Way in 1975
Plaque in Sewickley, Pennsylvania
Portrait of Way at the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium

Fredrick Way Jr. (February 17, 1901 – October 3, 1992) was the youngest steamboat captain on the Ohio River and Mississippi River.[1] He was the author of books on the boats that ply the inland waterways. He supervised the flat-bottom, stern paddlewheeler, the Delta Queen, from San Francisco, down the Pacific coast, through the Panama Canal, across the Gulf of Mexico and up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to Pittsburgh in 1946.[2]

Biography

He was born on February 17, 1901. Little is known of his youth. He apparently gravitated to a life on the river early, as he obtained his pilot’s license in 1923 at the age of 22 and purchased his first steamboat, the Betsy Ann, in 1925, at the age of 24. He married Grace Morrison and they resided in Sewickley, Pennsylvania.

Using the iron-hulled Betsy Ann, Way ran a packet ship between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh for a number of years. Prior to Way’s purchase of the Betsy Ann, she had held the packet ship speed record on the Mississippi River since the 1900s, winning and retaining a set of gold-tipped elk horns. In August 1928, Way and the Betsy Ann lost the elk horns to Captain Christopher Becker Greene of the steamboat Chris Greene, in a race from Cincinnati to New Richmond.[1][3][4][5]

In 1933 Way wrote a book of his experiences as a river packet ship captain called The Log of the Betsy Ann. The book was moderately successful, allowing Way to form the Steamboat Photo Company (SPC) in 1939. SPC gathered the largest collection of steamboat photos then known, and became the impetus for the publication of Way’s Steamboat Directory in 1944 and the formation of the Sons and Daughters of Pioneer Rivermen (SDPR), of which Way was a founding member and later a president. SDPR became the driving force behind the formation of the Ohio River Museum in Marietta, Ohio.

In 1948, at the request of his friend Tom Greene, Way captained the 21-year-old Delta Queen from San Francisco to Pittsburgh. He wrote about the adventure of piloting the paddle wheeler down the west coast, through the Panama Canal, across the Gulf of Mexico and up the Mississippi River to Pittsburgh in The Saga of the Delta Queen.

Way continued to be an active writer, collector of steamboat and packet ship photographs, and preserver of the history of boats on inland waterways. He started publishing the quarterly journal The S&D Reflector[6] for the SDPR organization in March 1964.[7]

He died on October 3, 1992, in Marietta, Ohio. His cremains were taken to Sewickley for burial next to his beloved Grace by the Str. Delta Queen.[2][8]

Further reading

  • The Log of the Betsy Ann; Robert McBride Co, New York, 1933
  • Pilotin’ Comes Natural; Robert McBride Co, New York, 1943
  • The Allegheny; Farrar & Rinehart, New York, 1942 (Rivers of America Series)
  • The Ships & Sailing Albums Number 1, Mississippi Stern-Wheelers, Kalmbach Publishing, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 1947
  • The Saga of the Delta Queen; Young and Klein, Inc, Cincinnati, Ohio 1951
  • She Takes the Horns: Steamboat Racing on the Western Waters; The Picture Marine Publishing Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1953
  • Way's Packet Directory, 1848-1983: Passenger Steamboats of the Mississippi River System since the Advent of Photography in Mid-Continent America; Ohio University Press, 1983

References

  1. 1 2 "Steamboat Race Set for July 16". The Daily Times (Ohio). July 8, 1929. Retrieved 2011-02-26. Another steamboat race on the Ohio river will be held July 16. ... Capt. Way is the youngest steamboat captain on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. A pair of antelope horns, the championship trophy, is at stake.
  2. 1 2 "Frederick Way Jr.; Chronicled History of River Steamboats". Los Angeles Times. October 9, 1992. Retrieved 2011-02-26. Frederick Way Jr., a retired riverboat captain who made a career of chronicling the history of steamboats on inland rivers, has died. He was 91. Way died at ... He once piloted the Delta Queen, helping to take it from San Francisco to New Orleans through the Panama Canal. The trip helped convert the famous passenger boat into a Mississippi River tourist steamer. Way also compiled "Way's Packet Directory," which documented more than 5,900 passenger steamboats on the Mississippi River system since 1848. ...
  3. ↑ "Capt. Chris Greene, Official of Steamboat Line Dies. His Mother Also a Pilot". New York Times. October 21, 1944. Retrieved 2011-02-26. Captain Greene was skipper of the steamer Chris Greene when, in 1928, it won a race from a rival steamer, The Betsy Ann, in a revival of the competition ...
  4. ↑ "Packets". Time magazine. August 6, 1928. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved 2011-02-26. The occasion was a race between the Betsy Ann and the Chris Greene, two packets plying the Ohio between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. Captain Chris Greene of the Chris Greene had boasted that his vessel, a steel craft built in 1925, could beat the Betsy Ann "any time."
  5. ↑ "Steamer Tom Greene Wins Race Upon Ohio River. Thousands Line Banks As The Betsy Ann Goes To Defeat By Small Margin". The Baltimore Sun. July 17, 1929. Retrieved 2011-02-26. Commander Tom R. Greene, pilot of the winner, received from Commander Frederick Way, 28, of the Betsy Ann, a set of historic antlers as a symbol of victory ...
  6. ↑ Archived July 5, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ↑ "The Official Website of Sons and Daughters of Pioneer Rivermen". Archived from the original on 2008-07-05. Retrieved 2010-01-24.
  8. ↑ "Frederick Way, Jr". Toledo Blade. October 7, 1992. Retrieved 2011-02-26. Frederick Way, a retired riverboat captain who made a career of chronicling the history of steamboats on inland rivers, has died. He was Mr. Way died at his ...
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