Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina (russian: Анна Ивановна Щетинина; 26 February 1908 – 25 September 1999) was a Soviet merchant marine sailor who became the world's first woman to serve as a

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of an ocean-going vessel. Shchetinina was born at the Okeanskaya Station near

Vladivostok Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, ...

in a family of a railway

switchman A switchman (North America) or pointsman (British Isles) is a rail transport worker whose original job was to operate various railway switches or points on a railroad. It also refers to a person who assists in moving cars in a railway yard o ...

. In 1925 she entered the navigation department of the Vladivostok Marine School (russian: Владивостокский морской техникум). After graduation she worked with a shipping company in

Kamchatka The Kamchatka Peninsula (russian: полуостров Камчатка, Poluostrov Kamchatka, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and west ...

Peninsula, where she started as an

Ordinary Seaman __NOTOC__ An ordinary seaman (OS) is a member of the deck department of a ship. The position is an apprenticeship to become an able seaman, and has been for centuries. In modern times, an OS is required to work on a ship for a specific amount ...

(or, rather, "Seawoman"), and rose to a captain. At the age of 24 she received her

navigator A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's prima ...

's license (qualifying her for a position equivalent to a Second Mate in the Western merchant marines), and at 27 became the world's first female captain of an ocean-going ship. She attracted international attention on her first voyage as a captain (in 1935), as a young woman in charge of MV ''Chavycha'' on its journey from

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

(where it had just been purchased) to the

Russian Far East The Russian Far East (russian: Дальний Восток России, r=Dal'niy Vostok Rossii, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is admin ...

around Europe, Africa, and Asia.Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina
On 20 March 1938 Shchetinina became the first chief manager of the

fishing port. Later the same year, however, she went back to school, now at Leningrad Ship Transport Institute. She participated in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

in the Baltic, where her ship was evacuating people from

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju '' ...

and transporting war cargoes under enemy bombardment. Later during the war she was the master of a

Liberty ship Liberty ships were a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Though British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Ma ...

moving

Lend-Lease Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (), was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, ...

supplies across the Pacific from the USA to Soviet Far Eastern ports. After the War Ms. Shchetinina served as the captain of MV ''Askold'', ''Baskunchak'', ''Beloostrov'', ''Dniester'', ''Pskov'', and ''Mendeleev'' of the Soviet Baltic Shipping Company. Since in 1949 she taught in the Leningrad Marine Engineering College (Ленинградское высшее инженерно-морское училище); in 1951 she became a senior instructor there, and later, the Dean of the Institute's Navigation Department. In 1956 she was granted the title of docent. In 1960 she accepted the position of a ''docent'' (

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. Overview In the '' North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is ...

) at the Department of Sea Craft" (Морское дело]) at Vladivostok Marine Engineering and Navigation College. Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina was awarded the medal of the

Hero of Socialist Labor The Hero of Socialist Labour (russian: links=no, Герой Социалистического Труда, Geroy Sotsialisticheskogo Truda) was an honorific title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries from 1938 to 1991. It repre ...

, which was one of the two highest awards of the USSR. She was also honored as a Distinguished Worker of the Merchant Marine an

honorary citizen Honorary citizenship is a status bestowed by a city or other government on a foreign or native individual whom it considers to be especially admirable or otherwise worthy of the distinction. The honour usually is symbolic and does not confer an ...

of Vladivostok, an honorary member of the Far-Eastern Association of Shipmasters and The International Federation of Shipmasters' Associations (IFSMA), and received a number of other national and international awards. She published a book entitled ''On the Seas and Beyond the Seas'' (russian: На морях и за морями), and was admitted as a member into the

Union of Russian Writers The Union of Russian Writers (russian: Союз российских писателей, translit=Soyuz rossiyskikh pisateley) is a non-governmental organization uniting Russian and writers (novelists, poets, essayists, etc.). It was established i ...

. A monument in honor of Shchetinina has been erected in the old Maritime Cemetery in

. On 20 October 2006 Cape Shchetinina on the shore of the

Amur Bay Amur Bay (russian: Амурский Залив, ''Amurskiy Zaliv''), a major bay within Peter the Great Gulf of the Sea of Japan, has an approximate length of , a width of to , and a depth of . It is part of a larger bay formed with Ussuri B ...

of the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, i ...

was named in her honor. On 8 February 2017, one of five previously unnamed

Kuril Islands The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands (; rus, Кури́льские острова́, r=Kuril'skiye ostrova, p=kʊˈrʲilʲskʲɪjə ɐstrɐˈva; Japanese language, Japanese: or ) are a volcanic archipelago currently administered as part of Sakh ...

Sakhalin Oblast Sakhalin Oblast ( rus, Сахали́нская о́бласть, r=Sakhalínskaya óblast', p=səxɐˈlʲinskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast) comprising the island of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands in the Russian ...

was named after her, as Shchetinina Island.

Notes

References

Anna Schetinina biography
- main source
Photo: Soviet woman captain Anna Shchetinina on board her (wheat) ship ''Orsha'', Walsh Bay, Australia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shchetinina, Anna Ivanovna 1908 births 1999 deaths Female sailors Heroes of Socialist Labour Sea captains Soviet sailors People from Vladivostok Recipients of the Order of Lenin

See also

Notes

References