Siv Mathilde Oldeide always knew she wanted to try a life at sea.
The Norwegian seafarer has just been promoted as Icelandic owner Eimskip's first female reefer chief officer on the 196,632-cbf Polfoss (built 2008).
She started as a cadet on the 146,557-cbf Svartfoss (built 2005) in 2017 and became a junior officer on the 196,632-cbf Holmfoss (built 2007) in 2019.
Oldeide grew up in Maloy, a small town on the west coast of Norway.
"All my life the sea has been my closest neighbour. At an early age, I got my own small 14-foot boat and could spend a lot of time at sea after school," she told the Eimskip website.
"When I got a bit older I started to use our family boat, a 26-foot cabin cruiser with a 200-hp engine," she added.
Fun and exciting
The officer said she found the sailing and manoeuvring fun and exciting.
Her family history has helped shape her ambition as well. Her father and grandfather were fishermen and her older brother is a chief engineer.
"When I heard them tell stories from fishering and sailing along the coast of Norway and abroad, I knew this was an adventure I wanted to explore," Oldeide said.
The keen mariner spent summers working at sea and decided to apply for the deck officer programme at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
After graduation she started work with Eimskip.
Good colleagues and friends
Asked about working in a male-dominated profession, she said: "We are just good colleagues and friends. I do not think about it that much really."
"But when I tell other people on shore about my job they always ask this question, especially the older women. Of course, being a young woman in this profession was not so common before, so I can understand why they are asking," she added.
Oldeide said since her first day she has asked the crew and the captain not to make any differences in the way they behave or speak just because they have a woman on board.
No differences
"I do not want them to make jobs easier for me or treat me differently than the other officers. As far as I can tell they never have. It is no secret that women and men are quite different, but I think it is important to see this as a positive thing," Oldeide said.
She added the crew are a great team and it is important to have different people on board with different knowledge and skills.
"Add good communication and a great deal of humour and the team is supreme. And maybe as a woman, I see a different solution or approach to a problem than my male colleagues," Oldeide added.
As for working for Eimskip, Oldeide said one of the things she most enjoys is coastal navigation on the Norwegian coast.
"By working in Eimskip’s Orange line I get to do that, all the time. The fact that we sail to so many different destinations, big and small, along the coast gives us a lot of manoeuvring and berthing," she added.
