Anna Shchetinina

Shchetinina, Anna Ivanovna (February 26 1908 — September 25 1999) — world's first woman ship-captain on a long journeyFact|date=August 2008

Shchetinina was born at the Oceanic Station near Vladivostok. In 1925 she joined the navigation department of the Vladivostok Nautical Technical School. After finishing the Technical School she worked in Kamchatka, where she pursued a path from simple sailor to captain. At the age of 24 she received her navigator's diploma, and at 27 became the world's first female long-distance ship's captain. In 1935 she was honored throughout the world after leading the ship "Chavich" through the polar ice to the Far East.

On March 20, 1938, Shchetinina was named first chief of the fishing port of the city of Vladivostok. She met World War II in the Baltic, where under bombardment she evacuated the population of Tallinn and transported strategic goods.

After the War Shchetinina was captain of the ships "Askold", "Baskunchak", "Beloostrov", "Dniester", "Pskov", and "Mendeleev" in the Baltic shipping lanes. Beginning in 1949 she worked in the Leningrad Shipbuilding Institute; in 1951 was named senior instructor there, and then dean of the Institute's navigation faculty. In 1956 she was granted the title of "docent." In 1960 she was transferred to the Vladivostok High Engineering Maritime College in the post of chair of "Maritime Affairs". Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina is a Hero of Socialist Labor, Honored Worker of the Fleet, Honored Citizen of Vladivostok, a member of the Union of Russian Writers, honorary member of the Far-Eastern Association of Shipmasters and The International Federation of Shipmasters' Associations (IFSMA), and marked by many governmental and international awards. She is the author of the book "On the Seas and Beyond the Seas". There is a monument in her honor in the old Maritime Cemetery in Vladivostok.

On October 20, 2006 Shchetinina was honored by the naming of Shchetinina Cape, bordering the Amursky Gulf of the Sea of Japan.

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