In 1894 an Ohio River captain named Gordon C. Greene doubled his packet fleet by building the Argand. His wife, a country storekeeper's daughter who learned to steer a boat on her honeymoon, took out a master's license, got behind the Argand's wheel, started it splashing up & down the Ohio.
She was a good pilot. Soon the toughest roustabouts stopped feeling strange about taking orders from a woman who stood 5 feet 2. When the first winter settled down over the Ohio, she had churned up a clean profit of $2,500, proving she could handle money as well as boats....
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