Congratulations to Captain Belinda Bennett, the first black female captain of a cruise ship. Captain Bennett has sailed for Windstar Cruise Lines for 14 years and is now in command of the MSY Wind Star, operating in the Caribbean in winter and Europe in the summer.
Captain Bennett recently won the U.K.’s prestigious Merchant Navy Medal for Meritorious Service.
Captain Bennett was born on Saint Helena. Located in the South Atlantic 4,000 kilometres (2,500 mi) east of Brazil and 1,950 kilometres (1,210 mi) west of Namibia and Angola in southwestern Africa, Saint Helena is one of the most remote populated islands in the world.
She told Forbes, “Growing up on a small island, from the age that I could walk I was in the water. I loved the ocean. It used to be that the only way off the island was by ship. So when I was 17, I took a job on the RMS St. Helena, the ship that supported the island. That’s when my adventures started.”
Congratulations Captain Bennett.
Having called at St Helena many times when serving as an Officer with Union Castle during the fourties and fifties, I was always facinated by the Island, the charm of the people and our cricket matches on the most unusual pitch in the world surely. Even landing swinging on a rope was an adventure.
I am full of admiration for Captain Bennett having reached her position having come from this remote,lovely place. Capt. J P