Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina sea captain. The women are rushing to the helm. No discounts or concessions

There she worked on the ships "Karl Liebknecht", "Rodina" and "Jean Zhores". These were steamships of the Liberty type, carrying military cargo across the Pacific Ocean. “... During the war, I quite often ...

There she worked on the ships "Karl Liebknecht", "Rodina" and "Jean Zhores". These were steamships of the Liberty type, carrying military cargo 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 present officials. The secretary of the embassy met everyone and loudly announced the name and position. I arrived a little earlier than the deadline and was also introduced to the audience. In addition, one of the employees of the Soviet embassy, ​​who took care of me, introduced people whom he called "important persons useful to our state."

Liberty steamer "Jean Jaurès"

At the very end of World War II, on August 25, 1945, Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina participated in the VKMA-3 convoy in the transfer of the 264th Infantry Division to southern Sakhalin.

In 1947, the ship "Dmitry Mendeleev", commanded by Shchetinina, delivered to Leningrad the statues stolen by the Nazis from Petrodvorets during the occupation. After many years, she will say about herself: “I went through the whole 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!

After the end of the war with Japan, she filed 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 the captain of the Dniester, Pskov, Askold, Beloostrov, and Mendeleev ships. On the "Mendeleev" she sat in the fog on the reefs of Senar Island, for which the Minister of the Ministry of Finance was transferred to the captain of the ships of the V group for one year. She commanded the Baskunchak timber carrier until it moved to the Far East.

Anna in 1943

Since 1949, Shchetinina went to work at the Leningrad Higher Marine Engineering School as an assistant and at the same time completed the 5th year of the navigation faculty in absentia.

In LVIMU in 1951, she was appointed first as a senior lecturer, and then as a 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 of the Department of Marine Engineering. In the archive of Moscow State University. adm. G.I. Nevelskoy (former VVIMU and DVVIMU), documents related to A.I. Shchetinina, for example, in the “Minutes of the meeting of the department dated May 30, 1963 on the re-election of Shchetinina as an assistant professor of the department, good lectures were noted in the courses “Meteorology and Oceanography”, “Marine Affairs”, “Navigation and Piloting”, management of theses, writing teaching aids and books."

In 1963, having become the chairman of the Primorsky branch of the Geographical Society of the USSR, Shchetinina published an appeal to navigators, urging them to report observations "of unusual, anomalous or rare phenomena", the study of which "will expand human knowledge."

Anna at the Feast of Neptune

In 1969 and 1974, she was again re-elected, but already in the department of “Ship Management and Its Technical Operation”. In 1972, FEVIMU applied for the appointment, to the captain long-distance navigation Shchetinina A.I. republican pension. Unfortunately, as often happens in a state where mentally handicapped people like N.S. Khrushchev come to power, instead of attention and care for those who are engaged in a real and necessary business, the authorities begin to glorify and praise those who bend their back better . That is why the long-deserved title - Hero of Socialist Labor - Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina received only by the 70th anniversary.

Captain Shchetinina was awarded several orders for commanding ships during the Great Patriotic War, on which she carried out the now-famous "fiery flights" 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 leaders - violated their age-old tradition for her sake: not to allow a woman into the holy of holies - the Rotary Club. And before 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 Association of Captains, Mr. Kawashima, presented Anna Ivanovna with congratulations on behalf of the captains of Europe and America.

But in her country, the first woman sea captain A.I. Shchetinina for a long time was not 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 management of the school prepared and sent the relevant documents to the government. But the award did not take place. Secretary of the Regional Committee of the CPSU for Ideology A.G. Mulenkov explained that an official in the award commission said: “Why are you putting your captain up? I have a woman in line - the director of the institute, and a woman - a well-known cotton grower! On attempts to explain that this is the world's first woman sea captain, he simply sneered: "You would have introduced the world's first carriage driver ...". The reason for the refusal was the "dissenting opinion" of one of the representatives of Morflot in the Central Committee of the CPSU, previously the 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 FESCO, V.P. Byankin to the post of captain-mentor. The award found her on her 70th birthday. It was on February 26, 1978, when Anna Ivanovna's birthday was celebrated in the old Sailors' Club, that the award case fell on the table to L.I. Brezhnev, and was signed.

A.I. Shchetina became a member of the Writers' Union of Russia and wrote two books, one of which is called On the Seas and Beyond the Seas. The writer Lev Knyazev said about her: “Anna Ivanovna is a wonderful writer, the only woman in the world, as far as I know, a marine painter. She did not resort to so-called "pure" fiction, although, judging by the language in which the books are written, she could well do so. The value of her books is in their absolute truthfulness, high professionalism and one more, not so frequent quality - kindness. Talking about real events, describing hundreds of sailors and other people with whom her sea roads collided, she did not say a bad word about the bottom of them. She is a sailor and understood sailors with their virtues and shortcomings. That is why her books are sure to 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, will turn into the Primorsky Strings festival in a year, which will later become the largest bard festival in Far East.

Anna Ivanovna was also the organizer of the Captains' Club in Vladivostok in the old building of the Sailors' Palace of Culture on Pushkinskaya Street. An obligatory ritual was the ablution in a glass of the badge of honor "Captain of a long voyage" for the newly-made chief commander of the ship. She amazed experienced captains with her directorial finds, which Eldar Ryazanov himself would envy. These were both comic competitions between the teams of artists of the Primorsky Regional Theater named after M. Gorky and a group of captains and a demonstration of fashion women's clothing and ballroom dancing, in which gallant cavaliers led the bizarre steps of a forgotten polonaise, famously danced in a 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 "Club of Captains" helped the young commanders in their official and domestic affairs, they often had to directly contact the leadership of the shipping company. The Club also accepted the captains of the fishing fleet of Primorye, and the most worthy commanders of the Pacific Fleet. They did not pass by misconduct discrediting the rank of captain, they removed “shavings” from the guilty.

Anna Ivanovna died on September 25, 1999. At the Marine Cemetery in Vladivostok, a monument was erected to her, built at the expense of shipping companies and ports. Hero of Socialist Labor, Honorary Worker of the Marine Fleet, 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 Committee Soviet women, Honorary Member of the Far East 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 1941-1945”, medal “For the 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 opened on the building of the school, which Anna Shchetinina graduated from in 1925.

Anna Shchetinina - Hero of Socialist Labor

They say that a woman on a ship is in trouble. But somehow I don’t really believe it, especially looking at these beautiful, self-confident women who have dedicated their lives to the sea. A selection - from the cabin boy to the captain to your attention.

Cabins, captains, navigators, minders and boatswains, etc. are gathered here. etc. - for every taste!

Renowned navigator Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina
Anna Ivanovna served on rescue ships, repeatedly sailed across the Pacific Ocean on old ships, and in February 1943 she received in Los Angeles a ship transferred to the Far Eastern Shipping Company on a lend-lease basis, under the name "Jean Zhores". In December 1943, Jean Zhores, under her command, took part in the rescue of the steamer Valery Chkalov near the Comador Islands, which broke in half in a severe storm.

Lyudmila Tibryaeva - the first woman in the Murmansk Shipping Company - Arctic captain
40 years at sea, 20 years on the bridge. Lyudmila Tibryaeva was among the first to lead the Tiksi icebreaking transport vessel from Europe to Japan by the North Sea route, and became a member of the Association of Captains, which includes the country's best sailors.

Aleftina Borisovna Aleksandrova (1942-2012) - Aleftina Borisovna spent more than 40 years on the captain's bridge of the motor ships Sakhalinles and Sibirles, 30 of them as captain of the Sakhalin Shipping Company.

Sea captain Irina Mikhailova - Far Eastern female captain

Tatiana Oleinik. The first and only woman sea captain in Ukraine.

Kate McKay (39) became the first female cruise ship captain in the US in 2016 and also the youngest cruise ship captain.
Kate McKay became the first female cruise ship captain in the United States in 2016 and also the youngest cruise ship captain.

Tatyana Sukhanova, 46 years old, Vladivostok; container ship captain, 28 years of experience
He works as a captain in a Cypriot company, leads flights to Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

Evgenia Korneva, 23 years old, St. Petersburg; 4th assistant to the captain of the gas carrier

Laura Pinasco (32) is the captain of one of the largest livestock transport ships.

The world's first female captain of a mega liner Swedish Karin Star-Jansson
Monarch of the Seas is a first rank liner that belongs to the category of the largest liners in the world. 73937, 14 decks, 2400 passengers, 850 crew, built in 1991.

First female LPG tanker captain Porre Lix (age 32)

Seven feet under the keel, girls!

As previously reported, in 2009, a female navigator, Aysan Akbey, a 24-year-old Turkish woman, was held captive by Somali pirates. She is on board the Turkish bulk carrier Horizon-1, which was hijacked by pirates on July 8. Interestingly, the pirates acted like a knight and told her that she could call home to her relatives any time she wanted. However, Aysan very dignifiedly answered that she would call home on an equal basis with other sailors, she did not need privileges.
The Women's International Shipping & Trading Association (WISTA) was founded in 1974 and has grown by 40% in the last 2 years, now has chapters in 20 countries and has over 1,000 individual members. According to the International Labor Organization ILO for 2003, out of 1.25 million seafarers worldwide, women accounted for 1-2%, mainly service staff, on ferries and cruise ships. The ILO believes that the total number of women working at sea has not changed significantly since then. But there is no exact data on the number of women working in command positions, although we can confidently say that their number is growing, especially in the West.
Bianca Fromemming, a German captain, says that of course it is harder for women at sea than for men. Now she is on the beach, taking a two-year leave to care for her baby son. However, he plans to return to the sea, again to work in his company Reederei Rudolf Schepers as a captain. By the way, in addition to being a captain, she also writes as a hobby, her novel "The Genius of Horror" about a girl - a student of a maritime college prone to murder, sold well in Germany. Among the 1400 German captains, 5 are women. In South Africa, the first woman in the history of the South African Navy became the commander of a patrol ship. In 2007, the famous Royal Caribbean International appointed the first woman in the history of the cruise fleet, Swedish Karin Star-Janson, as the captain of a cruise ship (see Women Captains). The laws of Western countries protect women from discrimination based on gender, providing equal rights with men, but this is not the case in many other countries. There are a few female navigators in the Philippines, but not a single captain. In general, in this regard, Asian women are much harder, of course, than their European sisters - the centuries-old traditions of a certain attitude towards a woman as a creature of a lower order affect. The Philippines is perhaps the most progressive in this matter, but even there it is much easier for a woman to succeed in the business field on the coast than at sea.
Of course, on the shore it is much easier for a woman to combine career and family; at sea, in addition to isolation from home, a woman is met with the deepest skepticism of male sailors and purely domestic problems. Momoko Kitada tried to get a maritime education in Japan, the captain-mentor of one of the Japanese shipping companies, when she came there as a trainee cadet, he directly told her - a woman, go home, get married and have children, what else do you need in this life ? The sea is not for you. In the United States, the admission of women to naval schools was closed until 1974. Today in Kings Point, New York, at the US Merchant Marine Academy, out of 1,000 cadets, 12-15% are girls. Captain Sherry Hickman has worked on US flag ships and is now a pilot in Houston. She says that many girls simply do not know that it is possible to get a maritime education on a par with men and have the opportunity to make a career at sea. And of course, many girls, after receiving an education and an appropriate diploma, do not work at sea for long - they start a family and go ashore without becoming captains.
South African Louise Engel, 30, is the first female captain in the well-known Belgian company Safmarine, which specializes in South African lines. The company is developing special programs for those of its employees who plan to return to the sea after having a family or still settle on the coast, but continue to work in shipping.
There is only one thing to complete this article - there are more and more women in the sea, and not in the service staff, but in command positions. So far, there are too few of them to try to assess whether this is good or bad. So far, those of them who reach the bridge undergo such a tough selection that there is no doubt about their qualifications and suitability for their positions. Let's hope it stays that way in the future.

April 16, 2008 - Siba Ships has appointed a woman, Laura Pinasco, as the captain of its largest livestock ship in the world, Stella Deneb. Laura brought Stella Deneb to Fremantle, Australia, her first voyage and first ship as a 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 LNG carriers and livestock carriers, and was a first mate on Stella Deneb prior to captaincy, notably on a record-breaking head voyage last year when Stella Deneb loaded an A$11.5 million shipment in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. , assigned to Indonesia and Malaysia. 20,060 cattle and 2,564 sheep and goats were taken on board. It took 28 railway trains to deliver them to the port. Loading and transportation were carried out under the careful supervision of the veterinary services and met the highest standards.
Stella Deneb is the largest livestock ship in the world.

December 23-29, 2007 - container ship Horizon Navigator (Gross 28212, built 1972, US flag, owner HORIZON LINES LLC) of 2360 TEU of Horizon Lines was captured by women. All navigators and the captain are women. Captain Robin Espinoza, XO Sam Pirtle, 2nd Mate Julie Duchi. All the rest of the total crew of 25 men are men. Women fell onto the bridge of a container ship, according to the company, quite by accident, during a union competition. Espinoza is extremely surprised - for the first time in 10 years she works in a crew with other women, not to mention navigators. The International Organization of Captains, Navigators and Pilots in Honolulu says it is 10% female, down from 30 years ago to just 1%.
The women are amazing, to say the least. Robin Espinoza and Sam Pirtle are schoolmates. They studied together at the Merchant Marine Academy. Sam also has a diploma as a sea captain. Julie Duci became a sailor later than her captain and chief officer, but sailors-navigators will understand and appreciate such a hobby of hers (in our times, alas and alas, this is a hobby, although without knowing a sextant, you will never become a real navigator) - “I, perhaps , one of the few boatmasters who uses a sextant to locate, just for fun!”
Robin Espinoza has been in the Navy for a quarter of a century. When she first began her maritime career, a woman in the US Navy was a rarity. For the first ten years of work on ships, Robin had to work in crews that consisted entirely of men. Robin, Sam and Julie love their profession very much, but when many weeks separate you from your native shore, it can be sad. Robin Espinoza, 49, says: "I miss my husband and 18-year-old daughter so much." Her age, Sam Pearl, never met someone with whom she could start a family. “I meet men,” she says, who want a woman to look after them all the time. And for me, my career is a part of myself, I can’t even for a moment admit that something could prevent me from going to sea. ”
Julie Duci, who is 46 years old, just loves the sea, and simply cannot imagine that there are other, more worthy or interesting professions in the world.

May 13-19, 2007 - Royal Caribbean International has 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 liners in the world. The Swedish woman became the first woman in the world to receive the position of captain on vessels of this type and size. She has been with the company since 1997, first as a navigator on the Viking Serenade and Nordic Empress, then as an XO on the Vision of the Seas and Radiance of the Seas, then as a 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 holds a diploma allowing her to command ships of any type and size.

And the first female LPG tanker captain
The tanker LPG Libramont (dwt 29328, length 180 m, beam 29 m, draft 10.4 m, built in 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 - the captain of Belgium and, it seems, the first female captain of a gas carrier tanker. In 2006, Rogge was 32 years old, two years since she received her captain's diploma. That's all that is known about her.

Marianne Ingebrigsten, April 9, 2008, after receiving her pilot's diploma, Norway. At the age of 34, she became the second female pilot in Norway, and this, unfortunately, is all that is known about her.

Russian female captains
Information about Lyudmila Tebryaeva was sent to me by a site reader Sergey Gorchakov, for which I thank him very much. I dug as much as I could and found information about two other women in Russia who are captains.
Lyudmila Tibryaeva - ice captain
Our Russian female captain Lyudmila Tibryaeva is, and it seems to be safe to say, the only female captain in the world with Arctic sailing experience.
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 Association of Sea Captains. For outstanding achievements, she was awarded in 1998 the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, second degree. Today, her portrait in a uniform tunic against the backdrop of a ship adorns the Museum of the Arctic. Lyudmila Tibryaeva received the badge "Captain of a long voyage" number 1851. In the 60s, Lyudmila from Kazakhstan came to Murmansk. And on January 24, 1967, 19-year-old Luda went on her first voyage on the icebreaker Kapitan Belousov. In the summer, a part-time student went to Leningrad to take a session, and the icebreaker went to the Arctic. She made her way to the minister to get permission to enter the nautical school. Lyudmila has successfully developed and family life, which is rare for sailors in general, and even more so for women who continue to swim.

Alevtina Alexandrova - captain in the Sakhalin Shipping Company In 2001, she turned 60 years old. Alevtina Alexandrova came to Sakhalin in 1946 with her parents, and even in her school years she began to write letters to nautical schools, and then to the ministries and personally to N.S. Khrushchev, with a request to be allowed to study at the nautical school. At the age of less than 16, A. Alexandrova became a cadet at the Nevelsk Naval School. A decisive role in her fate was played by the captain of the ship "Alexander Baranov" Viktor Dmitrenko, with whom the navigator girl was practicing. Then Alevtina got a job at the Sakhalin Shipping Company and worked there all her life.

Valentina Reutova - captain of a fishing vessel She is 45 years old, she seems to have become the captain of a fishing boat in Kamchatka, that's all I know.

Girls rule
He goes to the fleet and youth, 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. Nevelskoy. 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 - a graduate of the Faculty of Navigation. Moreover - Natalia is an excellent student! Future captain? Natalya Belokonskaya, a graduate of the Far Eastern Higher Medical School (Moscow State University), is getting a diploma, and Olya Smirnova is working as a helmsman on the river m/v "Vasily Chapaev".

March 9, 2009 - North America's first certified female merchant marine captain, Molly Carney, aka Molly Cool, died in Canada today at the age of 93. She graduated as a captain in 1939 at the age of 23 and sailed between Alma, New Brunswick and Boston for 5 years. It was then that in the Merchant Shipping Code of Canada, the Canadian Shipping Act was changed at the word "captain" "he" to "he / she". Pictured is Molly Carney in 1939 after receiving her captain's diploma.
Commentary: Our Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina received her diploma much earlier and became a captain much more, remaining a teacher at the Far Eastern Higher Medical School Vladivostok until the last, one might say, days. Honor and praise to all women captains, but what Anna Ivanovna did, no one has yet surpassed.

April 10, 2009 - Commander Josie Kurtz became the first woman to command a ship in the Canadian Navy, and was recently appointed commander of the frigate HMCS Halifax, one of the most powerful ships in the Canadian Navy. Just 20 years ago, women received the right to serve on ships, but then it could not have occurred to anyone that a woman would ever be able to step on the bridge of a ship as its commander. In addition to Josie, more than 20 women serve on the frigate, but the male part of the crew as a whole treats her, according to her, as an ordinary commander and does not express any complexes about this. 6 years ago, the first woman became the watch commander of the coastal defense ship HMCS Kingston, she became Lieutenant Commander Martha Malkins. Interestingly, Josie's husband spent 20 years in the Navy, retired and now sits on the beach, at home, with their 7-year-old daughter. Features of the frigate HMCS Halifax:
Displacement: 4,770 t (4,770.0 t)
Length: 134.1 m (439.96 ft)
Width: 16.4 m (53.81 ft)
Draft: 4.9 m (16.08 ft)
Speed: 29 kn (53.71 km/h)
Cruising range: 9,500 nmi (17,594.00 km)
Crew: 225
Armament: 8 x MK 141 Harpoon SSM - missiles
16 x Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile SAM/SSM - Missiles
1 x Bofors 57 mm Mk 2 gun
1 x Phalanx CIWS (Block 1) - guns
8 x M2 Browning machine guns
4 x MK 32 torpedo launchers
Helicopter: 1 x CH-124 Sea King

Traditionally, the hearth and tow were considered the lot of women. In principle, this is correct, well, you won’t leave the house for a man? Someone has to be there with brains and a sense of responsibility. Men were always afraid to admit the fact that women in any business are capable of not only catching up with them, but also overtaking them. That is why they tried in every possible way to humiliate them, to hunt them down. But always born great women who escaped from the dullness of life. And if the lady got down to business - then her name thundered! It was these women who became the mistresses of the seas, the most famous pirates.

1. Princess Alvilda

According to the monk-chronicler Saxo Grammaticus (1140 - c. 1208), Alvilda was the daughter of the king of Gotland and lived in the late 9th and early 10th centuries. As usual, they tried to use the girl as a bargaining chip in political games men, to marry the son of the Danish king Alpha. The princemma did not agree with such a formulation of the question, grabbed a group of girls and went on a voyage through the fjords of Scandinavia.

The ladies put on a man's dress and carried out the usual activities for those times - they robbed merchants and coastal villagers. Apparently, they did it well, because very soon the king of Denmark was worried about the decrease in profits from merchants due to the presence of competitors and sent Prince Alpha personally to hunt for the brave pirates.

The failed groom at the time of the beginning of the hunt did not yet know who he would have to chase. But in the end drove a pirate ship in a goal, in single combat with a pirate leader, he forced him to surrender, and found his betrothed under the armor. As a result, the girl got the opportunity to evaluate the fighting qualities of her betrothed, his perseverance and other virtues, and immediately on ship the wedding took place. During the ceremony, vows were pronounced, among which the great woman gave her word to no longer play pranks in the seas without her husband.

2. Jeanne de Belleville(Jeanne de Belleville) (c. 1300-1359)

The life of Jeanne-Louise de Belleville Dame de Montagu flowed along the usual course for young medieval aristocrats: an easy childhood, at the age of 12, marriage to a gentleman chosen by her parents, the birth of her first children. But in 1326, Jeanne is left a widow with two children in her arms. But it would not be easy for a woman alone at that time to survive, and in 1330 she marries again.

The marriage was arranged, Olivier IV de Clisson was rich and powerful. But it turned out that Jeanne found not only protection, but also love. In warmth and happiness, the family continues to grow - five more children appear one after another. But here too fate intervenes - the Hundred Years War begins in 1337, followed in 1341 by the struggle for the Breton inheritance. Olivier de Clisson joined the party of supporters of the de Montforts, who sided with the king of England. By the way, this war was also connected with the rights of women, in particular the inheritance of the Capetians.

The struggle in Breton continued with varying success, until de Montfort was captured by the French in 1343, and the Breton knights were invited to the wedding of the second son of King Philip VI. But in Paris, the participants in the war on the side of the de Montforts were seized, executed, their bodies hung on Montfaucon, and de Clisson's head was sent to Nantes. It was there that Jeanne saw her husband for the last time. there she showed her head to her sons and swore revenge. It is not easy to kill a woman's feelings, she can be disappointed, she can be killed, but under the ashes of an extinct fire, the heat remains for a long time - it gave birth to a flame of revenge in Jeanne.

Jeanne raises an uprising, followed by the surrounding vassals. Bras was taken first, no one was left alive in the castle. Further, due to the captured booty or sold her jewelry, here the versions differ, but Zhanna equips three ship commanded by her sons and herself. The fleet goes to sea...

For four years, the Clisson Lioness has been raging on the sea and coast. Jeanne and her people appear suddenly, she is always in black, with gloves the color of blood. Jeanne attacks not only ships- trade, military, they make sorties deep into the coast, cutting out her husband's opponents, she herself always rushed into battle, perfectly wielding a sword and a boarding ax. Jeanne was driven by revenge ....

It is known that Joan had a marque of Edward III, and Philip VI ordered to catch her alive or dead. But the flotilla of the Clisson Lioness withstood several battles with the troops of the French king, more than once she managed to miraculously evade the chase. But in 1351, luck ran out...

During one of the battles, most of the fleet was defeated, the flagship was surrounded. Jeanne with her sons and several sailors escaped on a sloop without food and water. For several days they tried to reach the English coast, on the sixth day the youngest of the sons died, and later several more sailors died. It took almost 10 days until Zhanna got to land.

It was no longer the Lioness who stepped on the shore, the sea and the loss extinguished the fire in Jeanne's eyes. Madame de Clisson was well received at the court of Edward III. Surrounded by respect and honor. And a few years later she married Lieutenant King Gauthier de Bentley. Jeanne died in 1359. And her son Olivier de Clisson left an equally noticeable mark on the history of France, holding the position of constable in 1380-1392.

3. Mary Killigrew

Sir John Killigrew was governor of the Channel town of Flameth in the early 17th century. Among his tasks was to ensure the security of trade ships fighting pirates on the coast. In fact, Governor Killigrew's castle had its own pirate base as part of an old family business. Lady Mary helped to organize the parking and manage the sailors, who periodically went out to fish as well.

Usually no survivors were left on the captured ship, and Mary's secret remained unsolved for a long time. But one day, on a Spanish ship, the pirates did not pay attention to the captain wounded in the chest, who managed to escape from the ship during a stormy celebration of the capture and division of booty. On the shore, the captain first went to the local governor with a message about the pirate attack. And he was terribly surprised when he recognized in the presented sweetest wife his very cruel leader of the corsairs.

But the Spaniard managed to hide his surprise and, quickly bowing, he recovered straight to London to the king's court with a complaint against the governor and his wife. An investigation was ordered by royal decree. As it turned out, Mary was no longer a pirate in the first generation. She went to sea with her father Philip Wolversten of Sophocles. After an investigation, Governor Killigrew was executed and his wife was sentenced to prison.
But 10 years later, Lady Killigrew was talked about again. Only now it was Elizabeth, the wife of Sir John, Mary's son. But Lady Elizabeth's fleet was destroyed, and she herself died in battle.

4. Anna Bonnie and Mary Reid

The stories of these women can be enough for more than one adventure novel. Anna was born in 1690 to the lawyer William Cormac in Cork, Ireland. The strict father could not restrain his daughter's impulses; at 18, she got married to James Bonnie, a sailor. After that, the young were kicked out of their parental home, and he sailed to the Bahamas in New Providence. Meeting with Calico Jack changed dramatically destiny Anna.

Her husband was abandoned, she changed her name to Andreas, disguised herself as a man and went with Jack to look for a ship. Anna sneaked onto the ship under the guise of looking for a job and studied it weak spots. Finally fit ship was found, the pirates captured it and soon the "Dragon" under a black flag went fishing.

A few months later in team a new sailor appeared, which caused Jack a terrible fit of jealousy. After all, only he knew that Andreas was not even a man at all. But it turned out that McReid was actually Mary. The girl was born in London, at 15 she went to the military ship. After a while, she entered the French infantry regiment, fought in Flanders, where she met and married an officer. But after the death of her husband, with whom she carefully concealed everything, also pretending to be a man, she returned to the sea again.

After a while, the secret of Mary and Anna was revealed, but by that time team already enough imbued with respect for the talents of women. But in 1720, the English royal frigate attacked the Dragon and captured command practically without a fight, almost only Mary and Anna put up desperate resistance. In Jamaica, pirates were tried and sentenced to death. But unexpectedly, two of them demanded pardon on behalf of the "womb". Doctors confirmed that both pirates were women, and pregnant.

Their sentence was suspended. It is known that Mary died after giving birth from a fever, but about Anna it is only known that the birth took place, what became of her further remained a mystery ...

That's all I could find on the Internet about women captains. I think there will be many more such heroines on ships ahead.

Equal rights were promoted from time to time in the Soviet Union. Including the sea. In the movies, an adult uncle told a girl who was embarrassed that she was not a boy and was not suitable for sailors: “Girls can also be captains.” There were films with sailor girls. But in fact, there were very few female sea captains in the USSR. The first in the Union and in the world was Anna Shchetinina.

Edition PM

The name of Shchetinina thundered all over the world in 1935. Newspapers exploded with a sensation: “A young Soviet woman led the ship through polar ice!" Anna Ivanovna was only twenty-seven years old, and she sailed on a ship called "Chinook" from Hamburg to Kamchatka through Arctic waters. Everything “polar” at that time was extremely exciting for the public, and then there was the first female captain in the ice and a record for the transition time.

Just a year later, the same "Chinook" was covered with ice, and Shchetinina was again on the captain's bridge. For eleven days, the crew under her leadership fought to save the ship and their lives - and broke out of the ice. On an almost unscathed ship.

On the ocean

Anna Shchetinina was born at a station called Okeanskaya, near Vladivostok. On one side of the coastline were hills, on the other - heavy waves of the Pacific Ocean. Then there could be no talk of a woman on the captain's bridge.

But in the roaring twenties, Soviet universities and colleges were accepted without looking at the floor. After graduating from school, she ventured to apply to the Vladivostok Marine College. And specifically for the navigation department: the competition is five people per place. And she was accepted! They warned that the work was physically difficult and that there was only room in one room with the boys from the group. In the technical school, the practice took place on ships. Anna happened to be in the shoes of a sailor. They pressed harder than on men. They gave the most difficult tasks, there were no indulgences in anything. Anya understood that she was surely expected to fail, to cry, to be weak. Meanwhile, she received the best grades for practice: literally everyone on the ship was imbued with respect for such a will and such pride. But two fellow students could not stand the pressure and left. Although, I must say, out of thirty-nine boys, too, only seventeen reached the end of their studies.

After graduating from a technical school, Shchetinina went from sailor to first mate in five years. An unusually fast-paced career for that time. Well, at least the authorities were always fair with her: the requirements were put forward higher than for the guys, but the reward for such overload was not long in coming. So by 1935, Shchetinina had earned herself a name in the Navy and the right to become a captain. The Chinook was her first ship as a captain. And immediately - an extremely difficult route. Everything, as always: at each new place it was tested for strength. This time, polar ice.

But three years later, however, she was removed from the captain's bridge. Vladivostok needed to create a fishing port. From scratch. Youth, energy, intelligence, authority and the ability to negotiate - all this together was required in one person, the head of the port. It is not surprising that Shchetinina was chosen.

Anna Ivanovna used the delay on the shore to the fullest. She not only set up the work of the port, but also completed four courses at the Leningrad Institute of Water Transport Engineers in two and a half years and ... She quit. Shchetinina seemed to be out of character, but at a session in Leningrad she learned that a large-scale transfer of ships to the Far East was being prepared. In June 1941, Anna Ivanovna took over a steamer in Liepaja as a captain. On June 21, she entered Leningrad on it; further the path lay to the Far East, but ... The war began.

Woman on board - good luck

The ship was urgently handed over to the Navy. Shchetinina was put on the old steamer "Saule" (that is, "Sun" in Lithuanian), which has already exceeded half a century. Nearby, on Ladoga, Nikolai also served. Throughout the war, Shchetinina transported soldiers, cartridges, shells, coal and fuel on her "old man". Such boats were regularly fired upon by the Germans, many of them were lowered to the bottom. But Shchetinina managed to get out alive and with the ship. On August 28, 1941, Anna Ivanovna was supposed to participate in the mass evacuation from Tallinn. A caravan of 225 ships left the city. They were on their way to Kronstadt, and these ships, in many ways the same "old men" as those of Shchetinina, were fiercely bombed by the Germans. 163 ships reached Kronstadt, more than ten thousand people died. The death of people in the Tallinn passage has become the largest maritime disaster in history.

But "Saule" was shot down on the way to Tallinn. Shchetinina managed to put him aground. For several days, the crew fought off the bombarding aircraft. Half fought back - and half repaired their "Sun". It was no longer possible to break into Tallinn, and Shchetinina returned to Kronstadt. From there, she was immediately transferred to the Far East. The task was unusual: it was necessary to take her old ship "Karl Liebknecht" for repairs.

The strange thing was that it had to be repaired no less, in Canada, and to get there it was necessary to get across the Pacific Ocean on a leaking, falling apart steamer. The Canadians at the sight of the “patient” threw up their hands, but the woman captain and the path she had done on such a trough impressed them, and, as Shchetinina later said, they attached an actually new steamer to the old pipe.

Until the end of the war, Anna Ivanovna cruised from Vladivostok to Canada and the United States and back, however, already on a different ship. She was transporting military supplies and equipment from the allies. Officially, Soviet ships were safe in the Pacific: Japan did not declare war on the USSR. But in fact, the Japanese submarines, when there was an opportunity, Soviet ships were sunk in the same way as American ones. As they say, because they could.

The ship was American, long, new, but built without taking into account the need for special strength along. Such ships in severe storms literally broke in half. Shchetinina had a chance to remove the crew from the split steamer "Valery Chkalov". Anna Ivanovna's steamboat also once parted in the middle - five hundred miles from the coast, but the crew managed to fasten the diverging halves of the sides "on a living thread." The ship was brought to Akutan Bay. After such adventures, anyone who, during the time of Shchetinina's sailors, remembered that a woman was on board - unfortunately, would be ridiculed. Anna Ivanovna was definitely born with a huge supply of luck and generously shared it with her ships. The glory of the world's first female sea captain was actively used in the interests of Soviet diplomacy. Barely going ashore, Shchetinina, without really resting, had to bring herself into a “secular” look and attend receptions and other events. There, she actually negotiated with important American naval officials.

Peaceful years

After the war, Shchetinina finally graduated from the institute and walked around the Baltic. Once, an almost entirely female crew approached her, and the Swedish pilot, who happened to work with their ship, was at first seriously frightened. In the face of the Swede, of course, women did not laugh, but he became a character in naval jokes in the Soviet Union for a long time.

After forty, serious problems rained down on Shchetinina one after another. Anna Ivanovna lost her mother, husband, was demoted for an accident in bad weather (she ran aground a steamer). I wanted peace. And, perhaps, to convey your unique experience so that it does not go to waste. She agreed to a teaching position at the same university that she had once graduated from.

At the age of fifty, Shchetinina transferred to a university in the Far East: she was drawn to her homeland. Prepared dozens of captains. She headed the Primorsky branch of the Geographical Society of the USSR and became an active member of the Committee of Soviet Women. Several times she, a living legend, was elected as a deputy. In absentia, she became a member (the only woman) in the Australian captains club and an honorary member of the International Federation of Associations of Sea Captains.

She lived a long life and died before she could see the next century - in 1999. After her, there were many textbooks, manuals and, of course, several autobiographical books: she had something to tell the world about her life. And captains, a lot of captains who raised new captains.

Rapoport Berta Yakovlevna was born in the city of Odessa on May 15, 1914. Father Rapoport Yakov Grigorievich is a carpenter. Mother Rapoport Rashel Aronovna is a housewife.
In 1922 she entered the school, which she graduated in 1928. In 1926 she was admitted to the Komsomol. In 1928 she entered the Odessa Maritime College at the navigational department. The practice took place on the sailboat "Tovarishch", a training vessel of the Odessa Maritime College. She graduated from a technical school in 1931 and received a diploma as a sea navigator. Since February 1, 1932, the 4th assistant to the captain on the ship "Batum-Soviet". In 1933, the 3rd assistant captain on the youth-Komsomol ship "Kuban". Since October 1934, the 2nd assistant to the captain on the steamer Katayama. From February 5, 1936, he was the senior assistant to the captain of the steamer Katayama.
In 1936, thanks to the newspapers, the entire Union knew about the first mate Berta Rapoport! Yes that there - and Europe too! When her steamship Katayama landed in London, a crowd gathered to welcome her. Everyone was interested to look at the woman-senior mate. The next day, in one of the English newspapers, an article appeared "The world's first woman sailor." The article described in detail her appearance, clothes, eye color, hair and even manicure. Then already, and then, all the years, the sailors called her "our legendary Berta."

October 17, 1938 was a fateful day for Rapoport. "Katayama" went with a cargo of wheat from Mariupol to Liverpool. At that time, the ships of the Spanish fascists patrolled the Mediterranean Sea. - A warship approached the ship, they signaled from it: “Stop immediately. Otherwise, you will be shot!” - says Arkady Khasin. The captain stopped moving.

By dawn, on the orders of the Francoists, the Soviet ship headed for the Spanish island of Mallorca. With the arrival at the port of Palma, almost the entire crew, together with the captain, was sent to a concentration camp. Berta and five sailors remained on the ship - a boatswain, two sailors, a machinist and a fireman. Leaving, the captain said to Bertha: “My powers are transferred to you. Hold on. Don't give in to provocations." The next morning, at the command of Rapoport, the flag of the USSR was raised on the stern flagpole. The Nazis wanted to disrupt, but Berta said: “While we remain on board, you will not dare to touch our flag. The deck of the steamer is the territory of my Motherland, the USSR!”...

As a result, the rest of the team was sent to a concentration camp. Berta Yakovlevna was taken to the women's prison. At night, the Soviet sailor was summoned for interrogation, where she was accused of supplying weapons to the Spanish Republicans. During interrogation, she lost consciousness from a strong blow. I woke up in a cell. The dull days of prison dragged on. The food was disgusting. A slop bucket was used for washing. They rarely took them for walks, and Berta Yakovlevna was deprived of them altogether - a special regime was applied to her. And she went on a hunger strike.

The head of the prison himself came to her. He was extremely polite and promised that if Bertha stopped the hunger strike, more favorable conditions would be created for her. But she refused.

At night, Berta Yakovlevna was transferred to a concentration camp. For 8 months she lived in a barracks behind barbed wire. And when the long-awaited day of liberation came, almost the entire concentration camp came to say goodbye to her. The Spanish women even gave her a bouquet of wildflowers. For the first time in many months of captivity, she could not hold back her tears ...