To the Edge of the World - J. Tilar Mazzeo

One woman. One ship. One astonishing true story. Summer 1856. Nineteen-year-old Mary Ann Patten and her husband, Joshua, are young and ambitious. Both from New England seafaring families, they have already completed their first voyage around the world with Joshua as captain. Their dream of building a home and a family is almost within reach, but the price is one last dangerous transit - a race to deliver supplies to the other side of the country. And there is no alternative but to sail all the way around. Yet as their ship leaves New York, navigating towards the jagged coastline of South America, Joshua falls ill, confined to his bunk and delirious. The treacherous first mate is imprisoned in the brig for insubordination, and with no obvious option for a new captain, Mary Ann steps into the breach. Within days she has put down a mutiny and must now attempt to steer this 216' clipper ship laden with the modern equivalent of $11 million of cargo through Drake's Passage and around Cape Horn - the most treacherous waters in the world. To the Edge of the World is the true story of one woman who, when faced with impossible odds, would do all that was necessary to survive.