Royal Caribbean Appoints First Female Captain

Royal Caribbean has named a new captain for its Monarch of the Seas -- the first female in the industry to command a major cruise ship!

Cruise captainship has long been a male-dominated profession (think back to Vikings and pirates), but Swedish mariner Karin Stahre-Janson has been working her way up to it. She has been with Royal Caribbean in a variety of officer-level roles since 1997; her current position as the commander of Monarch is a promotion from Staff Captain, a title she held onboard Serenade and Majesty. Prior to that, she worked for nine years in cargo shipping, primarily on petroleum and chemical tankers -- another male-dominated industry.

Stahre-Janson discovered her love for sailing at the age of 7 when her parents gave her a small boat, and cultivated her passion at sailing camp. While growing up, she also took -- and taught -- sailing lessons and competitively raced tall ships. She graduated from the Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden with a bachelor's degree in Nautical Science and obtained an Unlimited Masters License enabling her to command any ship of any size (maybe Genesis is next...).

Interestingly, Stahre-Janson already completed a tour of duty onboard Monarch, sailing three- and four-night Baja cruises; she'll resume command in August. A spokesman for Royal Caribbean tells us that the line waited to announce Captain Stahre-Janson's appointment per her wishes -- she wanted to get settled in aboard Monarch and with her new crew before fielding the inevitable interviews that would come after the news got out.