19‑year‑old Mary Ann Patten, pregnant, becomes the first woman to command a merchant clipper after her husband Joshua falls ill during a race to San Francisco. Amid a mutinous first mate, a sleeping crew, and a stormy passage around Cape Horn, Patten steers the Neptune’s Car safely past icebergs, arriving in San Francisco Bay ten weeks later with cargo intact. Historian Tilar J Mazzeo is publishing a book to revive Patten’s forgotten legend.
Original article can be found here.