Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina (Russian: Анна Ивановна Щетинина; 26 February 1908 – 25 September 1999) was a Soviet merchant marine sailor who became the world's first woman to serve as a captain of an ocean-going vessel.
At the age of 24 she received her navigator's license (qualifying her for a position equivalent to a Second Mate in the Western merchant marines), and at 27 became the world's first female captain of an ocean-going ship.
She attracted international attention on her first voyage as a captain (in 1935), as a young woman in charge of MV Chavycha on its journey from Hamburg (where it had just been purchased) to the Russian Far East around Europe, Africa, and Asia.
[4] After the War Ms. Shchetinina served as the captain of MV Askold, Baskunchak, Beloostrov, Dniester, Pskov, and Mendeleev of the Soviet Baltic Shipping Company.
Since in 1949 she taught in the Leningrad Marine Engineering College (Ленинградское высшее инженерно-морское училище); in 1951 she became a senior instructor there, and later, the Dean of the Institute's Navigation Department.