Meet Kate McCue, the First American Woman to Captain a Cruise Liner

McCue, who is celebrating her 25th year at sea and six years as captain with Celebrity Cruises, says she knew she wanted to be a captain at the age of 12, when her parents took her and her brother on their very first cruise.

“When we were packing the car to drive home, I said to my dad, ‘I know what I want to be when I grow up.’ And he said, ‘What’s that?’ I said, ‘You know the person that plans all the fun events on board a ship?’ He said, ‘The cruise director?’ I said, ‘Yes, that’s what I want to be.’ And that’s where the seed was planted because he said, ‘You can do that or you can even drive the thing.’ Basically, the world was my oyster because of supportive folks like my parents.”

Now, she’s hoping she can not only serve as inspiration for other women to join the ranks, but to also help change the narrative around “female captains” in general. “What I realized was I was given this incredible platform, being one of the few female captains in the world, to really make this hopefully a thing where in the future, you’re not a female captain, you’re a captain,” she said. “And the women that were coming up through the ranks below me would not have to answer the same questions, it would just be normal that they were in these positions.”