The first female cruise ship captain appointed!

[Jason]

Silversea Cruises has broken a persistent maritime glass ceiling by naming its first female captain to the helm of a ship.

Margrith Ettlin took over command of the 132-passenger Silver Explorer on Aug. 7 in Reykjavik, Iceland. Her tour of duty as captain will extend into October.

Although she's not the first female to head a cruise ship, the presence of females at the helm is rare. "We hope Captain Ettlin's achievement will inspire other women to pursue careers at sea," Christian Sauleau, Silversea's executive vice president of fleet operations, says in a statement.

Ettlin is a Swiss national with extensive maritime experience in remote regions, including the Arctic and Antarctica. Before joining Silversea as a staff captain in March 2010, she worked for Germany's F. Laeisz shipping group. Her maritime career also includes nearly nine years as a staff captain with the German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd.

This item was written by Larry Bleiberg, former travel editor of The Dallas Morning News and Coastal Living magazine. Bleiberg is serving as Guest Editor of The Cruise Log while USA TODAY Cruise Editor Gene Sloan is away.

By Larry Bleiberg, Special for USA TODAY

For more cruise news & articles go to http://www.cruisecrazies.com/index.html

Re-posted on CruiseCrazies.com - Cruise News, Articles, Forums, Packing List, Ship Tracker, and more

http://www.cruisecrazies.com

Click here to view the article

[DebbieandJerry]

Great news.

I also heard today that the Air Force Academy appointed their first female superintendent of education!

[ralphj]

Didn't Royal Caribbean name its' first female captain a number of years ago?

[ralphj]

Karin Stare-Janson was named Captain of the Monarch OTS in 2007--there have been others since. The headline is nonsense.

[coloradocruisers]

Didn't Royal Caribbean name its' first female captain a number of years ago?

The article indicates that she is the first for SilverSeas, but not the first captain of a cruise ship.