Main events
world's first female captain long-distance navigation
pinnacle of career
Associate Professor of the Department "Marine Affairs"
Hero of socialist labor,
twice Order of Lenin,
Order of the Red Banner of Labor,
Order of the Red Star,
Order Patriotic War 2nd degree
medal "For the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945",
Medal "For the Defense of Leningrad"
medal "For the victory over Japan",
gold medal "Hammer and Sickle"
Medal "In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin",
"Honorary Citizen of Vladivostok"
Shchetinina Anna Ivanovna born February 26, 1908 Russian empire, Primorsky region, Okeanskaya station died on September 25, 1999, Vladivostok. The captain is a mentor of the Far Eastern Shipping Company, the world's first female sea captain. Honorary Worker Marine fleet. Honorary Member Geographic Society THE USSR. Honorary Member of the Far East Association of Sea Captains in London, FESMA And IFSMA. Author of the book "On the seas and beyond the seas ...".
Biography
early years
Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina was born on February 26, 1908 at Okeanskaya station near Vladivostok. Father Ivan Ivanovich was born in the Kemerovo region in the village of Chumai, who just did not work in different years He was a locksmith, and a forester, and a worker in the fisheries, and a carpenter, and commandant of dachas in the Regional Department of the NKVD. Mother Maria Filosofovna was a housewife for most of her life. The younger brother Vladimir worked at the aircraft factory as a foreman. In 1919 A.I. Shchetinina began to study at primary school in Sadgorod, but after the Red Army entered Vladivostok, all schools were reorganized. And since 1922, at the Sedanka station, Anna Ivanovna studied at a general labor school, where in 1925 she completed 8 classes.
Military service
In 1925, after graduating from school, A.I. Shchetinina entered the Vladivostok Marine College at the navigation department. While studying at the technical school, she worked as a nurse and cleaner in a dental office. I was never afraid of the so-called "black work". During her studies at the technical school, she repeatedly went to sea as a student on the Simferopol steamship, on the Bryukhanov guard ship, and then as a sailor on the First Krabol steamboat. 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.
In 1932, at the age of 24, Anna Ivanovna received a diploma as a navigator. In 1933, she took over as senior assistant to the captain of the steamship "Orochon".
In 1935, when she was only 27 years old, the entire world press spoke about Anna Ivanovna Shchedrina. It was in this year that Anna Ivanovna, as a captain, made the ferry of the steamer "Chinook" from Hamburg to Kamchatka. A. I. Shchetinina commanded the "Chinook" until 1938.
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 steamer Saule loaded with food and weapons along the Gulf of Finland, supplying our army and evacuating the population of Tallinn. 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. There she worked on the ships "Karl Liebknecht", "Rodina" and " Jean Jaures" (like " Liberty") - transported military cargo across the Pacific Ocean.
At the very end of World War II, on August 25, 1945, Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina participates in the VKMA-3 convoy in the transfer of the 264th Infantry Division to southern Sakhalin.
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. In 1947, the ship "Dmitry Mendeleev", commanded by Shchetinina, delivered to Leningrad the statues stolen by the Nazis from Petrodvorets during the occupation. And all on the same ship "Mendeleev" sat in the fog on the reefs of Senar Island, for which she was transferred by the Minister of the MF to the captain of the vessels of the V group for one year. After the transfer, she commanded the Baskunchak timber carrier until it moved to the Far East.
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. After 5 years, Anna Ivanovna was awarded the title of associate professor at the Leningrad Higher Marine Engineering School.
In 1960, he was transferred to the Vladivostok Higher Marine Engineering School as an assistant professor at the Department of Marine Engineering.
In 1963, she became the chairman of the Primorsky branch of the Geographical Society of the USSR
perpetuation of memory
September 25, 1999 Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina passed away. She was buried at the memorial site of the Marine Cemetery in Vladivostok.
A bust was erected on her grave in 2001.
2005 The publishing house "Svetlana" in Vladivostok published the book "Captain Anna" with numerous illustrations and memories of A.I. Shchetinina.
Nowadays, women are increasingly occupying seemingly primordially masculine positions. It's already becoming a habit. But what was it like for those who were the first to decide to push men back where women were traditionally not allowed even close?
On February 26, 1908, at a small Okeanskaya station near Vladivostok, a girl was born in the family of switchman Ivan Shchetinin, who was named Anna at baptism. Who would have known then that over time, her name would be respectfully pronounced by gray-haired "sea wolves" from various countries of the world, and it would even appear on sea charts.
The times were hard and hungry, the family had to move more than once, until in the early 20s they settled at the Sedanka station (nowadays it is a near suburb, 7 km from Vladivostok). From childhood, the sea entered the life of a girl, because wherever the family lived, it was nearby. When Anna graduated from school in 1925, she had no doubts about her choice of profession.
The girl managed to enter the navigation department of the Vladivostok Maritime College. Already in the years of study, she began to sail on ships, first as a student, and then as a sailor. In 1929, Anna graduated from a technical school and received a referral to the Kamchatka Shipping Company, where in a little over five years she went from a sailor to a sea captain - an unprecedented career at that time.
It is difficult to say whether there were not enough personnel then or whether the young people were trusted to such an extent, but Anna Shchetinina went to Hamburg for her first ship, from where she was to overtake the Chinook steamer to Kamchatka.
One can imagine how the faces of the Hamburg shipbuilders stretched out when a woman who was not yet thirty years old arrived to receive the steamer. It was then that the foreign press began to actively write about her, after all, the event was drawn to a full-fledged sensation - at the Soviets, a very young woman became a sea captain. Newspapermen were not too lazy to follow her route to Kamchatka along the Northern Sea Route, but they were disappointed - the ship arrived at the home port on time and without any incidents. Serious incidents in her captain's age, and he was long, still enough, but they are ahead.
In the first years, Anna had to make voyages in the Sea of Okhotsk, "famous" for its storms and treachery. Already in February 1936, the sea tested the strength of the young captain. The ship "Chinook" was covered with ice, and for 11 days the crew fought to save it. All this time, Captain Shchetinina did not leave the bridge, leading the crew and choosing the moment to break out of the ice captivity. The ship was saved and received virtually no damage.
The year 1936 was marked for Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina by another significant event - she received her first state award, she was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. Agree that at the age of 29 to become not only a sea captain, but also an order bearer, this was a rarity for men in those years. “Captain Anna”, as her male colleagues began to call her, not only demonstrated the highest professionalism, but also won the respect of experienced captains, and oh, how difficult it is.
In 1938, Shchetinina was appointed head of the fishing port. The position is responsible, but coastal, and Anna was not going to sit up on the shore. As soon as the opportunity presented itself, she left for the Baltic and entered the navigation department of the Leningrad Institute of Water Transport, where she managed to complete 4 courses in two and a half years. The war prevented me from continuing my studies.
In the most difficult conditions of the first months of the war, Anna Shchetinina on the steamer Saule made truly “fiery” voyages, carrying various cargoes and troops, and participated in the evacuation of Tallinn. That time was stingy with awards, but Captain Shchetinina was considered worthy of the military Order of the Red Star. In the submission it was written "For the exemplary fulfillment of the task of the government and the military command and the courage shown in operations in the Baltic."
In the autumn of 1941, Shchetinina returned to the Far East, where during the war she commanded various ships, transporting goods, including under Lend-Lease. More than once she went to America and Canada, where she was always very warmly welcomed. During the next flight, while loading was in progress, she was invited on an excursion to Hollywood, where they not only showed the "dream factory", but also presented an original gift - a personalized gramophone record with "The Internationale" performed by Russian emigrants, released in a single copy by Columbia .
In 1945, Anna Ivanovna also had to take part in a military operation, landing troops on Sakhalin. After the war, she returned to the Baltic again, she had to graduate from the institute. But it was not possible to start studying right away. Prior to that, I had to command several ships of the Baltic Shipping Company and even become a participant in a serious incident - I got on the reefs on the ship "Dmitry Mendeleev". Fog is no excuse for the captain, so Shchetinina was punished, albeit in a peculiar way - she was sent to command the Baskunchak timber carrier for a year.
Continuing to go on ships, Shchetinina resumed her studies at the Leningrad Higher Marine Engineering School, where she completed the 5th year of the navigation faculty in absentia. In 1949, even before passing the state exams, Anna Ivanovna was offered to go to the school to teach, because her navigational experience was simply unique. Until 1960 A.I. Shchetinina worked at LVIMU, was a senior lecturer, dean of the navigation faculty, head of the department.
Since 1960, Shchetinina has been teaching future sailors at the Vladivostok Higher Marine Engineering School. It is curious that even after becoming a teacher, Anna Ivanovna did not leave the captain's bridge. IN summer period she went as a captain on the ships of the Baltic or Far Eastern Shipping Company (she even made a round-the-world trip on Okhotsk) or supervised the practice of cadets.
In 1978, Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. By the way, they appropriated it on the second attempt, the first performance was back in 1968 (on the occasion of the 60th anniversary), but then something did not work out. The sea captain Anna Shchetinina had and personal life though not particularly happy. Back in 1928, she married Nikolai Kachimov, who was then a radio operator on fishing boats. Subsequently, he headed the Radio Service of the Fishing Industry in Vladivostok. In 1938 he was arrested, but a year later he was rehabilitated. Before the war, he worked in Moscow at the Radio Center of the People's Commissariat of Fishery. In 1941 he went to the front, served in the Ladoga military flotilla. Nikolai Filippovich died in 1950. There were no children in the family.
Anna Ivanovna devoted a lot of time to social work, was a member of the Committee of Soviet Women, a member of the Writers' Union (she wrote two interesting books about the fleet and sailors), since 1963 she headed the Primorsky branch of the Geographical Society of the USSR. It is noteworthy that the author's song developed in the 70s not without the participation of Anna Ivanovna, the "Tourist Patriotic Song Competition" held in Vladivostok, where she headed the jury, in a year will turn into the Primorsky Strings festival, which will later become the largest bard - festival in the Far East.
Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina died on September 25, 1999 and was buried at the Marine Cemetery in Vladivostok. In memory of the first female sea captain, a cape in the Sea of Japan was named after her. On the buildings of the school she graduated from and the school where she taught, memorial plaques. But the main monument to the legendary captain was the grateful memory of the thousands of sailors she led into the ocean.
or, female expansion at sea.
Inspired by the upcoming holidays.
Karoch, guys, what's going on in the world while you're here atomic missiles disassemble into molecules.
Relax, drop this.
Otherwise, in the heat of sofa-geopolitical battles, you will not notice how they will take you by the ear and take you to the kitchen with the words - know your place.
Look, the women are striving for power in all directions, including the sea.
Data?
Easily.
The German cruise ship operator AIDA has taken the lead of militant feminists by appointing a woman as the captain of the cruise ship.
Will command this ship, "AIDAsol"
Nicole is 34 years old and the first cruise ship captain in Germany.
And there are 12 more captains on the way (well, maybe), because in this company, 12 women work in different command positions. Not in serving tourists, but in command positions.
German feminists are already thumping for the third day with joy, and are tearing off the epaulettes from these pitiful peasants.
In general, Germany is a productive country for women captains.
A total of 1,455 container ship captains are registered there. Of this number - 11 women.
A small video about this topic.
They thump in Germany, because in Sweden they already thumped their own.
In Sweden, a woman became a cruiser captain a long time ago.
Karin Star Janson. Citizen of Sweden.
In 2007, she was appointed captain of this ship, "Monarch of the Seas", one of the liners of the first rank. Royal Caribbean International.
Karin has a higher specialized education, and she has a diploma that allows her to hold the position of captain on ships of any type and size.
So, unshaven nonentities.
Gone are the days of admiring female captains. Gone.
Now this is a harsh reality.
Laura Pinasco.
Girl from Genoa.
The captain of one of the largest cattle trucks (hmmm, symbolic, however) in the world.
Laura herself. She is only 30 years old. (When do they have time to dial the qualification?)
And her ship full of cattle and cattle, "Stella Deneb" 
Do you think, world tankers fleet, this plague has bypassed?
Haha.
Belgium.
Captain Evelyne Rogge.
Not only a captain, but also the first captain in the history of gas tankers.
And the steamer Evelyn.
LPG carrier "Libramont" 
How without India then?
There is caste and oppression of women.
But where do women navigators and women mechanics appear under such conditions?
We look.
Radhika Menon, tanker captain.
Sampurna Swarajya tanker captain
In 2016, she received an award from the IMO (International Maritime Organization) for bravery in rescuing those in distress at sea.
With the crew.
Another strange country is Japan.
Tomoko Konishi, female captain of NYK, Japan.
Steamboat Konishi-chan.
Not small, however.
But the most chaos was going on on this ship.
Horizon Navigator, USA.
Three at once. Three!!! command positions were seized by women.
Captain, first mate and auditor.
Already on this ship, it would hardly have been possible to put your hands in the pockets of your overalls and play your favorite pocket billiards. They will quickly sew on some kind of harassment thread, you will forever forget how to lazily roll balls from the left side to the right side, and back. And, no matyukov!
One solid - yes, ma'am.
Strangle me somewhere in the tiller room along the quiet one, when I see that three female commanders are climbing on board at once along the ladder.
Do you think you forgot about the USSR / Russia?
And here it is not.
About Anna Shchetinina, it’s not even worth starting a conversation.
Probably everyone has heard about her.
First female sea captain.
If you approach formally, then not the first, but in the 20th century - for sure.
May her memory be blessed.
Ludmila Tibryaeva.
Captain's badge No. 1851.
The girl at one time made her way to the minister navy and received personal permission to enter the nautical school.
Not just a captain, but an ice captain.
She commanded "carrots", ice-class ships SA-15, type "Norilsk"
Alevtina Alexandrova.
Unfortunately, she died.
Captain of the Sakhalin Shipping Company.
She also persistently wrote letters to the country's leadership with requests for permission to enter the nautical school.
At less than 16 years old, she nevertheless became a cadet at the Nevelsk Naval School.
Ukraine.
Tatiana Oleinik.
Sea captain.
She is not only the sea captain, but also the maia of the captain. Her son also became a sea captain.
At present, girls are also studying in the country's nautical schools, at the nautical faculties. And they don’t need any special permissions, there would be a desire and perseverance.
Tanker Natalia. 
And I have not yet mentioned the female captains of the fishing fleet, and the female commanders of warships.
You can’t remember everyone, these are just those who got caught offhand.
Although you can ... remember about the military
The other day in Japan, a woman was appointed to the post of squadron commander.
Not to command a ship, but a combat formation led by the Izumo flagship.
Well, there in Japan there are some difficulties with the formation of crews, there are not enough men, and the Japanese authorities are trying to fill the shortage with women.
Ryoko Azuma, 44 years old.
And so, nothing ... the Japanese quite succeed. Cute chans are in command. 
And, in general, it is not easy for them there.
Happy holiday, women.
And not just captains.
105 years have passed since the birth of Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina, the world's first female sea captain, Hero of Socialist Labor, graduate of the Vladivostok Maritime College, associate professor, and then head of the Department of Ship Management of the Far Eastern 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 from the bottom of my heart I want to warn you. Well, tell me, what makes you go to the nautical specialty? Have you read novels? Romance attracts?
Job. Interesting job.
Job? 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 excellent grades she was turned down as "an 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 have believed that this girl would go from sailor to captain in six years. 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 clatter 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: whether the “lady captain” could bring her ship from Hamburg to the shores 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 landmark? .. 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 Jean Zhores steamship under the command of Anna Shchetinina assisted the Valery Chkalov steamship 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 wartime, 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 Eastern Higher Engineering maritime 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 a great life, her 90th birthday was celebrated by the whole country. And the whole city saw her off on her last journey in 1999.
A cape on the coast of the Amur Bay, a square on the Shkota Peninsula, 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 Chumai, 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 in the Verkhne-Chubulinsky district of the Kemerovo region, worked as a switchman, forester, worker and employee in the fisheries, carpenter and commandant of dachas in the Regional Department of the NKVD. Mother Maria Filosofovna is also from the Kemerovo region. Brother Vladimir Ivanovich was born in Vladivostok, worked as a workshop foreman at the Aircraft Plant at the station. Varfolomeevka Primorsky Krai.
In 1919 A.I. Shchetinina began studying at an elementary school in Sadgorod. After the entry of the Red Army into Vladivostok, the schools were reorganized, and from 1922 Anna Ivanovna studied at 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 the period of study, 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, too, 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 the 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. Can't find it in my stock German words 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 in this moment a good senior assistant. Such a joke somehow helped me to come to my senses and hide my involuntary embarrassment from public 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 main 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 vessel. 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 a 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. Dry, business-like short toast representative of the Hansa company. 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 all of our National economy. 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 clothes and, at the invitation of the captain, took part in lengthy conversations that were daily held in the captain's cabin with members of the German commanders ship and our sailors, who came to 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 their 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. We brought the flags of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the pennants of our organization with us, and we looked forward to their solemn hoisting.
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 on that very day, the Hanse's representative had to go on business to other ports - and that's all. We understood very well that they were simply forbidden to be present at the hoisting of the Soviet flag on our ship. Our guesses were confirmed by the fact that on the appointed day the German flag was no longer raised on the ship. I had to limit myself to 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 are pouring over the ship and the piers, which were recently still full of people, and now are empty, as if for many miles there is not a single person except us, Soviet people, on the deck of a Soviet ship, which has now become a piece of 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.
