A monthly sea shanty singing session at the TailGate Brewery in downtown Chattanooga at 1464 Market Street, Chattanooga, TN 37408, on the second deck (floor)!

Generally the third Monday of the month from 6:30 PM till 8:30 PM. Great food and grog (drinks) available. All ages welcome. We will also celebrate Mary Patten, "Navigator Girl."

Mary Ann Brown Patten was notable for being the first female captain of an American merchant vessel, but like many enterprising women of the day, she didn't find her way to this prestigious posting in the typical way.

Patten married Captain Joshua Adams just before her 16th birthday, and soon found herself accompanying him on voyages aboard the clipper ship Neptune's Car traveling between San Francisco, China, London, and New York.

In 1856, on a voyage from New York to San Francisco, her husband fell into a coma while in the throes of tuberculosis, leaving Neptune's Car without a master.

Untrustworthy of the first mate who she felt had shirked his duties, a pregnant 19-year-old Patten elected to take command of the vessel herself, using the navigation skills she had picked up to pass the time on previous voyages, all the while tending to her sick husband.

Despite an attempted mutiny by the crew who resisted a woman taking command, fifty nine days later, the ship safely sailed into to San Francisco.

At the end of the ordeal, Patten simply stated that she was only doing the “plain duty of a wife”.

Free and open to the public. No talent necessary and songbooks are provided with all the best sea and river shanteys and songs, even some Irish ones to boot.