Women - captains of ships (Photofact). Women captains of sea vessels The world's first sea captain
There she worked on the ships "Karl Liebknecht", "Rodina" and "Jean Zhores". These were steamships of the Liberty type, carrying military cargo through 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 those 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 the Second World War, on August 25, 1945, Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina participates in the VKMA-3 convoy in the transfer of the 264th rifle 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 Engineers water transport. 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 Engineering maritime school- as an assistant and at the same time completing the 5th year of the Faculty of Navigation 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 associate professor of the department, good lectures were noted in the courses “Meteorology and Oceanography”, “Marine Affairs”, “Navigation and Piloting”, management theses, writing teaching aids and books."
In 1963, having become 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 events', the study of which will 'enlarge the knowledge of man'.
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, FEHEMU petitioned for the appointment of the sea captain Shchetinina A.I. republican pension. Unfortunately, as is often the case in a state where mentally handicapped people, like N.S. Khrushchev, come to power, instead of attention and care for those who are busy with the present and the right thing, the authorities begin to glorify and praise those who bend their backs 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 performed the "fiery flights" 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 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's why many of her books will surely outlive her. works of art and keep 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 vessel. She amazed experienced captains with her directorial finds, which Eldar Ryazanov himself would envy. These were comic competitions between the teams of artists of the Primorsky Regional Theater named after M. Gorky and a group of captains, a demonstration of fashionable women's clothing and ballroom dancing, in which gallant gentlemen performed 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 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 of Soviet Women, Honorary member of the Far Eastern Association 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" . ”, the medal “For the Victory over Japan”, the gold medal “Hammer and Sickle”, the 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
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 ...
105 years have passed since the birth of Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina, the world's first female sea captain, Hero of Socialist Labor, a graduate of the Vladivostok Maritime College, associate professor, and then head of the Ship Management Department of the Far East Maritime Medical University. adm. G.I. Nevelskoy.
Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina was born on February 26, 1908 at Okeanskaya station near Vladivostok. Anna went to elementary school at the Lyanchikhe station (Sadgorod district) at the age of eleven. Civil War was in full swing, schools were closed every now and then. The Shchetinins lived in those years on Sedanka, there was no money for travel, and the girl had to travel on foot. And this is seven kilometers there and seven - back. In winter - on skates along the river to the bay, and then - on the ice of the Amur Bay. After the Red Army entered Vladivostok, the schools were reorganized, and in 1922 Anna Shchetinina entered the unified labor school at the Sedanka station. She actively made up for lost time. She graduated from the eight-year school in six years and applied 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. It was both a modest request and an assurance of his readiness for all difficulties. Not a letter, but a whole poem." With a sinking heart, she lowered the envelope into the box and waited for an answer. Finally 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 it?
Tell me, are you not allowed to take girls? I asked.
No, it's not forbidden, - the chief frowned in annoyance. - But I'm three times older than you and pure heart I want to warn. Well, tell me, what makes you go to the nautical specialty? Have you read novels? Romance attracts?
Job. Interesting job.
Work? You don't know this job at all. From the first days you will be treated not more condescendingly, 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 cannot do something, it will be just a mistake. And if you make a mistake, they will say: a woman, what to take from her? Let it be unfair and insulting, but it will be. And all your successes will be attributed to imaginary concessions that supposedly were made to you as a girl. After all, we have many people of the old leaven. You will get to some old boatswain, he will shake your soul out of you ... My guys often run away from practice, and you are there too!
I won't run away, rest assured."
In 1925, Anna Shchetinina entered the navigation department of the Vladivostok Marine College. Only one episode in the fate of the future captain, one stroke in her character: in order 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 her excellent grades, she was refused 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, clenching her teeth from pride and fatigue: she had to carry thirty or forty kilograms on her shoulders. The money earned for such work was enough for five days.
Anna went through her practice as a deck student on the Simferopol steamship and the Bryukhanov sailing guard ship, and then as a sailor on the First Krabol steamboat. Only she alone knew how many hurtful jokes, neglect and outright gloating she had to endure from individual crew members during practice. The boatswain was caught exactly the same as the head of the technical school predicted. He gave the dirtiest and hardest work: to beat rust, clean the hold, wash paint cans. She did everything that was ordered, overcoming 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 Maritime College in 1929. When she entered, the competition was four people for a place. Of the forty-two guys who were accepted with her, eighteen reached the diploma.
After graduating from a technical school, Anna Shchetinina was sent to the Joint Stock Kamchatka Shipping Company. She lacked the swimming qualification to obtain a navigational diploma. I had to sail for several months as a student or a sailor. No one would believe that this girl is in her sixties. years will pass from sailor to captain. At the same time, without missing a single step: port fleet sailor, navigational student, first-class sailor, third navigator, second, senior ... Isn't that why her book sounds so weighty simple words: “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?
At the age of 27, Anna Shchetinina ascended the captain's bridge. Her first voyage as a captain was in 1935 the passage of the steamer "Chinook" from Hamburg to Kamchatka.
“In the spring of thirty-fifth, 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 vacation, I got a work order! Yes, what! The captain of a ship purchased by the Soviet government in Germany.
Hamburg from the first day unpleasantly struck me with some deadly emptiness of the streets, an abundance of flags with a swastika and the measured sound of forged boots of attack aircraft walking along the pavement. But work is work. I will always remember the moment when the boat stopped at the pier. Here we go up to the floating dock and go to the ship. They give way to me: the captain must board the ship first. We are met. But I haven't looked at anyone yet. As soon as I cross the gangway, I touch the ship's gunwale with my hand and whisper a greeting to it 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 civilian gray suit: it turns out that this is a representative of the Hansa company, authorized to process the transfer of a group of ships Soviet Union. I understand that I must first say hello to this representative, 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 to the captain, I greet the representative of the Hansa.
She made a splash abroad. Among the sailors of the whole world, there was a bet: could the "lady captain" bring her ship from Hamburg to the shores of the Far East? The whole world was closely watching the progress of the ship, expecting a catastrophe. But Anna Shchetinina did not live up to the forecasts of skeptics, having successfully completed the most difficult flight. Her fame overtook the steamer, and as soon as the Chinook dropped anchor in Singapore, Anna was invited to an elite English sea club. It was crowded: the gentlemen had come especially to look at the "lady captain." In a respectful surprised whisper behind her back, 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 for strength, brought down blows on her immediately after taking office ...
“During the passage of the ship from Hamburg to Odessa, the Chinook fell into a continuous lingering fog. Each of us had to, waking up in the dark, to feel the way out of the room. But for the loss of orientation in the house you pay with just bruises and bumps. And if the ship loses its orientation? .. After all, the navigational equipment of ships in those years was not the same as now, when navigators are 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 literally felt its way along the North Sea, stuffed with ships, shoals and currents, tearing the dense canvas of fog with its stem. The Seas of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea taught Shchetinina to sail in the fog, but it was difficult to get used to Europe. Continuously, at short intervals, the ship's horn sounded in a bass voice. Fearing not to hear the return signal, everyone on the ship avoided the noise. Those free from the watch gathered at the bow and looked ahead to the pain in their eyes, so as not to miss the rapidly leaning silhouette of the oncoming ship. Multi-deck passenger liners sailed by, light fishing boats slipped by, warships sullenly walked, and it went on for a long, very long time ...
In the winter of 1936, the Chinook was covered with ice. The ship drifted for eleven days. During this time, all food supplies were depleted. The sailors sat on hard rations: the team was given 600 grams of bread a day, the command staff - 400 each. Fresh water for boilers and drinking was also running out. The entire crew and passengers were mobilized for snow removal. It was collected from the ice floes, poured into the forepeak, and then melted with steam. During the 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 bring the Chinook out of the ice.
Even in her books decades later, she did not admit how scared she was. This recognition escaped only once, in 1997 at a meeting with fellow captains. Anna Ivanovna suddenly said: “I'm not so brave ... Many times I became scared. Especially when the deck of the Jean Zhores burst…”
In December 1943, the ship "Jean Zhores" under the command of Anna Shchetinina assisted the ship "Valery Chkalov" in the Bering Sea, whose deck burst during a storm and broke in two. In the most difficult storm conditions, from the second shot of the line-thrower, the rescuers managed to bring the towing line to the stern of the Valery Chkalov, which miraculously continued to stay afloat. The crew was rescued. The captain of the 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 murmured karasho!" This time, of course, she was not offended by the "woman".
And on the next flight, Jean Zhores got into trouble. It happened in the Gulf of Alaska, when the nearest bay, Akutan, was 500 miles away. During a strong storm, the deck of the ship also burst. It was as if a cannon rumbled, and from the bridge the watch saw a crack that barely reached the port side. The wide gap "breathed", and it seemed that the next push of the waves would break the ship. Everyone had a fresh memory of the accident "Valery Chkalov". 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 along 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 on the deck of her barely alive ship.
The commander of the boat grabbed his head... They urgently put the ship to the berth. Unloaded part of the flour. A floating workshop was called from the port of Dutch Harbor. They sealed the crack and offered to return the ship to America for repairs. But in war time every day was worth its weight in gold. “I reached Akutan with such a crack in a storm, I will reach 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 shelling by enemy aircraft, evacuated people and transported strategically important cargo. She worked throughout the war on ships delivering food and equipment to Russia from America and Canada. In 1945 provided landing operations during the war with Japan.
For courage and skill, 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 received an appointment as an assistant professor at 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 associated with the Far East 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 devoted fifty years to the sea. She traveled all the oceans of the world, was the captain of fifteen ships, on the Okhotsk she circumnavigated the world.
Anna Shchetinina led a huge social activities. She founded the 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 chairman of the Primorsky branch of the Geographical Society. On her initiative, the Club of Captains was created in Vladivostok, and the captains of the Far East 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 Citizen of Vladivostok. She lived great life, her 90th birthday was celebrated by the whole country. And the whole city escorted her to last way in 1999.
A cape on the coast of the Amur Bay, a square on the Shkota Peninsula, a street in the Snegovaya Pad microdistrict are named after this wonderful woman. School No. 16 of the city of 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. After all, it was not by chance that the phrase was born: "Shchetinina for Vladivostok, like Gagarin for Russia."
Galina Yakunina,
Anna was born in 1908 at Okeanskaya station near Vladivostok. Father Ivan Ivanovich, originally from the village of Chumay, Verkhne-Chubulinsky district Kemerovo region, worked as a switchman, forester, worker and employee on ...
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 to study at primary school in Sadgorod. After the entry of the Red Army into Vladivostok, the schools were reorganized, and from 1922 Anna Ivanovna studied at a unified labor school at the Sedanka station, where in 1925 she completed 8 classes. In the same year, she entered the navigation department of the Vladivostok Marine College, where she was the only girl on the course among the Komsomol guys. 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 Simferopol steamship and the Bryukhanov security ship of the Dalryba state association, served as a sailor on the First Krabol steamboat. In 1928, she married Nikolai Filippovich Kachimov, a naval radio operator, later head of the Fishing Industry Radio Service in Vladivostok.
After graduating from a technical school, 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: “During the stop at the factory, where repairs had just been completed at Okhotsk, the watch mechanic started the auxiliary engine that 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 near the southern coast of the bay and flooded, for which it was necessary to cut through the wooden boarding. The fire has stopped. The divers closed the hole in the hull, pumped out the water, and the ship was again taken to the factory for repairs. Then Anna served as a navigator on the ship "Koryak".
Anya Shchetinina
In 1932, at the age of 24, Anna received a navigation diploma. In 1933 or 1934 she received A.A. Kacharava (the future commander of the Sibiryakov steamship, which entered into battle with the "pocket" battleship Admiral Sheer in 1942) in the position of senior assistant to the captain of the Orochon steamship, owned by the Joint-Stock Kamchatka Society.
The first flight of Anna Shchetinina 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, docked to examine the underwater part of the hull, that the captain was warned of my arrival and 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 less.
I also, as it were, looked at myself from the side and thought that I was not solid enough for the captain: a blue silk hat, a gray fashionable coat, light shoes with heels ... But I decided that a uniform suit would be later, on a ship, when I was doing business . After breakfast and accommodation 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, which I so wanted and was so afraid to see. Lomnitsky answered my questions: - 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 uneasily, trying to be the first to see and recognize “my” ship myself. But they don't give me.
Engineer Lomnitsky warns:- Around the bend, on the other side, there will be a floating dock. Look! The boat turns and rushes to the opposite shore, and I see a floating dock and on it - a ship, stern to us. The underwater part of its hull has been cleaned and from one side it has already been painted with bright red-brown paint - minium. Minium is not only for beauty, it protects the sides and bottom of the quarry from rust ... The freeboard is green, the superstructures are white, the intricate brand of the Hansa company on the pipe. At the stern, the name is "Hohenfels" and the port of registry is Hamburg. I even choked with pleasure, joy, pride - whatever you want to call it. What a big, clean, strong steamer! What wonderful body contours! I tried many times to imagine it. The reality exceeded all my expectations.
The boat stops at the pier. We rise to 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 meet us. But I haven't looked at them yet. As soon as I cross the gangway, I touch the ship's gunwale with my hand and, greeting him, whisper a greeting to him so that no one notices. Then I turn my attention to the people standing on the deck. The first in the group of those who meet are the captain - I judge this by the galloons 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 at 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 can't find in my stock of German words the necessary expressions for a polite greeting - for this a few lessons German language taken in Leningrad are not enough. I switch to English. And only after saying everything that I considered necessary to the captain, I greet the representative of the Hansa company, keeping his last name in my memory. This must be strictly followed. If at least once you were told the last name of a person, especially with such representations, you must remember it and not forget it in subsequent conversations. Here, too, I tried to English language.
Then we were introduced to the chief engineer - a very elderly and very handsome-looking "grandfather" - and the chief mate - a desperately red and freckled fellow of about thirty. He especially shook my hand and spoke a lot, now in German, now in English. This rather lengthy greeting made the captain jokingly remark that my appearance on the ship made a strong impression on everyone, but, apparently, especially on the chief officer, and the captain was afraid that he was losing a good chief officer at the moment. Such a joke somehow helped me come to my senses and hide my involuntary embarrassment from everyone's attention. After everyone got to know each other, we were invited to the captain's cabin. I fluently, but memorizing 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, good chairs. The entire rear bulkhead was occupied by a glazed sideboard with many beautiful dishes in special nests.
The business part of the conversation was short. Engineer Lomnitsky acquainted me with a number of documents, from which I learned the basic conditions for accepting the ship, as well as the fact that the ship was given the name of our Far Eastern large salmon fish - "Chinook". The entire group of accepted vessels received the names of fish and marine animals: "Sima", "Kizhuch", "Tuna", "Whale", etc. Here, the captain and I agreed on the procedure for receiving the ship. It was decided to call the team with the next flight of our passenger ship from Leningrad. At present, it was necessary to get acquainted with the progress and quality of the repair and finishing work, stipulated by the agreement on the transfer of the vessel. After business conversation the captain invited us to drink a glass of wine.
The conversation began. Captain Butman said that he was surprised by the news that the ship was sold to the Soviet Union and that it should be handed over now. He did not hide that he was very upset. He has been sailing on this ship for six years, got used to it, 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 the first woman in the world who deserved the right and high honor to stand on the captain's bridge. Toast followed toast. The short toast of the representative of the Hansa company sounded dry, in a businesslike way. 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 that 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 paternal. The sergeant-major 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 (again compliments followed) captain would have no complaints and that the new crew would understand that the ship was taken from real sailors who knew how to protect and maintain it in due order. Wow! Now that's the thing! If this is not just polite chatter, then a friend has been acquired who wants to help with the reception of the ship.
The next day, dressed in work clothes, I began to inspect the ship. The captain did not accompany me everywhere. This was done by the senior assistant. Holds, rope boxes, some double-bottom tanks, coal pits, and the engine room were inspected. Everything was looked at in detail. Time was not spared. They worked until two o'clock, then they sorted out the drawings and other documents. After the working day, I changed my clothes and, at the invitation of the captain, took part in lengthy 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, dined, 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 reasonable. I liked the exceptional cleanliness and order on the streets, in houses, in shops and shops. Germany in 1935 was unpleasantly struck by some deadly emptiness of many streets, an abundance of flags with a swastika and the measured clatter of forged boots of young men in khaki with a swastika on the sleeves, who, as a rule, paced the streets in pairs, came across in the corridors of the hotel, in the dining room. Their loud barking voices cut their ears. It was somehow especially uncomfortable, as if you were in good mood came to the house of his good old friends and ended up at a funeral ... And I, frankly, was just scared in this huge hotel. It was terrible at night to listen to the same measured clatter, which was not drowned out even by the carpets in the corridors. I counted the days until the arrival of my team and until the final acceptance of the ship, when it would already be possible to get on 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 was a desire to redo something, to do something anew. I had to strictly ensure that people did not get carried away and understood that the ship was not its own veranda and it was not at all necessary to remake it in your own way. A few days later, our entire crew came to the conclusion that the German team behaves very loyally towards us, helps a lot in the work and does a lot even beyond what is required by agreement. The first officer 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 conscience, but even more.
By the way, not without a joke. Whenever I came to the ship, he always met me not only at the gangway, but even at the pier. If I carried anything, he offered his help. In a word, he looked after him 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 to behave: to meet your captain at the entrance to the plant, or to recognize this right for the German? I had to laugh it off: since we were not on our own land, we must reckon with this, but it does not interfere with our young people to learn politeness and attentiveness. Our team began to call the German first mate "fascist", but then, seeing his friendliness and businesslike help, they simply called "Red Vanya". By the end of the reception of the vessel, a solemn raising of the flag was being prepared. What a great event this is - the acceptance of a new vessel for our navy. Flags of the Soviet Union Socialist Republics and the pennants of our organization were brought by us, and we looked forward to their solemn rise.
I invited the German captain and crew, as well as the representative of the Hansa company and other representatives to the solemn hoisting of the flag. All, as one, answered that they probably would not be able to accept the invitation: the captain was leaving for Berlin that very day, the representative of the Hanse should go on business to other ports - and that’s all. We understood very well that they were simply forbidden to be present on the rise. 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 the fact that, even before the raising of our flag, I invited the German command staff for a glass of wine at my place. Again there were toasts and wishes. And then the Germans quickly left the ship one by one.
The captains and crews of our host vessels arrived, as well as our representatives. And now a command sounds on our ship: - Flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and raise a pennant! And slowly, in expanded form, our scarlet flag will rise and with it the pennant of the Joint Stock Company of Kamchatka. The flag and pennant are raised. We all sing the Internationale with enthusiasm. The sounds of a unique melody pour over the ship and the piers, which were recently still full of people, and now are empty, as if for many miles there was not a single person but us, Soviet people, on the deck of a Soviet ship, which has now become a piece of native territory. How much it means to be away from the Motherland and feel at home! And the ship is also native land!…”
Steamboat "Chinook"
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 a shipyard under construction in Petropavlovsk. The journey here from the Black Sea took fifty-eight days. On the morning of September 12, 1935, the Chinook was solemnly welcomed in the port of Petropavlovsk. After a small repair, the steamer proceeded to the coastal combines: its long-term daily voyages began with supply cargo and passengers.
In mid-December 1935, the Chinook was in Mitoga. The strongest storm that swept over the plant destroyed many buildings and structures. Fortunately, there were no casualties. On December 14, the ship handed over food and warm clothes to the shore for the victims.
In February In the winter of 1936, the Chinook was covered with ice for eleven days in the area of the Olyutorsky fish processing plant. During the forced drift, food came to an end. The sailors sat on a meager ration: the team was given 600 grams of bread a day, the command staff - 400 each. fresh water. The crew and passengers collected snow from the ice floes, poured it into the forepeak, and then melted it with steam. So they got about 100 tons of drinking water and boilers. This allowed the ship to remove almost all fish products in Olyutorka.
During the whole day of ice captivity, Anna did not leave the captain's bridge, steering the ship with her own hands, looking for a convenient moment to take the Chinook salmon out of the ice. The ship's crew worked smoothly and without fuss. The senior assistant captain and the sailors tried to cut the ice floe with a saw to free the ship, but they failed to do this. To turn the Chinook, a light anchor was brought onto the ice. As a result of titanic efforts, the ship left heavy ice no hull damage. 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 draft of the vessel increased astern, 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 through the Sea of Okhotsk. On January 10, 1937, the leadership of the AKO ordered her to be sent "to Moscow to receive an order." The corresponding order that day came to Kamchatka from Glavryba.
Anna in the captain's cabin with her beloved pets - a cat and a dog
On January 23–24, 1937, a conference of AKO enterprises was held in Petropavlovsk. Her transcript contains many episodes that characterize the state of the society's fleet during this period. The main problems hindering 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 the sailors, gave the words of Anna Ivanovna considerable weight, forcing party and economic leaders of high ranks to listen to them.
The main problem in the operation of the fleet was its long idle times. According to A. I. Shchetinina, each ship should have been assigned to a certain fish processing plant: “then both the ship and the shore will mutually try to get the job done.” It was required to clearly plan the work of ships in non-navigation time. Often they went into repair at the same time, then left it at the same time and accumulated in the unequipped Petropavlovsk port, which was not suitable for their mass processing. It was necessary to timely transmit notices to the ships about changes in sailing conditions in order to avoid situations like: “We were not told that lights were displayed in Petropavlovsk, and we do not know where they are displayed.” 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 Faculty of Navigation. Having the right to attend lectures freely, she finishes 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 fierce fire from the Nazis, she drove the Saule steamer loaded with food and weapons along the Gulf of Finland, supplying our army. In the autumn of 1941, together with a group of sailors, she was sent to Vladivostok at the disposal of the Far Eastern Shipping Company.
She was then 27 years old, but according to the engineer Lomnitsky, our representative in Hamburg, she looked at least 5 years younger.
Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina was born in Vladivostok in 1908. at Okeanskaya station. The sea lapped not far from her house and beckoned her from childhood, but in order to fulfill her dream and achieve something in the harsh male world of sailors, she had to become not just the best, an order of magnitude better. And she became the best.
After graduating from the navigational department of the marine technical school, she is sent to Kamchatka, where she begins her labor activity a simple sailor, at 24 she is a navigator, at 27 she is a captain, in just 6 years of work.
She commanded the "Chinook" until 1938. In the harsh stormy waters of the Sea of Okhotsk. She managed to become famous again when in 1936 the ship was trapped in ice captivity by heavy ice.
Only thanks to the resourcefulness of the captain, who did not leave the captain's bridge for the entire time of the ice captivity, and the well-coordinated work of the team, they were able to get out of it without damaging the ship. This was done at the cost of a titanic effort, while they almost ran out of food and water. And in 1938 she was instructed to create the Vladivostok fishing port almost from scratch. This is 30 years old. She also coped with this task brilliantly, in just six months. At the same time, she enters the Institute of Water Transport in Leningrad, successfully completes 4 courses in 2.5 years, and then the war began.
She was sent to the Baltic Fleet, where, under fierce shelling and continuous bombing, she took out the population of Tallinn, transported food and weapons for the army, cruising the Gulf of Finland.
Then again the Far Eastern Shipping Company and a new task - trips across the Pacific Ocean to the shores of Canada and the USA. During the war, ships under her command crossed the ocean 17 times, she also had a chance to participate in the rescue of the steamer "Valery Chkalov". then she was the dean of the faculty of navigators at the Far Eastern Higher Marine Engineering School named after V.I. adm. Nevelskoy in Vladivostok.
Now it's Marine State University them. adm. Nevelskoy.
She was the organizer of the "club of captains" in Vladivostok and the chairman of the jury at tourist song festivals, which, with her active participation, grew into the famous in the Far East festival of author's song "Primorskie strings", she wrote books about the sea and textbooks for cadets.
Her merits were highly appreciated by captains abroad, for her sake the well-known Australian club of captains "Rotary Club" changed the age-old tradition and not only invited a woman to their club, but also gave her the floor at the forum of captains.
And during the celebration of the 90th anniversary of Anna Ivanovna, she was presented with a congratulation on behalf of the captains of Europe and America.
Anna Shetinina - Hero of Socialist Labor, Honorary Citizen of Vladivostok, Honorary Worker of the Navy, Member of the Writers' Union of Russia, Honorary Member of the USSR Geographical Society, Member of the Committee Soviet women, Honorary Member of the Association of Far Eastern Captains in London, etc., the irrepressible energy of this woman, her heroism were highly appreciated in her homeland - 2 Orders of Lenin, Orders of the Patriotic War 2nd degree, Red Banner, Red Banner of Labor and many medals. Passed away Anna Ivanovna at the age of 91 and was buried at the sea cemetery of Vladivostok. The city has not forgotten this amazing woman.
At the Maritime University, where she taught, a museum of her memory was created, a cape on the Shkota Peninsula was named after her, not far from the house where she lived, a square named after her was laid out, etc.
Then other female captains came, but she was the first.
About herself she said:
"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!"