Captain Dallas Ryder

Captain Dallas Ryder, the present master of the Codorus, is one of the eight children, five sons and three daughters, of David and Hannah (Jackson) Ryder.

He was born in the town of Lyme, Jefferson county, N. Y., where he assisted his father at farming, and attended the district schools, until sixteen years of age. At that time, in answer to the government's call for help, he entered the Thirty-fifth New York Volunteers, went to the front, and, after two years of service, re-enlisted in the Frontier (Twenty-sixth New York) Cavalry, from which he was discharged with the rank of second lieutenant. He immediately began sailing, and has ever since continued to follow the lakes, becoming a very successful and competent navigator, as his record and the high-class steamer which has been committed to his care will show. His first service was before the mast on the Henry Hoag, on which he remained about six months, after which he was on the Gilmore, Penfield, Selkirk, and one or two others in the same capacity. In 1871 he went as second mate on the steamer Lawrence, and in 1872-73 was the mate of the Brooklyn, then master of the Buckeye one season, and the Lowell two seasons. He entered the service of the Anchor line in 1881 as mate of the Juniata, on which he continued for two seasons, and was next on the Annie Young one season. Following this he was master of the Gordon Campbell one season and Juniata seven seasons, and for the past three seasons, including that of 1897, of the Codorus, one of the two finest boats of the line. Captain Ryder has twenty-four issues of master's papers, and during his entire career has been fortunate, as well as careful, having never experienced any serious disaster. The closest approach to one was while he was on the Brooklyn, her boilers exploding when she was ten miles below Detroit, and killing eleven men, our subject escaping with a broken arm.

In February, 1865, Captain Ryder was married to Miss Annette Wilson, also from Lyme, and they have two children, a son and a daughter; the eldest, Archie, being a law student at the Buffalo University.

The Captain is a member of the Ship Masters Association of Buffalo, No. 2; of Chaumont Lodge No. 172, F. & A.M., and of Lodge No. 498, I.O.F.[sic] and the G.A.R. The family residence is at Three Mile Bay, Jefferson county, New York.

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Volume I

This version of Volume II is based, with permission, on the work of the great volunteers at the Marine Captains Biographies site. To them goes the credit for reorganizing the content into some coherent order. The biographies in the original volume are in essentially random order.

Some of the transcription work was also done by Brendon Baillod, who maintains an excellent guide to Great Lakes Shipwreck Research.