How she gets it done: Hettie Geenen, the female captain of the Rainbow Warrior ship

Published March 13, 2018 11:56am

“It’s just a job, like everybody has a job,” Hettie Geenen brushes off the distinction that comes with her job. She is the female captain of recent Manila visitor, Rainbow Warrior Ship, the only female captain of the environmentalist group in fact — “but not the first,” she quickly contends.

“I’ve been sailing since I was younger, most of the time with men too, so for me, this is very normal,” the sailor says.

“But I respect people who are not used to this. Like me, in the beginning, when I saw female bus drivers. I had to look twice. You don’t judge, you just look twice.”

The lady sailor gave us an idea how she got into this profession, the kind of life the job entails, and the joy it brings.

Courtesy of Greenpeace

In the Philippines, when we had authorities visit the ship, they asked where the captain was. I said, ‘sorry I’m the captain.’ And I find they don’t really treat me differently. When I treat them with respect, they treat me with respect.

It’s very important to follow your heart, and to not let what you want be stopped by anybody. Maybe you think there are a lot of barriers, but there are none. I really don’t like to be in the picture, but if I can be an example to someone younger, who wants to do something different, she can see that I did it.

I never wanted to become a captain. I like to be practical and busy. I like to work a little bit more in the background, and as a captain, you’re in the spotlight. But after a while, you realize you have to step up. I’ve been a skipper on a lot of vessels for 12 years, so I thought, let’s do it! I have been chief mate for almost 15 years.

No one day is ever the same, but I have to say as captain, spending a lot of time behind the computer and preparing reports is not my favorite part of the job. The job of captain these days involve a lot of administration and communication. I spend a lot of time inside.

But when my sailors need me, I’m there. Last night, I woke up four times to go to the bridge and check. I did a little maneuver with the sailors. It can get very busy.

I’m not married but I have a partner for many years. He is a seafarer as well, which makes it a little bit easier. When I’m home, sometimes he’s still at sea, but we both understand each other’s lives. We know each other from Greenpeace.

We don’t have children. I would’ve loved to have children, but sometimes, it doesn’t happen. I always say that on board, this is my family.

It was his birthday yesterday and I wasn’t home. Especially when you don’t have children, or family [it can be difficult] but you find another way. This is just how life is. We are three months at sea and at the end of three months, you really want to go home, and if they ask you to stay another week, it’s really hard.

But I wouldn’t have it another way. Sometimes, I think I want to stay home but no. I really think I have a great job. And the nice thing is with my partner, because we don’t see each other, when we finally do, it’s almost like starting again. It has positive sides for sure.

I think everybody still gets sea sickness. Especially when it’s rough. But once at sea, you get used to it. You get over it. It’s seldom that someone doesn’t get over it.

People understand, when you have your period and/or you’re having a bad day. It’s not like you’re in an office. When you have a bad day, you say, sorry. I’m not the best today. People look after each other. The environment is open. I never had a problem with that.

Sometimes, us girls have our moments on board. All the girls having a face mask moment, for instance. This is happening. It’s not really a male environment. I think the the difference is we are on a ship but we’re not on a cargo ship and most of the time, there are three women from a 16-strong crew. The campaign team is mostly women so we have a mixed environment. I would not say it’s a male environment.

I was more into human rights. But this is what’s good with being in a Greenpeace ship: very quickly, you become an environmentalist. It’s almost unavoidable because you’re seeing things. I’ve seen [melting] glaciers for instance and the plastic all over the world.

I am a people person. People is my main, it’s a trigger for me. When I'm asked what's the most beautiful place we've sailed to, it’s not something. It’s about people, meeting the people. For me, it’s meeting the people and learning about how they live, their culture, what they are facing, the environment, the issues. That for me is much more important. This is where it’s about. — LA, GMA News

Tags: internationalwomensmonth, rainbowwarriorship