The Sea Captain's Wife

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A RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK

A DAILY TELEGRAPH BEST SUMMER READ 2026

A perilous storm. A mutinous crew. One astonishing true story of survival.

‘Thrilling . . . A white-knuckle ride of a book.’ Daily Mail

‘In all non-fiction maritime literature, this is a story without parallel.’ Mensun Bound, author of The Ship Beneath the Ice

Summer, 1856. Nineteen-year-old Mary Ann Patten and her Captain husband, Joshua, are on the final voyage that will secure their future. But as their clipper ship races south from New York, Joshua becomes delirious.

With the first mate imprisoned in the brig for attempted mutiny, a fortune in cargo, and no one else fit to command, Mary Ann takes the helm.

Battling perilous seas, brutal storms and the deadly waters of Cape Horn, she must navigate one of the most dangerous passages in the world while keeping her remaining crew on side, her husband alive and the ship sailing onwards into the unknown.

For fans of The Wager and Madhouse at the End of the Earth, this is the extraordinary true story of a woman who, when faced with impossible odds, risked everything to bring her ship home.

‘Hear the wind whistle through the ropes, taste the salt spray and feel the roll of the ship.’ Peter Fretwell, author of Antarctic Atlas

‘A breathtaking journey!’ Marie Benedict, author of Queens of Crime

Dr. Tilar J. Mazzeo is The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle bestselling author of numerous award-winning works of narrative nonfiction, including Widow Clicquot – now a major Hollywood film. Formerly the Clara C. Piper Associate Professor of English at Colby College and Professeure Associée in the Department of World Literatures at the University of Montreal, Dr. Mazzeo left the academy in 2019 to focus full-time on writing. A fifth- generation sailor and tenth- generation Mainer (where the Patten story begins), she lives today on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, where, with her husband, she captains a Vancouver 42 offshore sailboat.