In August 2015, Captain Kate McCue takes command of a Celebrity cruise ship—the 2,158-passenger Celebrity Summit, which clocks in at 91,000 tons and 965 ft from bow to stern. Capt. McCue will begin her new job sailing popular itineraries between the East Coast of the United States and Bermuda. The 37-year-old native of San Francisco is the first American woman ever to helm a large cruise ship.
Capt. McCue comes to Celebrity with 15 years of maritime experience. Immediately prior to her latest appointment, she worked as a master mariner at Royal Caribbean. Over her career, Capt. McCue has sailed itineraries all over the world, including favorite Royal Holiday destinations like the Caribbean, Europe, and the Alaskan coast. She has also travelled to growing cruise vacation hot spots such as Asia and Australia, working her way up through the ranks after starting out as a cadet and deck officer upon graduating from the California Maritime Academy of California State University.
According to Capt. McCue, she has long aimed to be the first female American cruise captain. She finally achieved this goal in a time when more and more women are taking leadership roles all throughout the cruise industry.
Capt. McCue’s previous employer, Royal Caribbean, was already widely recognized for appointing women to top spots. The company named the first female of any nationality as captain aboard a major cruise vessel in 2007, and then hired another woman to command a ship the following year. And Capt. McCue’s new company, Celebrity, just recently appointed Lisa Lutoff-Perlo to be the cruise line’s first female chief executive officer and president.
Perhaps in the future, passengers will see more and more female faces at the helm of their favorite cruise ships!