mary Patten, 19 and Pregnant, Takes Command of a Clipper Ship in 1856. In: newenglandhistoricalsociety.com. 2014, Retrieved April 21, 2019 (American English). 
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Mary Ann Brown Patten. In: womenhistoryblog.com. 2015, Retrieved April 21, 2019 (American English). 
5. ^ The Story of Mary Patten. In: nshof.org. Retrieved April 21, 2019 . 
6. ^ Mary A. Brown Patten (1837-1861) - Find A Grave ... In: www.findagrave.com. Retrieved June 6, 2019 . 
7. ↑ Joshua A. Patten, Jr (1857-1900) - Find A Grave ... In: www.findagrave.com. Retrieved June 6, 2019 . 

Web links

• Mary Ann Brown Patten in the database of Find a Grave (English)