The Widow's Walk
by Deborah Whitaker
Photo by Syed Hussaini
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A love story between a genuine American heroine and American ingenuity.
Feature, Drama, Inspired by the true story "Oscar winning dialogue for the right actress."- Dave Goetsch, EP, The Big Bang Theory
Logline: In 1856, at the dawning age of woman’s rights, Boston native Mary Ann Patten, the 19 year old pregnant bride of a Clipper ship Captain, took command of a Clipper ship and a crew of 35 men. Navigating the ship around Cape Horn to port in San Francisco, Mary combated hurricane force winds, icebergs, and a potential mutiny, all the while attempting to nurse her dying husband back to health. |
Painting by Christopher S. Duncklee
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Mary Ann Patten: Heroine of the Sea
In a colorless sea, a lone wave surges and rams the bow of a mammoth clipper ship… water spills over the ship’s sharply tilted deck. From bow to stern, SAILORS clad in soaked oilskin suits scurry up the ratlines in a driving sleet. Aloft, more SAILORS cling to ice-coated yards and rigging.
The Captain’s orders to the sailors are SHOUTED through a speaking trumpet from the quarter deck, barely discernible over the wind. The speaking trumpet is lowered and we SEE a commanding figure in an oilskin hat. Underneath the hat is the face of a woman, MARY ANN PATTEN; a woman foraging in a man’s world, a woman surging herself. |
Mary Ann Brown Patten
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In 1853, The Una, a paper devoted to the enfranchisement of woman, owned and edited by Paulina Wright Davis, was first published in Providence, Rhode Island. The Una was the first paper focused on woman suffrage, and the first distinctively woman's rights journal ever published. Its mystical name signified "truth", to be used as a constant suggestion of fidelity to all. (Wikipedia) |
Paulina Wright Davis
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"What words could I possibly use to convey to women to give away their love, not their souls?"
- Mary Ann Patten in The Widow's Walk
Photo of ship below by Drew Darby
