The First Woman Captain Navigating the Seas -- A. Shchetinina on the bridge of the steamer Chavicha. The steamer Chavicha commanded by Anna Shchetinina, a woman captain will is the next few days steam out of Odessa bound for Kamchatka. Anna Shchetinina, despite her youthful 27 years, is an old "seawolf" she has been navigating the seas for 10 years already. She commands a crew of thirty able bodied seamen. July 1, 1935. (Photo by Rybalchenko, Soyuzphoto).