Molly Carney, North America's first female certified merchant marine captain
Are they or are they not women in the navy? On the one hand, it’s 2016, when women are absolutely everywhere, no matter how traditionally masculine this or that occupation is considered. On the other hand, the fleet is extremely conservative in this matter, and the saying “a woman on a ship means trouble” still instills superstitious fear in the hearts of sailors. “The maritime profession is not a woman’s business,” the retrogrades mutter contemptuously. “You are women yourself!” - feminists shout. So that you can figure out for yourself who is right, we offer you a selection of interesting facts.
– According to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), there are 1.25 million seafarers in the world. Only 1-2% of them are women, but this number is growing. In the cruise sector, their number increases to 17-18%. In general, most women in the navy work on passenger ships - ferries and liners. The cargo fleet accounts for only 6% of sailors.
– In 1562, King Frederick II of Denmark issued a decree, which, in particular, contained the following wording: “Women and pigs are prohibited from entering His Majesty’s ships; if they are found on the ship, they should be immediately thrown overboard.” His Most Gallant Majesty was not alone in his opinion - 150 years later, Emperor Peter I, who created the Russian navy from scratch, adhered to the same rules.
– Anna Shchetinina is considered the world’s first female sea captain. Starting as a simple sailor, she became a captain at the age of 27. The year was 1935. Anna became famous throughout the world for her first voyage, sailing the cargo ship "Chavycha" from Hamburg through Odessa and Singapore to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. For many years she drove ships for the Baltic Shipping Company, rising to the rank of port manager and dean of the navigating department. Known for the statement “There is no place for a woman on the bridge!” – in her case, quite paradoxical.
– Not all countries are equally willing to send women to work in the navy. 51.2% of seafarers come from Western Europe and the USA, 23.6% from Eastern Europe, 9.8% from Latin America and Africa, 13.7% from East Asia, and only 1.7% from South Asia and Middle East. This is due to the fact that in eastern countries the attitude towards women is more conservative than in western ones. Spanish-speaking countries have moved not far from the east. “Barefoot, pregnant, in the kitchen” is a very famous proverb in Latin America.
– In July 2009, a Turkish bulk carrierHorizon-1, owned by Horizon Maritime Trading, was captured by Somali pirates. The crew of the bulk carrier included a female navigator, 24-year-old Aysan Akbey. The pirates showed gallantry worthy of filibusters of the 17th century - they allowed her to call her family in Turkey whenever and as much as she wanted. The girl refused, saying that she did not need privileges, and she would call home at the same time when other crew members were allowed to do so.
– The world’s first female icebreaker captain is Russian Lyudmila Tibryaeva. She became a sea captain in 1987, when she was forty years old. The icebreaking transport vessel Tiksi was one of the first to sail from Europe to Japan via the North Sea route. At the age of forty-one, she got married and almost left the sea at the request of her husband, but on reflection, she continued her career. It is admitted that the marriage turned out to be very happy. “The boss must be able to spare the pride of his subordinates,” Lyudmila is sure. “Women are good captains because they know how to spare men’s pride.”
– In December 2007, on board an American container shipHorizon Navigator, owned by Horizon Lines, has undergone personnel changes. As a result, a unique situation arose: the entire senior command staff was female. Captain Roberta Espinosa, First Officer Samantha Pirtle and Second Officer Julie Duchi took control of the vessel. They had 23 crew members under their command - all men. All three women took positions by chance, following a trade union competition. “This was the first time I worked in a crew where there were women besides me,” admitted Roberta Espinosa. By the way, at the time of taking up the post of captainHorizon NavigatorRoberta had an 18-year-old daughter, whose upbringing she successfully combined with her maritime career.
– In 2008, a woman became the captain of the world’s largest livestock ship. The ship is calledStella Deneband is owned by the Australian company Siba Ships. When Laura Pinasco took over the captain's bridgeStella Deneb, she was only thirty years old. However, she received her captain's diploma five years earlier. “Delivering the first batch of cattle was a real challenge,” recalls Laura. – The party included more than twenty thousand heads of cattle, plus two thousand sheep. Loading was like hell. We took them to Malaysia and Indonesia. No one in the world has as many passengers on board as I do.”
– The most democratic attitude towards women sailors is in the USA, but even there, until 1974, only men were allowed to enter maritime schools. Now among the cadets of American naval schools and academies, there are 10-12% of girls. “A lot of girls just don’t know that they can join the navy too,” says American and ex-captain Sherry Hickman. “Otherwise this percentage would be much higher.”
– In 2014, the incredible happened: in the United States, a woman became a real admiral, with four stars on each shoulder, and also the vice-commander of naval operations for the entire country’s military fleet. We are talking about African-American Michelle Howard - she is now officially considered the woman who has risen to the highest rank in the navy. Michelle has a checkered military background. Have you seen the movie Captain Phillips with Tom Hanks? So, it was Michelle who at one time rescued the real Phillips from the hands of Somali pirates.
– The first female naval commander in history was Queen Artemisia, ruler of Helicarnassus. At the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC. e. she fought on the side of the Persians and led an entire flotilla. It is to the account of the brave Artemisia that the famous exclamation of the Persian king Xerxes, who was following the progress of the battle, is attributed: “Today women were men, and men were women!” However, Artemisia brought misfortune to Xerxes' fleet - it was defeated. Which turned out to be a great happiness for Europe, where there are now so many sailors: if not for the Greek victory at Salamis, she would not have been on the map long ago.
– In 2007, Royal Caribbean appointed Swede Karin Star-Janson as captain of the cruise shipMonarch of the Seas, one of the largest liners in the world. Before this, women had not occupied the bridge of ships of this class and size, much less taken responsibility for the lives of 2,400 passengers and 850 crew members. Why, Swede Paula Wallenberg, Karin’s compatriot, commands a submarine in her homeland!
To an unbiased eye, it is clear that there are more women in the navy than not. It’s too early to judge whether they cope with their responsibilities better or worse than men. Those discussed above probably cope better, otherwise they would not have been allowed at all either to the helm, or to the bridge, or even to scrub the deck. Pioneers always have to be head and shoulders above those around them. When will there be more women in the Navy, when will we seeregular, and not the legendary female captain, when it comes toaverage a female admiral, then it will be possible to compare who does a better job. However, the need for such a comparison will no longer be necessary by that time.
Valentina Orlikova is the first female captain of a BMRT (large refrigerated fishing trawler), the world’s only female captain of a whaling ship (“Storm”), a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, the first woman in the country’s fishing industry to be awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. During the Great Patriotic War, she served as a navigator on naval vessels. In August 1941, Valentina Orlikova took part in the evacuation of six thousand wounded from Tallinn. From August 1942 to October 1944, Valentina Yakovlevna worked as the third mate on the Dvina motor ship. Dvina transported Soviet raw materials to the United States in exchange for American products supplied under Lend-Lease. On its first voyage, which began on August 8, 1942, the ship was carrying manganese ore. Since the convoy of British ships was delayed, it was decided to send the Dvina alone, without escort. Of all the weapons on board there were two machine guns and 5 rifles. In order for the ship not to seem like a completely defenseless victim for German ships and submarines, the captain decided to build dummies of ship guns out of wood, put covers on them and assign crews to the false guns.
She was born on February 19, 1915 in the city of Sretensk, now the Trans-Baikal Territory, into a family of employees. Russian. In 1918, she moved with her parents to the city of Vladivostok. She grew up here and graduated from school. She began her career as a ship assembler's assistant at the Dalzavod plant. At the same time, she studied at the Vladivostok Water Transport College, in the evening department, and completed 4 courses.
In 1932 she moved with her parents to Moscow. In the same year, she left for the city of Leningrad, where she worked as a draftsman in the design bureau of the Baltic Shipyard and studied at the workers' department of the shipbuilding institute. I only completed my first year at the institute. She got sick and had to return to her parents. After recovery, she worked on the construction of the Moscow-Volga canal, and in the fall of 1937 she was reinstated at the shipbuilding institute. After the second year, she transferred to the navigating department of the Leningrad Institute of Water Transport Engineers. She completed an internship on the sailing ship "Vega", carried out all sailor's watches along with men, and studied navigating. In May 1941, she successfully graduated from the institute, but the war prevented her from receiving a diploma.
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, she worked as a trainee navigator on one of the ships of the Baltic Shipping Company. She took part in the evacuation of the wounded from Tallinn in August 1941. In February 1942, she passed the final exams to become a navigator engineer and received a diploma as a navigator. Received a referral to the Northern Shipping Company, the city of Arkhangelsk. From August 1942 he worked on the motor ship "Dvina", as the 4th navigator, then as the third mate.
She made her first long-distance flight in November 1942 - January 1943. After an unsuccessful attempt to navigate the Northern Sea Route, the motor ship "Dvina" with a cargo of manganese ore made a single passage to the United States, through Iceland and the North Atlantic. In April-June 1943, she made the passage from New York to the Panama Canal to San Francisco to Vladivostok on the motor ship Dvina. At the end of the war she worked on the Vladivostok-USA line and made three more flights. At the end of 1944 she returned to the Baltic Shipping Company. She worked as a senior mate on European lines: from Leningrad to Sweden, Norway, Finland. At the beginning of 1945, she received a diploma as a long-distance navigator. In 1946 she was transferred to Moscow to the People's Commissariat of the Fishing Industry. A year later she left for the Far East. For five years she worked as captain of the whaling ship "Storm" as part of the Kuril whaling flotilla. In the winter she towed cigars with the forest, and in the summer she went fishing. In 1950, for the development of this fishery in the regions of the Far East, she was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.
In 1953, she returned to Moscow again and was invited to work at the Ministry of Fisheries. However, she soon returned to sea. In 1955 she came to the city of Murmansk. She became the world's first female captain of a large refrigerated trawler. I climbed onto the bridge of the Nikolai Ostrovsky BMRT. After a week of fishing, she independently commanded the lowering and raising of the trawl. On "Nikolai Ostrovsky" they took 25 tons of fish per day; at that time, rarely anyone managed to do more. The voyage assignment was exceeded by one and a half times, despite the autumn storms. Later, the Saltykov-Shchedrin and Zlatoust BMRTs made one exit each.
In September 1958, the Novikov-Priboi BMRT was accepted. I went to sea on this trawler for several years. I avoided downtime and unnecessary transitions. There was no case where she failed to cope with the task, did not fulfill the state plan, or caused an accident. She worked creatively: she explored new fishing areas, looked for opportunities to increase the production capacity of the BMRT, and made interesting proposals for organizing the transhipment of fish products on the high seas and in the port. Most ships had two trawls - a working one and a spare one. Orlikova asked for a third, backup one, and it came in handy when one day both existing ones were cut to pieces on unnoticed underwater rocks. Even the refrigeration chambers on her ships were loaded differently, more rationally.
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated March 7, 1960, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of International Women's Day, for outstanding achievements in labor and especially fruitful social activities, Valentina Yakovlevna Orlikova was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.
For more than six years she went fishing on the Novikov-Priboi BMRT. Recently I took the tanker Piryatin on voyages. She had the authority of a competent fisherman, a skilled navigator, an experienced organizer and educator of sailors.
Orlikova retired from the navy on February 4, 1966 and returned to Moscow. She retired in 1969 at the age of 54. But even after that she went to sea for sea trials of ships. She participated in public life, helped educate young people using the example of the best traditions of the maritime and fishing fleets. Awarded the anniversary medal “In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin”
Lived in Moscow. She died on January 31, 1986. She was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery in Moscow. Fishermen of the Murmansk trawl fleet installed a bronze bust on her grave.
Today, I know of several female captains, all of whom command very respectable ships, and one of them is the largest ship of its type in the world. I have created a separate page dedicated to female captains, and will update it as new data becomes available. The first woman captain in the world is considered to be Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina, whom I deeply respect, although in fact it is unlikely - just remember Grace ONeill (Barki), the most famous female filibuster from Ireland, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1st. Probably, Anna Ivanovna can safely be called the first female captain of the 20th century. Anna Ivanovna once said that her personal opinion is that there is no place for a woman on ships, especially on the bridge. But let’s not forget that even with the relatively recent past, the middle of the last century, much in the sea and the world has changed dramatically, so modern women prove to us with considerable success that there is a place for women on ships, in any position.
The world's largest livestock ship is headed by a woman
16 April 2008 - Siba Ships has appointed a woman, Laura Pinasco, as the captain of its largest livestock ship, also the largest vessel of its type in the world, Stella Deneb. Laura brought Stella Deneb to Fremantle, Australia, her first voyage and first ship as captain. She is only 30 years old; she got a job at Siba Ships in 2006 as a first mate.
Laura from Genoa, at sea since 1997. She received her captain's diploma in 2003. Laura has worked on gas carriers and livestock carriers, serving as first mate on Stella Deneb prior to captaincy, and in particular during a record-breaking voyage last year when Stella Deneb loaded a shipment worth A$11.5 million in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. , assigned to Indonesia and Malaysia. 20,060 heads of cattle and 2,564 sheep and goats were taken on board. It took 28 trains to deliver them to the port. Loading and transportation were carried out under the careful supervision of veterinary services and met the highest standards.
Stella Deneb is the world's largest livestock ship.
More details about the ship and its photo: http://www.odin.tc/disaster/deneb.asp
No men or strangers allowed - the only ship in the world entirely managed by women
December 23-29, 2007 - the container ship Horizon Navigator (gross 28212, built 1972, US flag, owner HORIZON LINES LLC) at 2360 TEU of Horizon Lines was seized by women. All navigators and the captain are women. Captain Robin Espinoza, First Mate Sam Pirtle, 2nd Mate Julie Duchi. All the rest of the total crew of 25 are men. The women fell onto the bridge of the container ship, according to the company, completely by accident, during a trade union competition. Espinoza is extremely surprised - for the first time in 10 years she is working in a crew with other women, not to mention navigators. The International Organization of Captains, Navigators and Pilots in Honolulu says its membership is 10% women, down from 1% 30 years ago.
The women, needless to say, are wonderful. Robin Espinosa and Sam Pirtle are classmates. We studied together at the Merchant Marine Academy. Sam is also a certified sea captain. Julie Duchi became a sailor later than her captain and first mate, but sailor-navigators will understand and appreciate this hobby of hers (in our times, alas and alas, this is a hobby, although without knowing the sextant, you will never become a real navigator) - “I, perhaps , one of the few navigators who uses a sextant to determine position, just for her own pleasure!”
Robin Espinoza has been in the Navy for a quarter of a century. When she began her naval career, a woman was a rarity in the US Navy. For her first ten years on ships, Robin worked on all-male crews. Robin, Sam and Julie love their profession very much, but when you are separated from your native shore for many weeks, it can be sad. Robyn Espinoza, 49, said: “I really miss my husband and 18-year-old daughter.” Her peer Sam Pearl never met someone with whom she could start a family. “I meet men,” she says, who want a woman to constantly look after them. And for me, my career is a part of myself, I cannot allow for a moment that anything could prevent me from going to sea.”
Julie Duchi, who is 46 years old, simply loves the sea, and simply cannot imagine that there are other, more worthy or interesting professions in the world.
Details about the glorious command staff of Horizon Navigator, and photographs, were sent to me by the children's writer, former sailor, Vladimir Novikov, for which many thanks to him!
The world's first female captain of a mega liner
May 13-19, 2007 - Royal Caribbean International appointed a Swedish woman, Karin Star-Janson, as captain of the Monarch of the Seas cruise ship. Monarch of the Seas is a liner of the first, so to speak, rank, gross 73937, 14 decks, 2400 passengers, 850 crew, built in 1991. That is, it belongs to the category of the largest airliners in the world. The Swede became the first woman in the world to receive the position of captain on ships of this type and size. She has been with the company since 1997, first as a navigator on Viking Serenade and Nordic Empress, then as first mate on Vision of the Seas and Radiance of the Seas, then as backup captain on Brilliance of the Seas, Serenade of the Seas and Majesty of the Seas. Her whole life is connected with the sea, higher education, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, bachelor's degree in navigation. She currently has a diploma allowing her to command ships of any type and size.
Belgium's first female captain
And the first female captain of an LPG tanker
LPG tanker Libramont (deadweight 29328, length 180 m, width 29 m, draft 10.4 m, built 2006 Korea OKRO, flag Belgium, owner EXMAR SHIPPING) was accepted by the customer in May 2006 at OKRO shipyards, a woman took command of the ship, the first woman -Captain of Belgium and, apparently, the first female captain of a gas tanker. In 2006, Rogge was 32 years old, two years after she received her captain's diploma. That's all that is known about her.
Site reader Sergei Zhurkin told me about it, for which I thank him very much.
Norwegian pilot
Pictured is Marianne Ingebrigsten, April 9, 2008, after receiving her pilot's diploma, Norway. At 34, she became the second female pilot in Norway, and that, unfortunately, is all that is known about her.
Russian women captains
Information about Lyudmila Tebryaeva was sent to me by site reader Sergei Gorchakov, for which I thank him very much. I did some digging as best I could and found information about two more women in Russia who are captains.
Lyudmila Tibryaeva – ice captain
Our Russian female captain Lyudmila Tibryaeva is, and apparently we can confidently say, the only female captain in the world with experience in Arctic navigation.
In 2007, Lyudmila Tebryaeva celebrated three dates at once - 40 years of work in the shipping company, 20 years as a captain, 60 years since her birth. In 1987, Lyudmila Tibryaeva became a sea captain. She is a member of the International Sea Captains Association. For outstanding achievements, she was awarded in 1998 the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, second degree. Today, her portrait in a uniform jacket against the backdrop of a ship adorns the Arctic Museum. Lyudmila Tibryaeva received the "Sea Captain" badge number 1851. In the 60s, Lyudmila came to Murmansk from Kazakhstan. And on January 24, 1967, 19-year-old Lyuda set off on her first voyage on the icebreaker Captain Belousov. In the summer, the correspondence student went to Leningrad to take the exam, and the icebreaker went to the Arctic. She made her way to the minister to get permission to enter the naval school. Lyudmila also had a successful family life, which is rare for sailors in general, and even more so for women who continue to sail.
Alevtina Alexandrova – captain at the Sakhalin Shipping Company In 2001 she turned 60 years old. Alevtina Alexandrova came to Sakhalin in 1946 with her parents and, while still in school, began writing letters to naval schools, and then to ministries and personally to N.S. Khrushchev, with a request for permission to study at the nautical school. At less than 16 years old, A. Alexandrova became a cadet at the Nevelsk Naval School. The decisive role in her fate was played by the captain of the ship “Alexander Baranov” Viktor Dmitrenko, with whom the girl-navigator did an internship. Then Alevtina got a job at the Sakhalin Shipping Company and worked there all her life.
Valentina Reutova – fishing boat captain She is 45 years old, so she seems to have become the captain of a fishing boat in Kamchatka, that’s all I know.
Girls rule
Young people also join the fleet, and letters to the president or minister are no longer required. Last year, for example, I gave a note about a graduate of Moscow State University. adm. G.I.Nevelsky. On February 9, 2007, the Maritime University gave a start in life to the future captain Natalya Belokonskaya. She is the first girl in the new century to graduate from the navigating department. Moreover, Natalya is an excellent student! Future captain? Natalya Belokonskaya, a graduate of FEVIMU (MSU), receives a diploma, and Olya Smirnova works as a sailor-helmsman on the river m/v "Vasily Chapaev".
http://www.odin.tc/disaster/women.asp
105 years have passed since the birth of Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina, the world’s first female sea captain, Hero of Socialist Labor, graduate of the Vladivostok Maritime College, associate professor, and then head of the department of “Ship Control” at FEVIMU named after. adm. G.I. Nevelsky.
Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina was born on February 26, 1908 at Okeanskaya station near Vladivostok. Anna went to elementary school at Lyanchikhe station (Sadgorod district) at the age of eleven. The civil war was in full swing, schools were closed every now and then. The Shchetinins lived in Sedanka in those years; there was no money for travel, and the girl had to get there on foot. And this is seven kilometers there and seven kilometers back. In winter - skate along the river to the bay, and then on the ice of the Amur Bay. After the entry of the Red Army into Vladivostok, the schools were reorganized, and in 1922 Anna Shchetinina entered the unified labor school at Sedanka station. She was actively catching up. She graduated from eight-year school in six years and submitted documents to the Vladivostok Marine College.
Decades later, she will tell in the book “On Different Sea Roads”: “I wrote a letter to the head of the technical school. This was both a modest request and an assurance of one’s readiness for all difficulties. Not a letter, but a whole poem." With a sinking heart, she lowered the envelope into the box and began to wait for an answer. Finally I received an invitation to “appear in person” to the boss...
Do you want to go to the sea? - he asked. - Tell me, why did you suddenly want this?
Tell me, are you prohibited from accepting girls? - I asked.
No, it’s not prohibited,” the boss winced in annoyance. - But I’m three times older than you and I want to warn you from the bottom of my heart. Well, tell me, what makes you choose to become a navigator? Have you read enough novels? Does romance appeal?
Job. Interesting job.
Job? You don't know this work at all. From the first days you will be treated not more leniently, but more strictly than others. You will have to spend twice as much time and effort on work as your comrades. If a guy makes a mistake and can’t do something, it will be just a mistake. And if you make a mistake, they will say: woman, what can they take from her? It may be unfair and offensive, but it will happen. And all your successes will be attributed to imaginary concessions that were supposedly made to you, as a girl. After all, we have a lot of people of the old stock. If you end up with some old boatswain, he will shake the soul out of you... My guys often run away from practice, and you go there too!
I won’t hold back, rest assured.”
In 1925, Anna Shchetinina entered the navigation department of the Vladivostok Maritime College. Just one episode in the fate of the future captain, one stroke in her character: to earn a living, she worked at night as a loader in the port along with her classmates. Anna did not receive a scholarship at the technical school: despite excellent grades, she was denied as a “unpromising student.” And in the port she did not give herself any concessions, trying to be like everyone else. She walked in circles, gritting her teeth from pride and fatigue: she had to carry thirty to forty kilograms on her shoulders. The money earned for such work was enough for five days.
Anna completed her internship as a deck apprentice on the steamship "Simferopol" and the sailing security vessel "Bryukhanov", and then as a sailor on the steamship "First Crab". Only she alone knew how many offensive jokes, neglect and outright gloating she had to endure from individual crew members during practice. The boatswain turned out exactly as the head of the technical school predicted. He gave me the dirtiest and hardest work: removing rust, cleaning the hold, washing paint cans. She did everything she was ordered, suffering from bouts of seasickness. Many years later she admitted: “I understood that if I refused, I would never stand on an equal footing with the sailors, I would always be a passenger for them.”
Anna Shchetinina graduated from the Marine College in 1929. When she entered, the competition was four people per place. Of the forty-two guys who were accepted with her, eighteen reached the diploma.
After graduating from college, Anna Shchetinina was sent to the Joint-Stock Kamchatka Shipping Company. She did not have enough swimming qualifications to obtain a navigator's diploma. I had to sail for several months as a student or sailor. No one would believe that this girl would go from sailor to captain in six years. At the same time, without skipping a single step: seaman of the port fleet, navigator's student, sailor of the first class, third navigator, second, senior... Is this why her simple words sound so weighty in the book: “I went through the entire difficult path of a sailor from beginning to end. And if I am now the captain of a large ocean ship, then each of my subordinates knows that I did not come from the foam of the sea”?
At the age of 27, Anna Shchetinina ascended to the captain's bridge. Her first voyage as a captain was in 1935, ferrying the steamer "Chinook" from Hamburg to Kamchatka.
“In the spring of '35, I spent my vacation in Moscow,” Anna Ivanovna recalled. - I planned to watch new performances in theaters, run around exhibitions and go south with a ticket in my pocket. But instead of the desired rest, I received a work order! Yes what! Captain of a ship purchased by the Soviet government in Germany.
From the first day, Hamburg unpleasantly struck me with the deathly emptiness of the streets, the abundance of flags with swastikas and the measured clatter of forged boots of stormtroopers walking along the pavement. But work is work. I will forever remember the moment when the boat stopped at the pier. So we climb onto the floating dock and move onto the ship. They give way to me: the captain must board the ship first. We are greeted. But I'm not looking at anyone yet. As soon as I cross the gangplank, I touch the gunwale of the ship with my hand and whisper a greeting to him so that no one notices. Then I extend my hand to the captain and greet him in German. He immediately introduces me to a man in a gray civilian suit: it turns out that this is a representative of the Hansa company, authorized to formalize the transfer of a group of ships to the Soviet Union. I understand that I should say hello to this representative first, but I deliberately do not want to understand this. For me, the main thing now is the captain. And only having said everything that I considered necessary for the captain, I greeted the representative of “Hansa”.
She created a sensation abroad. There was a bet among sailors all over the world: could the “lady captain” bring her ship from Hamburg to the shores of the Far East? The whole world closely watched the progress of the ship, expecting a disaster. But Anna Shchetinina did not live up to the skeptics’ predictions, successfully completing the most difficult voyage. Her fame overtook the ship, and as soon as the Chinook dropped anchor in Singapore, Anna was invited to an elite English maritime club. It was crowded: gentlemen came especially to look at the “lady captain”. In a respectful, surprised whisper behind her, she caught the general meaning: the gentlemen expected to see “at least a brown bear from the Siberian forests...”.
And the sea, testing the unusual captain’s strength, dealt blows to her immediately after taking office...
“During the ship’s passage from Hamburg to Odessa, the Chinook fell into a strip of continuous lingering fog. Each of us had to wake up in the dark and find a way out of the room by touch. But the only price you pay for losing your bearings in the house is bruises and bumps. What if the ship loses its bearings?.. After all, the navigational equipment of ships in those years was not the same as it is now, when navigators were armed with a gyrocompass, radio direction finders, radars... And then there were only a magnetic compass, a log with a turntable, and lots - mechanical and manual.” .
The “Chinook” was literally groping its way through the North Sea, stuffed with ships, shoals and currents, tearing through the thick canvas of fog with its stem. The Sea of Japan, Okhotsk and Bering Seas accustomed Shchetinina to swimming in fog, but it was difficult to get used to Europe. The ship's whistle sounded continuously, at short intervals. For fear of not hearing a return signal, everyone on the ship avoided the noise. Those off duty gathered at the bow and looked ahead until their eyes hurt, so as not to miss the rapidly approaching silhouette of the oncoming ship. Multi-deck passenger liners sailed past, light fishing boats slipped by, warships walked gloomily, and so it went on for a long, very long time...
In the winter of 1936, the Chinook was covered in ice. The steamer drifted for eleven days. During this time, all food supplies were depleted. The sailors were on hard rations: the crew was given 600 grams of bread a day, the command staff - 400. Fresh water for boilers and drinking was also running out. The entire crew and passengers were mobilized to prepare snow. It was collected from the ice floes, poured into the forepeak, and then melted with steam. During eleven days of ice captivity, Anna Ivanovna did not leave the captain’s bridge, steering the ship with her own hands and choosing the right moment to take the “Chinook” out of the ice.
Even in her books decades later, she did not admit how scared she was. This recognition came out only once, in 1997 at a meeting with fellow captains. Anna Ivanovna suddenly said: “I’m not that brave... Many times I felt scared. Especially when the deck of the Jean Jaurès burst..."
In December 1943, the steamship Jean Zhores, under the command of Anna Shchetinina, assisted the steamship Valery Chkalov in the Bering Sea, whose deck burst during a storm and it broke in two. In the most difficult storm conditions, with the second shot of the line gun, rescuers managed to place the towing line on the stern of the Valery Chkalov, which miraculously continued to stay afloat. The crew was saved. The captain of “Chkalov” Alexander Fedorovich Shantsberg, who began his captain’s career even before Shchetinina was born, respectfully said: “You are a cat and a dad, but you raped karasho!” This time, of course, she was not offended for the “woman.”
And on the next voyage, the Jean Jaurès got into trouble. This happened in the Gulf of Alaska, when the nearest Akutan Bay was 500 miles away. During a strong storm, the deck of the ship also burst. It was as if a cannon had fired, and from the bridge the watch saw a crack that barely reached the port side. The wide gap was “breathing”, and it seemed that the next push of the waves would break the ship. Everyone had the accident of “Valery Chkalov” fresh in their memory. Shchetinina decided not to give a distress signal. The center of the cyclone had passed, the weather could not have been worse, there was nowhere to wait for help, real and close, and the crack was localized by drilling holes at its ends. When three days later the ship approached Akutan and the commander of the military boat allowed the Russian ship to continue its journey, Anna Ivanovna invited the American to climb onto the deck of her barely alive ship.
The boat commander grabbed his head... They urgently brought the ship to the pier. Unloaded some of the flour. A floating workshop was called from the port of Dutch Harbor. They welded the crack and offered to return the ship to America for repairs. But in wartime, every day was worth its weight in gold. “I got to Akutan with such a crack in a storm, I’ll get to Petropavlovsk with the long-awaited bread, if I’m lucky with the weather,” Shchetinina decided. And they arrived...
During the Second World War, Anna Shchetinina, under fire from enemy aircraft, evacuated people and transported strategically important cargo. Throughout the war she worked on ships delivering food and equipment from America and Canada to Russia. In 1945, it provided landing operations during the war with Japan.
For the courage and skill of captain Shchetinina was awarded the medal “For the Defense of Leningrad” in 1941, the Order of the Red Star in 1942, and the Order of Lenin in 1945. After the war, in 1950, she completed her education at the Leningrad Higher Marine Engineering School, where she entered before the war. In September 1960, Anna Ivanovna returned to her native Vladivostok, having been appointed associate professor of the Department of Ship Management.
By this time, she had become not only a world celebrity, but also the author of several textbooks for future sailors. For many years her life was connected with the Far Eastern Higher Marine Engineering School. Sharing her experience with future navigators, she continued to remain on the captain’s bridge for a long time, going on voyages on the ships “Orsha”, “Orekhov”, “Okhotsk”, “Anton Chekhov”... Anna Ivanovna gave fifty years to the sea. She circumnavigated all the oceans of the world, was the captain of fifteen ships, and circumnavigated the world on the Okhotsk.
Anna Shchetinina conducted enormous public activities. She founded a section of navigation and oceanology in the Primorsky branch of the Geographical Society of the USSR and headed it herself. And a few years later she became the chairman of the Primorsky branch of the Geographical Society. On her initiative, the Captains Club was created in Vladivostok, and the Far Eastern captains elected her as the first chairman of the club. She was a deputy of the Primorsky Regional Council and a member of the Soviet Women's Committee, which was headed by Valentina Tereshkova, the world's first female cosmonaut.
In 1978, Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor and the title of Honorary Resident of the city of Vladivostok. She lived a great life, her 90th birthday was celebrated by the whole country. And the whole city saw her off on her last journey in 1999.
A cape on the coast of the Amur Bay, a square on the Shkota Peninsula, and a street in the Snegovaya Pad microdistrict are named after this wonderful woman. School No. 16 in Vladivostok bears her name. The best cadets of the Maritime Academy are annually awarded a scholarship named after Anna Shchetinina.
I would like to believe that in the future the name of the famous captain Shchetinina will appear on board a modern ocean-going vessel. And a monument to her will definitely be erected on one of the streets of our city. It is no coincidence that the phrase was born: “Shchetinina is for Vladivostok, like Gagarin is for Russia.”
Galina Yakunina,
The world's first female sea captain, Anna, was born in 1908 at Okeanskaya station near Vladivostok. Father Ivan Ivanovich, originally from the village of Chumai, Verkhne-Chubulinsky district, Kemerovo region, worked as a switchman, forester, worker and employee in the fisheries, carpenter and commandant of dachas in the Regional Department of the NKVD. Mother Maria Filosofovna is also from the Kemerovo region. Brother Vladimir Ivanovich was born in Vladivostok, worked as a workshop foreman at the Aircraft Plant at the station. Varfolomeevka, Primorsky Krai. In 1919 A.I. Shchetinina began studying at an elementary school in Sadgorod. After the entry of the Red Army into Vladivostok, the schools were reorganized, and from 1922 Anna Ivanovna studied at the unified labor school at Sedanka station, where in 1925 she graduated from 8 classes. In the same year, she entered the navigation department of the Vladivostok Maritime College, where she was the only girl on the course among the Komsomol boys. While studying at the technical school, she worked as a nurse and cleaner in the dental office of the technical school. During her studies, she sailed as a student on the steamship "Simferopol" and the security ship "Bryukhanov" of the state association Dalryba, and served as a sailor on the steamship "First Crab Catcher". In 1928, she married Nikolai Filippovich Kachimov, a marine radio operator, later the head of the Radio Service of the Fishing Industry in Vladivostok. After graduating from college, Anna Ivanovna was sent to the Joint-Stock Kamchatka Shipping Company, where she went from sailor to captain in just 6 years. She also worked on the schooner Okhotsk, which left in her memory vivid memories associated with one incident: “While parking at the plant, where repairs had just been completed on Okhotsk, the mechanic on watch started the auxiliary engine, which ensured the operation of the generator, and violated safety rules. There was a fire. After the people were removed, the engine room was closed, the ship was towed aground off the southern shore of the bay and scuttled, which required cutting through the wooden lining of the side. The fire has stopped. The divers sealed the hole in the casing, the water was pumped out, and the ship was brought back to the plant for repairs.” Anna then served as a navigator on the Koryak steamship.
Anya Shchetinina In 1932, at the age of 24, Anna received a navigator's diploma. In 1933 or 1934 she received A.A. Kacharava (the future commander of the steamship "Sibiryakov", which entered into battle with the "pocket" battleship "Admiral Scheer" in 1942) served as senior mate of the steamship "Orochon", which belonged to the Kamchatka Joint Stock Company. Anna Shchetinina's first voyage as a captain took place in 1935. Anna had a hard time - not every sailor could accept a 27-year-old beautiful woman as a captain, it was too unusual. Anna had to transfer the ship "Chinook" from Hamburg to Kamchatka. The flight attracted the attention of the world press. Anna Ivanovna said: “In Hamburg we were met by our representative, engineer Lomnitsky. He said that “my” steamer had already arrived from South America and, after unloading, was docked for inspection of the underwater part of the hull, that the captain had been warned about my arrival and was stunned that a woman would come to replace him. Immediately Lomnitsky examined me rather critically and said that he never thought that I was so young (he apparently wanted to say - almost a girl). He asked, among other things, how old I was, and, having learned that I was already twenty-seven, he noted that they could give me five years younger. I, too, seemed to look at myself from the outside and thought that I was not respectable enough for a captain: a blue silk hat, a gray fashionable coat, light shoes with heels... But I decided that a uniform suit would only come later, on the ship, when I would do business . After breakfast and check-in at the hotel, everyone went to the ship. At the city pier we boarded a boat and set off along the Elbe River to the so-called “Free Harbor”, where there was a steamer that I so wanted and was so afraid to see. To my questions, Lomnitsky answered: “See for yourself.” Such an intriguing answer made us wary and expect some kind of surprise. Good or bad? The boat runs briskly along the river, and I look around restlessly, trying to be the first to see and recognize “my” steamer myself. But they don't give it to me. Engineer Lomnitsky warns: - Around the bend, on the other side, there will be a floating dock. Look! The boat turns and rushes towards the opposite shore, and I see a floating dock and on it - a ship, stern towards us. The underwater part of its hull has been cleaned and one side has already been painted with bright red-brown paint - red lead. Minium is not only for beauty, it protects the sides and bottom of the ships from rust... The freeboard is green, the superstructures are white, the intricate Hansa company brand is on the pipe. On the stern the name is “Hohenfels” and the home port is Hamburg. I even choked with pleasure, joy, pride, whatever you want to call it. What a big, clean, strong ship! What wonderful body contours! I tried to imagine him many times. The reality exceeded all my expectations. The boat stops at the pier. We climb onto the floating dock and go to the ship. They give way to me: the captain must board the ship first. I'm touched. I see people on deck: they are greeting us. But I don't look at them yet. As soon as I cross the gangway, I touch the gunwale of the ship with my hand and, greeting him, whisper a greeting to him so that no one notices. Then I pay attention to the people standing on the deck. The first in the group of greeters are the captain - I can judge this by the braid on the sleeves - and a man in a civilian gray suit. I extend my hand to the captain and greet him in German. He immediately introduces me to a man in civilian clothes. It turns out that this is a representative of the Hansa company, authorized to formalize the transfer of this group of ships. I understand the captain in the sense that first I should have greeted this 'high representative', but I deliberately do not want to understand this: for me the main thing now is the captain. I cannot find in my stock of German words the necessary expressions for a polite greeting - for this, several German lessons taken in Leningrad are not enough. I switch to English. And only having said everything that I considered necessary to the captain, I greeted the representative of the Hansa company, keeping his last name in mind. This must be done strictly. If you have been told a person’s last name at least once, especially during this kind of introduction, you must remember it and not forget it in subsequent conversations. Here I also tried to cope in English. Then we were introduced to the chief engineer - a very elderly and very handsome-looking “grandfather” - and the senior mate - a desperately red-haired and freckled fellow of about thirty. He particularly shook my hand and spoke a lot, either in German or in English. This rather lengthy greeting caused the captain to jokingly remark that my appearance on the ship made a strong impression on everyone, but, apparently, especially on the senior mate, and the captain fears that he is not currently losing a good senior mate. Such a joke somehow helped me come to my senses and hide my involuntary embarrassment from everyone’s attention. After everyone got acquainted, we were invited to the captain's cabin. I quickly, but remembering every detail, examined the deck and everything that came into view: superstructures, corridors, ladders and, finally, the captain’s office. Everything was good, clean and in good order. The captain's office occupied the entire forward part of the upper deckhouse. It contained a solid desk, an armchair, a corner sofa, a snack table in front of it, and good chairs. The entire rear bulkhead was occupied by a glass sideboard with a lot of beautiful dishes in special nests. The business part of the conversation was short. Engineer Lomnitsky introduced me to a number of documents, from which I learned the basic conditions for receiving the vessel, as well as the fact that the vessel was given the name of our Far Eastern large salmon fish - “Chinook”. The entire group of accepted vessels received the names of fish and sea animals: “Sima”, “Coho”, “Tuna”, “Whale”, etc. Here the captain and I agreed on the procedure for accepting the ship. It was decided to call the team on the next voyage of our passenger ship from Leningrad. Currently, it was necessary to get acquainted with the progress and quality of repair and finishing work stipulated by the agreement on the transfer of the vessel. After a business conversation, the captain invited us to have a glass of wine. The conversation began. Captain Butman said that he was surprised by the news about the sale of the ship to the Soviet Union and that it should be transferred now. He did not hide that he was very upset. He has been sailing on this ship for six years, he is used to it, he considers it a very good seaworthy vessel, and he is sorry to leave it. He gallantly added that, however, he was glad to hand over such a wonderful ship to such a young captain, and even to the first woman in the world who had earned the right and high honor to become on the captain's bridge. Toast followed toast. The short toast from the representative of the Hansa company sounded dry and businesslike. It was felt that he was upset that Germany was forced to sell its fleet to the Soviet Union: he understood that the Soviet navy was growing, which means our entire national economy was growing and developing. The toast of the “grandfather” who greeted all our sailors sounded very good and simple. He clinked glasses with everyone, and said a few warm words to me that sounded downright fatherly. The chief mate spoke again for a long time. From his German-English speech, I understood that he would try to hand over the ship in such a way that the new (compliments again followed) captain would not have any complaints and so that the new crew would understand that the ship was received from real sailors who knew how to take care and maintain it in due order. Wow! Now that's a thing! If this is not just polite chatter, then a friend has been acquired who wants to help in receiving the ship. The next day, dressed in work clothes, I began inspecting the ship. The captain did not accompany me everywhere. This was done by the senior assistant. The holds, rope boxes, some double-bottom tanks, coal pits, and the engine room were inspected. Everything was examined in detail. No time was spared. We worked until two o'clock, then sorted out the drawings and other documents. After a working day, I changed clothes and, at the invitation of the captain, took part in long conversations that were held daily in the captain’s cabin with members of the German command staff of the ship and our sailors who came at the end of the working day. After such conversations, we Soviet sailors went to our hotel, had dinner, and walked around the city, although not always. We were all very burdened by the atmosphere of the city, and we tried to spend time in our own circle. I was in Germany for the third time. I used to like it there, I liked the people - so simple, cheerful and good-natured, businesslike and sensible. I liked the exceptional cleanliness and order on the streets, in houses, in shops and stores. Germany in 1935 was unpleasantly struck by the deathly emptiness of many streets, the abundance of flags with swastikas and the measured clatter of forged boots of young men in khaki with swastikas on their sleeves, who, as a rule, walked in pairs along the streets, came across in hotel corridors, in the dining room. Their loud barking voices hurt my ears. It was somehow especially uncomfortable, as if in a good mood you came to the house of your good old friends and found yourself at a funeral... But I, I won’t lie, it was just scary in this huge hotel. It was terrible at night to listen to the same measured stomping, which even the carpets in the corridors did not muffle. I counted the days until the arrival of my team and until the final acceptance of the ship, when it would be possible to move onto it. With the arrival of our team, things began to boil in a new way, the acceptance of property and spare parts began. As always in such cases, opinions appeared that “this is not so” and that “not quite so.” There were aspirations to redo something, to do something anew. We had to strictly ensure that people did not get carried away and understood that the ship was not their own veranda and it was not at all necessary to remake it in their own way. After a few days, our entire crew came to the conclusion that the German team behaved very loyally towards us, helped a lot in our work and did a lot even beyond what was required by agreement. The first mate of the German team did not break his promises. From the very beginning, he proved that he was handing over the ship not only in good faith, but also more than that. By the way, there was an anecdote. Whenever I came to the ship, he always met me not only at the gangway, but even on the pier. If I was carrying something, he offered to help. In a word, he courted me in his own way, probably, he liked me as a woman... My first mate, and all the assistants asked me: what to do with him - break his legs or leave him like that? And how should we behave: should we greet our captain ourselves at the entrance to the plant, or should we recognize this right as a German? I had to laugh it off: since we were not on our own land, we had to take this into account, but it doesn’t hurt our young people to learn politeness and attentiveness. Our team began to call the German first mate a “fascist,” but then, seeing his friendliness and business-like assistance, they simply called him “Red Vanya.” By the time the ship was received, a ceremonial raising of the flag was being prepared. What a great event this is - the acceptance of a new vessel for our navy. We brought the flags of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the pennants of our organization with us, and we eagerly awaited their solemn raising. I invited the German captain and crew, as well as the representative of the Hansa company and other representatives, to the ceremonial raising of the flag. Everyone, as one, answered that they probably would not be able to accept the invitation: the captain was leaving for Berlin on that very day, the representative of the Hansa had to travel to other ports on business - and so on. We understood perfectly well that they were simply forbidden to attend the raising of the Soviet flag on our ship. Our guesses were confirmed by the fact that on the appointed day the German flag was no longer raised on the ship. I had to limit myself to inviting the German command staff to have a glass of wine with me even before the raising of our flag. There were toasts and wishes again. And then the Germans quickly left the ship one by one. The captains and crews of our receiving ships, as well as our representatives, have arrived. And now the command sounds on our ship: - Raise the flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the pennant! And slowly, unfurled, our scarlet flag and with it the pennant of the Kamchatka Joint Stock Company rise. The flag and pennant are raised. We all sing “The Internationale” with enthusiasm. The sounds of a unique melody flow over the ship and the piers, which recently were still full of people, but are now empty, as if for many miles there is not a single person except us, Soviet people, on the deck of a Soviet ship, which has now become a piece of our native territory. How much it means to be far from your homeland and feel at home! And the ship is also our native land!..."
Steamship "Chavycha" On June 15, 1935, the ship arrived in Odessa. A month later, on July 16, 1935, he left for Kamchatka with 2,800 tons of cargo, among which was equipment for the ship repair shipyard being built in Petropavlovsk. The journey here from the Black Sea took fifty-eight days. On the morning of September 12, 1935, the “Chinook” was solemnly greeted at the port of Petropavlovsk. After minor repairs, the ship proceeded to the coastal factories: its long-term daily voyages with supply cargo and passengers began. In mid-December 1935, the “Chinook” was in Mitoga. A strong storm that swept over the plant destroyed many buildings and structures. Fortunately, there were no casualties. On December 14, the ship transferred food and warm clothing ashore for the victims. In February, in the winter of 1936, the “Chinook” was covered in ice for eleven days in the area of the Olyutorsky fish processing plant. During the forced drift, food supply came to an end. The sailors were given meager rations: the crew was given 600 grams of bread a day, the command staff - 400. It turned out that fresh water was also running out. The crew and passengers collected snow from the ice floes, poured it into the forepeak, and then melted it with steam. So they produced about 100 tons of water for drinking and boilers. This allowed the ship to remove almost all fish products from Olyutorka. Throughout the entire day of ice captivity, Anna did not leave the captain’s bridge, steering the ship with her own hands, looking for an opportune moment to take the Chinook out of the ice. The ship's crew worked smoothly and without fuss. The chief mate and the sailors tried to cut the ice floe with a saw to free the ship, but they were unable to do this. To turn the Chinook, a light anchor was placed on the ice. As a result of titanic efforts, the ship left the heavy ice without damaging the hull. In order to avoid damage to the propeller, the captain decided to sink its stern, for which the crew and passengers reloaded the contents of the bow holds into the stern for several days. However, although the ship's stern draft increased, three propeller blades were bent. A.I. Shchetinina commanded the “Chinook” until 1938. She received her first Order of the Red Banner of Labor precisely for these difficult, truly “male” flights across the Sea of Okhotsk. On January 10, 1937, the leadership of the AKO ordered her to be sent “to Moscow to receive the order.” The corresponding order came to Kamchatka from Glavryba on that day.
Anna in the captain's cabin with her favorite pets - a cat and a dog. On January 23–24, 1937, a conference of AKO enterprises was held in Petropavlovsk. Its transcript contains many episodes characterizing the state of the society's fleet during this period. The main problems preventing its normal operation were voiced by the captain of the “Chinook” A.I. Shchetinina, who by this time had achieved all-Union fame. Outstanding personal qualities, as well as great authority among sailors, gave Anna Ivanovna’s words significant weight, forcing high-ranking party and economic leaders to listen to them. The main problem in the operation of the fleet was its long downtime. According to A.I. Shchetinina, each vessel should be assigned to a specific fish processing plant: “then both the vessel and the shore will mutually try to organize work.” It was necessary to clearly plan the work of ships during non-navigation times. Often they were simultaneously put into repair, then left at the same time and accumulated in the unequipped Petropavlovsk port, which was not suitable for their mass processing. It was necessary to provide ships with timely notifications about changes in navigation conditions in order to avoid situations like: “We were not told that lights were installed in Petropavlovsk, and we do not know where they are installed.” In winter, it was necessary to organize the transmission of weather reports and ice conditions. In 1938, A.I. Shchetinina was appointed head of the fishing port in Vladivostok. In the same year, she entered the Leningrad Institute of Water Transport at the navigating department. Having the right to freely attend lectures, she completes 4 courses in two and a half years. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Anna Ivanovna received a referral to the Baltic Shipping Company. In August 1941, under severe shelling from the Nazis, she drove the steamship Saule loaded with food and weapons across the Gulf of Finland, supplying our army. In the fall of 1941, together with a group of sailors, she was sent to Vladivostok at the disposal of the Far Eastern Shipping Company. There she worked on the ships "Karl Liebknecht", "Rodina" and "Jean Zhores". These were Liberty-class steamers carrying military supplies across the Pacific Ocean. “...During the war, I quite often had to attend receptions in the USA and Canada,” she said. - At one of them I was introduced to the officials present. The embassy secretary greeted everyone and loudly announced their name and position. I arrived a little earlier than the specified time and was also introduced to the audience. In addition, one of the employees of the Soviet embassy, who took care of me, introduced me to people whom he called “important people useful to our state.”
Liberty steamship "Jean Jaurès" At the very end of World War II, on August 25, 1945, Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina participated as part of the VKMA-3 convoy in the transfer of the 264th Infantry Division to southern Sakhalin. In 1947, the steamship Dmitry Mendeleev, commanded by Shchetinina, delivered to Leningrad statues stolen by the Nazis from Petrodvorets during the occupation. Many years later she will say about herself: “I went through the entire difficult journey of a sailor from beginning to end. And if I am now the captain of a large ocean ship, then each of my subordinates knows that I did not come from the foam of the sea!” After the end of the war with Japan, she submitted a request to be released to Leningrad to graduate from the Leningrad Institute of Water Transport Engineers. In Leningrad, until 1949, she worked in the Baltic Shipping Company as captain of the ships “Dniester”, “Pskov”, “Askold”, “Beloostrov”, “Mendeleev”. On the Mendeleev she landed in the fog on the reefs of the island of Senar, for which the Minister of the Ministry of Fleet was transferred to the captain of ships of group V for one year. She commanded the timber carrier "Baskunchak" before its transfer to the Far East.
Anna in 1943 Since 1949, Shchetinina goes to work at the Leningrad Higher Marine Engineering School as an assistant and at the same time completes the 5th year of the navigating department in absentia. At LVIMU in 1951, she was appointed first as a senior lecturer, and then as dean of the navigation faculty. In 1956 she was awarded the title of associate professor. In 1960, he was transferred to the Vladivostok Higher Marine Engineering School to the position of associate professor in the Department of Marine Engineering. In the archives of Moscow State University. adm. G.I. Nevelskoy (formerly VVIMU and DVVIMU) documents related to A.I. are stored. Shchetinina, for example, in the “Minutes of the department meeting dated May 30, 1963 on Shchetinina’s re-election as an associate professor of the department, good reading of lectures in the courses “Meteorology and Oceanography”, “Nautical Affairs”, “Navigation and Pilotship”, supervision of theses, writing textbooks and books were noted ." In 1963, having become the chairman of the Primorsky branch of the Geographical Society of the USSR, Shchetinina published an appeal to seafarers, urging them to report observations “of unusual, anomalous or rare phenomena,” the study of which “will expand human knowledge.”
Anna at the Neptune Festival In 1969 and 1974, she was re-elected again, but this time in the department of “Ship Management and Its Technical Operation.” In 1972, DVVIMU petitioned for the appointment of sea captain A.I. Shchetinina. Republican pension. Unfortunately, as often happens in a state where mentally disabled people, like N.S. Khrushchev, come to power, instead of attention and care for those who are busy with real and necessary work, the authorities begin to glorify and praise those who bend their backs better . That is why Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina received the long-deserved title - Hero of Socialist Labor - only on her 70th birthday. Captain Shchetinina was awarded several orders for commanding ships during the Great Patriotic War, on which she carried out the “fiery voyages” now known in history. Her successes in peacetime were noticed not only in the USSR, but also abroad. Indicative in this sense is the fact that even unshakable conservatives - Australian captains and ship managers - violated their centuries-old tradition for her sake: not allowing a woman into the holy of holies - the Rotary Club. And in front of A.I. Shchetinina opened the doors. Moreover, they gave the floor on their forum. And later, during the celebration of her 90th birthday, the President of the World Captains Association, Mr. Kawashima, presented Anna Ivanovna with a congratulation on behalf of the captains of Europe and America. But in her country, the first woman sea captain A.I. For a long time, Shchetinina was never awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. Although by this time two women who became captains later than her - Orlikova and Kissa, bore this title. The school management prepared and sent the relevant documents to the government. But the award ceremony did not take place. Secretary of the Regional Committee of the CPSU for Ideology A.G. Mulenkov explained that an official on the award commission said: “Why are you nominating your captain? I have a woman in line - the director of the institute, and a woman - a famous cotton grower! " When he tried to explain that this was the world’s first female sea captain, he simply became rude: “You should also introduce the world’s first carriage driver...”. The reason for the refusal was the “dissenting opinion” of one of the representatives of the Marine Fleet in the CPSU Central Committee, who was previously deputy head of the Baltic Shipping Company for personnel. At one time A.I. Shchetinina sharply criticized him for unseemly deeds in this post.
Anna Shchetinina in the seventies In the late 70s A.I. Shchetinina receives an invitation from the head of the Far Eastern MP V.P. Byankin to the position of captain-mentor. The award found her on her 70th birthday. It was on February 26, 1978, when Anna Ivanovna’s birthday was celebrated at the old Sailors’ Club, that the award document came to L.I. Brezhnev’s desk and was signed. A.I. Shchetina became a member of the Russian Writers' Union and wrote two books, one of which is called “On the Seas and Beyond the Seas.” Writer Lev Knyazev said about her: “Anna Ivanovna is a wonderful writer, the only one in the world, as far as I know, who is a female marine painter. She did not turn to so-called “pure” fiction, although, judging by the language in which the books were written, she could well have done so. The value of her books lies in their absolute truthfulness, high professionalism and another, not so common quality - kindness. Talking about real events, describing hundreds of sailors and other people with whom her sea roads encountered her, she did not say a bad word about a single one of them. She is a sailor and understood sailors with their virtues and shortcomings. That’s why her books will certainly outlive many works of fiction and preserve her legendary image.” The author's song developed in the 70s with the active participation of Anna Ivanovna. The “Tourist Patriotic Song Competition” held in Vladivostok, where she headed the jury, in a year will turn into the “Primorsky Strings” festival, which will subsequently become the largest bard festival in the Far East. Anna Ivanovna was also the organizer of the “Captains Club” in Vladivostok in the ancient building of the Sailors’ Palace of Culture on Pushkinskaya Street. An obligatory ritual was the washing in a glass of the honorary badge “Sea Captain” for the newly appointed chief commander of the vessel. She amazed experienced captains with her directorial discoveries, which Eldar Ryazanov himself would have envied. These included comic competitions between teams of artists from the Primorsky Regional Theater named after M. Gorky and a group of captains, and a demonstration of fashionable women's clothing and ballroom dancing, in which gallant gentlemen performed fancy steps of a forgotten polonaise, dashingly danced in the Polish mazurka, and collective festive performances. Anna Ivanovna had to persuade some captains for a long time to play an unusual role. The elders of the “Captains Club” helped young commanders in their official and everyday affairs; they often had to directly contact the management of the shipping company. Captains of the Primorye fishing fleet and the most worthy commanders of the Pacific Fleet were also accepted into the Club. Misdemeanors that discredited the title of captain were not overlooked, and “shavings” were removed from those who were guilty. Anna Ivanovna died on September 25, 1999. There is a monument to her at the Marine Cemetery in Vladivostok, built with funds from shipping companies and ports. Hero of Socialist Labor, Honorary Worker of the Navy, Honorary Citizen of the City of Vladivostok, Honorary Member of the Geographical Society of the USSR, Member of the Writers' Union of Russia, Active Member of the Soviet Women's Committee, Honorary Member of the Far Eastern Association of Sea Captains in London, FESMA and IFSMA. For her work, Anna Ivanovna was awarded many government awards: two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Patriotic War, II degree, the Order of the Red Star, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, the medal “For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.” .”, medal “For Victory over Japan”, gold medal “Hammer and Sickle”, insignia “Hero of Socialist Labor”. On October 20, 2006, the name Shchetinina was given to a cape on the Shkota Peninsula in the Sea of Japan. In Vladivostok, not far from the house where the female captain lived, there is a park named after her. A memorial plaque was unveiled on the school building, which Anna Shchetinina graduated from in 1925.
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