The Widow's Walk
by Deborah Whitaker
(based on a true story)

"Oscar winning dialogue for the right actress." 
- Dave Goetsch, Executive Producer The Big Bang Theory

Genre: A heroine's journey. Drama. Period piece. 

Logline: Mary Ann Patten: Heroine of the Sea.
A love story between a genuine American heroine and American ingenuity. 

Synopsis: 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. 

"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

Painting by Armand LaMontagne

FADE IN:
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.

San Francisco, The Gold Rush Harbor by Moonlight in 1851, by John Stobart

Mary Ann Brown Patten

An oil painting by Gordon Johnson depicting
Mary Patten on the Clipper Ship Neptune's Car.

INT. BROWN'S PARLOR - EVENING

MRS. DAVIS
I come as a spokesperson for women all over New England, if not the country, who would be honored if you would lecture on behalf of woman's rights. Your experiences could be quite inspirational and encouraging to women everywhere.

MARY
I appreciate your offer, but my husband demands all my attention. Soon, so will my child. I must decline.

MRS. DAVIS
Mary, I'd understand if you don't wish to talk about it, but you may be forthright with me. Is that the only reason?

Mary stands. She walks to the open window and faces the sea.
 
MARY
Mrs. Davis, in my first voyage, despite traveling the world and learning the science of navigation, inside, I was still a frail, scared little girl. Even reading the most profound books and traveling to foreign and glamorous lands could not bring me to myself. But, on this last voyage... I met the wind - one on one. It's a most formidable teacher.

Mary turns back to face Mrs. Davis.

MARY
My only advice to another woman would be to go meet the wind in her own way, and then follow it. It bears the voice of her own God, and if she would only listen, it will tell her everything she needs to know. More than I ever could.

Vision of
The Widow's Walk