There were only two of them – women skilled enough to read the ever changing twists and turns of the currents of the mighty Mississippi River and plot a riverboat over its often treacherous waters. One of those women was Mary Greene, wife of Captain Gordon Greene, owner of the Greene Lines steamship company. After riding the river at her husband’s side in the pilot house for six years, Mary was granted her pilot’s license in 1896.
To everyone’s surprise, at a time when railroads were cutting into the profits of the riverboats (also known as packet boats), Captain Mary’s boat, Argand, turned a tidy profit for the Greene Lines.
During her time on the river, Captain Mary gave birth to three sons. One of those sons, Tom, who later became a riverboat pilot, was born while her boat, The Greenland, was hung up on an ice jam.
When the riverboat business changed from cargo carriers to passenger vessels offering recreational cruises, Captain Mary came into her second element – the much beloved hostess of the passenger boats. People lined up to travel on Captain Mary’s vessels because she made it her business to see that those passengers who traveled on her boats were the recipients of her full hospitality.
In 1946, Captain Tom, her son, had the Delta Queen, a luxury steamship scheduled for demolition, towed through the Panama Canal from Sacramento to New Orleans. There, after it was refurbished and refitted for service, in 1948 the Delta Queen became the Greene Lines’ flagship and with Captain Mary at the helm was introduced to the public.
A year later, in Cabin G, her personal residence on the Delta Queen , Captain Mary died after having steered her beloved boats up and down the river for over sixty years.
The Delta Queen still plies the muddy waters of the Mississippi River today and there are those who claim that Mary stills lives onboard. Many have seen her ghost walking the companionways while seeing to the welfare of the Delta Queen as well as the guest traveling aboard her.
Blessings,
Diva Elizabeth
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