Meet the world's 1st black woman cruise ship captain:
the world's first black female cruise ship captain— Wind Star
through the Caribbean in winter and Europe in summer. She recently won the U.K.'s prestigious Merchant Navy Medal for Meritorious Service. With International Women's Day and Women's History month just around the corner, we caught up with this trailblazing woman who is making history and helping create a sea change in her industry.Captain Belinda Benett's ship, the Wind Star, anchored off Bequia Island in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Unfortunately, I had a rough start. When I was training as a cadet, I sailed with chief officers who made me work harder than the other guys. During your cadetship you're starting out as a sailor, so you do every job that they do. I had a chief officer, unfortunately, who made me work later than the sailors, so they would knock off for the day, and I would be left outside continuing to work until it got dark. It really was a make-or-break-you time, and me being me, I refused to be broken.
The yachting industry wasn’t quite ready for me at that time. I remember being sat down by an agent in Antibes and being told that finding a job in the yachting industry would be very hard because of three things: 1) I had a higher education than most captains at the time; 2) I was a woman; 3) I was black. So I had to reevaluate my options, and Windstar, here I came. I got a job with Windstar Cruises in 2005.I came to Windstar as a second officer. Eventually, I went to chief officer.
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