Woman cruise ship captain in the spotlight

Back in December of last year, Inger Klein Olsen took the helm of Cunard Line’s Queen Victoria and joined a small group of women in a male-dominated occupation. Now, P&O Cruises has made history with their first woman cruise ship captain sailing to Australia at the helm of Pacific Pearl. Captain Sarah Breton joins four other female senior officers on P&O Cruises Pacific Pearl along the biggest group of female senior officers on any cruise ship in the region.

“We are thrilled to finally have a female Captain in charge of one of our great Australian ships and believe that Captain Breton is a fantastic role model for girls who dream of a career on the high seas” said Ann Sherry, CEO of Carnival Australia, which operates P&O Cruises.

Captain Breton, 45, has served on board many ships including the former Royal Princess, Sky Princess, Canberra, Pacific Princess, Grand Princess and Star Princess as third officer, second officer, navigator, first officer and safety officer reports northernstar.com. After being promoted to staff captain in 2001 on the original Pacific Princess she went on to serve onboard Coral, Tahitian and now the new Pacific Princess.”Growing up near the water I always loved boats and the ocean, so it really does fulfill a lifelong ambition of mine to be a captain with P&O Cruises” said Captain Breton.

The worlds very first female captain of a major cruise line ship was Karin Stahre-Janson back in 2007 on Royal Caribbean‘s Monarch of the Seas. Since that time, few other women have been named master of the vessel on a number of lines.

Flickr photo by WexDub

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