B.C. seafarer named first Canadian woman to captain major cruise ship
Capt. Wendy Williams will be master of the Scarlet Lady, the first ship in Sir Richard Branson’s new Virgin Voyages fleet, when it makes its maiden voyage from Miami to Caribbean ports in 2020
Pore through maritime literature and the women you come across are as likely to be mermaids or a ship’s figurehead with breasts exposed.
Seafaring is a pursuit that’s finally shifted toward a better gender balance, but still has a long way to go, and Vancouver Island’s Wendy Williams is one of the women leading the way.
The veteran mariner will be master captain of the 2,770-guest cruise ship Scarlet Lady when it sets sail in 2020 for the inaugural cruise of Sir Richard Branson’s new line Virgin Voyages.
“One of the reasons I joined with Virgin is because they really don’t see gender, they see capable people,” Williams said. “There should be no bearing on what our gender is and that’s the kind of bridge we are going to have.”
Williams was born in Sept Îles, Que., but grew up in Prince Rupert. Her dad was a marine electronics engineer and Williams seems to have been born with salt water in her veins.
Today, when they’re not at sea, she and her husband — a captain for B.C. Ferries — live on their six-acre hobby farm just north of Qualicum Beach, where they grow heirloom vegetables and fruit, and are about to adopt some donkeys, sheep and chickens.
Capt. Wendy Williams with Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson. Williams, who lives on Vancouver Island, has more than 28 years of experience working on ships at sea, including more than a decade as a deckhand in commercial fishing off the B.C. coast. PNG
After stints at UBC and Concordia in Montreal, Williams began working as an observer for Archipelago Marine Research, an environmental consulting group that monitors fishing methods, catch, bycatch and discards at sea, and evaluates catch off-load dockside.
The more time she spent out on large factory processing ships off the West Coast, the more she loved life at sea. In all, she’s spent 28 years as a mariner, from humble deckhand on commercial fishing vessels to B.C. Ferries captain to 15 years working on the bridge of mega cruise ships.
“(Williams’) spirit and drive to approach life at sea differently makes her the perfect fit to join the Virgin Voyages family,” said Tom McAlpin, the company’s president and CEO.
The first woman in the world to captain a cruise ship was Karin Stahre-Janson of Sweden, in 2007 on Monarch of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean ship.
“I had just joined Royal Caribbean when Karin’s announcement was made,” Williams said. “I was really proud of the fact I was working for a company that had just appointed a woman as captain. She will always stand out in my mind as a trailblazer.”
Efforts are being made toward gender equity, but there is a long way to go. According to Condé Nast Traveller, female ship officers on cruise lines average between five and 22 per cent of the total, depending on the line.
Virgin Voyages says it has a goal of making the gender split 50-50 and many other cruise lines have made women captains, including Regent Seven Seas, Cunard, P&O, Windstar, Silversea, AIDA and Sea Cloud, according to Traveller.
Women, however, make up only two per cent of the world’s 1.2 million mariners, according to the International Maritime Organization, and one of the IMO’s primary goals it to make that 50 per cent by 2030.
In Williams’ case, she started out by working free, just to be out at sea. She isn’t aware of any male deckhands who had to do that and today she’s part of a mentoring organization called Women Offshore.
“It is a shame that now we’re starting to focus on gender equality,” Williams said. “It’s 2019 and we’re just now telling women you can be anything you want to be in the maritime industry. It’s been far too long coming.”
The Scarlet Lady, being built in Italy, was launched in February and sits at dock while work continues. Williams will be in charge of a crew of 1,160 and 2,770 passengers at capacity.
She hasn’t yet set foot on the vessel so Williams hasn’t seen the ship’s 17 decks (13 passenger-accessible), 78 RockStar and MegaRockStar suites among the 1,430 cabins, nine restaurants, two-storey bar or ink-and-piercing parlour (Squid Ink) — and there is a figurehead.
“Oddly enough, and delightfully enough, Scarlet Lady has a mermaid on her side,” the 53-year-old captain said.
Why would you want a mermaid on your boat, Williams gets asked; it’s derogatory, people say.
“I don’t think it is,” said Williams, who fantasized as a kid about being a mermaid, who every Christmas asked her parents for gills, who carries a small mermaid token her dad gave her everywhere she goes.
“The way I see it in the lore of mermaids or sirens they roamed about the ocean, they weren’t … they were fierce, they were female warriors in the ocean.
“It’s a very, very strong representation. How do I feel about having a mermaid on the side of my ship? I feel fantastic about that. I’m going to ride on her with pride.”
Article by Gordon McIntyre, published in the Times/Colonist.
Photos courtesy of the Vancouver Sun.
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