The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Sternway \Stern"way`\, n. (Naut.)
   The movement of a ship backward, or with her stern foremost.
   [1913 Webster]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

75 Moby Thesaurus words for "sternway":
   Brownian movement, advance, angular motion, ascending, ascent,
   axial motion, backflowing, backing, backset, backsliding,
   backward motion, backward step, career, climbing, course, current,
   descending, descent, downward motion, drift, driftage, driftway,
   ebbing, flight, flow, flux, forward motion, headway, lapse, leeway,
   mounting, oblique motion, ongoing, onrush, passage, plunging,
   progress, radial motion, random motion, reaction, recession,
   recidivation, recidivism, reentry, reflowing, refluence, reflux,
   regress, regression, relapse, retroaction, retrocession,
   retroflexion, retrogradation, retrogression, retrusion, return,
   rising, rollback, run, rush, set, setback, sideward motion,
   sinking, soaring, steerageway, stream, subsiding, throwback,
   traject, trajet, trend, upward motion, way