anicles in a secrerarial hand well-suired for scholarship or acco uming, and noriceably unlike his shipmares' heavy scrawls and illirerare "X" marks. When he disembarked in '" Frisco," he was nor quire eighreen, ye r already a shell back who had crossed rhe equato r ren rimes and doubled Cape Horn. H e said li rrle of rhe years rhar fo llowed, excepr to nore a few coas ring passages and so me tim e crewing yachrs. H e claimed larer rhar he arrended rhe Mark H opkins Insrirure of Arr, and ir is emirely possible rhar o ne of his insrructors was William A. Co ulrer, himself a former mariner who had made a name as Cal ifornia's leading marin e arrisr. Ar New Westminster, Brirish Columbia, in July of 1899, Parrerson slipped away from rhe American schooner Compeer, reneging on his agreemem to sail to Asian ports and rerurn to San Francisco. His desertion proved to be a life-changing momenr. He wo rked his passage up rhe Fraser and Thompson Rivers as a house-paimer and a watchm an o n rhe Canadian Pacific Railway. Upon his arri val in As hcrofr, he joined the small firm rhar supplied rhe town's electricity. There, he courted and soon m arried Alice Erhel Lehman, a daughter of a local pioneer.
Tropic Bird, (oil on canvas, 28 x 36 inches, date unknown) In San Francisco at the close ofthe nineteenth century, Patterson paid particular attention to three celebrated vessels that operated on schedule in the Tahiti packet and mail trade. His paintings of two of them, the brigantine Gali lee and the three-masted barquentine Tropic Bird, were featured on annual promotional calendars issued by the Columbian Rope Company, for whom Patterson painted for more than thirty years.
If Patterson inrend ed to "swallow the anchor" in the Ca nad ian Rockies, his plan fa iled. H e moved his yo ung wife to V ictoria, where he becam e a staff arrisr and marine correspondem for rhe Daily Times newspaper. In January 1906, Al-
ice gave birth to a daughter, whom they named Laura Margarer. Before lo ng, Patterso n bega n to make trips east, apparendy seeki ng employmem as a commercial arrisr. Lare in 1907, he moved to C hicago-alo ne. Like his farher had done in Southampton, he promised to send for his fa mil y o nce he gor serded, bur rhe responsibilities of fat herhood co nAicred with his ca reer goals as an arrisr. Promises were set as ide. When he died, a half-century larer, he and Alice were srill legally married , bur rheir daughrer had grow n up wirhour ever knowing him. Lirde of his C hi cago work is idemified. H e made a paiming of rhe steam chase r-boat Orion huntin g whales for rhe Pacific W h al ing Company, which became fami liar on promotional postcards. He is supposed to have made rhearrical posters, rhough no ne has come to lighr. H e also (left) All Hands on the Main Sheet, (oil on canvas, size unknown, circa 1924) Though he spent seven years at sea, Patterson rarely depicted shipboard life and work. This exception properly conveys the struggle of manhandling a great square-rigger with little more than what he and his British shipmates called /:lrmstrong's Patent''-that is, their own muscles.
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