"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

"[U]ndeniably one of the greatest stories of a bygone era." - Wall Street Journal

"Exciting. Mazzeo writes with a no-nonsense crispness that feels appropriately shipshape. The fact that the author is an experienced sailor is also enormously helpful when it comes to explaining the challenges of the sea. She is, in short, an author capable of guiding her readers through this remarkable chapter of history -- as competently as Captain Patten sailed her ship." - New York Times

"Tilar J. Mazzeo's knowledgeable and entertaining new book blends a sharp-eyed portrait of a seafaring heroine with a vivid look at the rapidly changing city - Gold Rush-era San Francisco - for which she set sail. . . [A] nonfiction story as thrilling as any eyewitness account. . . A cinematic. . . stylish, intelligent account." - San Francisco Chronicle

"The Sea Captain's Wife brings Patten's story to vivid life and makes clear just how much terror and tribulation were involved in her remarkable journey. [A] good, old-fashioned, around-the-world adventure." - KQED