Norma GOFFREDO (Italy)

My name is Norma Goffredo, I was born in Genoa in 1942. My father, a seafarer, always spoke to me about his exciting journeys. So I never had any doubts about what ” I wanted to be in my future.” I wanted to join the Nautical Institute in Genoa to become Captain but the Dean would not let me. So I chose to attend the school for W/T ship’s operator where I graduated in 1963 .

Accomplished legal age, 21 years, I got my seaman’s book. I passed the test with rowing the boat in the open sea and the swimming test with a swim back to shore in the cold waters of April, leaving puzzled examiners . These were the years when for a woman to aspire to a career different from the traditional reserved to the ” fairer sex ” was pure madness, anyway I requested an embark as a Nanny / RT Cadet to mature 6 months of radio – apprenticeship required to access the test of proficiency by the Italian radio company SIRM and TELEMAR, but my request was totally ignored.

However, in October 1963 I found a job on the ship ITALIA/HOJQ the Home Line – Cosulich, Panama flag. After 6 months I landed and I went to deal with the proficiency test, but with unpleasant surprise, I learned that the training on foreign ships was invalid. Embarked then, in October 1964, with the same role on the M/V Asia / IBBA Italian flag. It was useless, the Captain and 1st Radio Officer did not permit me the access in the radio room, they said ” so young and pretty I would have distracted from work colleagues radio operators .” At the end of the second voyage landed without any regrets .

In June of 1965 boarded the M/n Galileo Galilei / ICGN where the Captain ( his goodness !) exceptionally allowed me to access the radio room but only during night hours and away from the eyes of the passengers. I did not lose heart, and after an interview with the Hon . Gioacchino Lauro where I expressed him all the difficulties encountered to make my training period as W/T Cadet, I found an embark on M/V Rome / ICFQ where I completed my training.

In June of 1966 I climbed aboard the T/N Michelangelo / ICVI as a seller (I wanted to experience the thrill of a typically female job !) . After I presented was cordially authorized to attend the radio room where, in the role of second headset, I improved my experience.

I always remember the Captain who encouraged me : “you’re cut out to do W/T Operator and not the seller .” I listened to his advice and in February 1967 sailed as 3rd Radio Officer on M/V Angelina Lauro / IBHO. It was a real disaster.

I found a lot of resentment and misunderstanding among colleagues when I showed difficulty in receiving the foreign press in particular by machine. Also because of a painful toothache that made me get a fever. Such that, on her return to Italy landed on my own, relieving the 1st R/O ” did not want to hurt me,” from the embarrassment of a bad report about me.

Removed wisdom teeth went back even more determined to do the best in my job. I gathered a mountain of tapes with W/T broadcasts recorded at a speed of 150 characters per minute. I trained for hours and hours typing, until I reached the best results.

In June and again embarked in the following years I made many trips on the Passenger Liners: Sydney / ICRB, Achille Lauro / IBHE, Rome / ICFQ and Angelina Lauro / IBHO, initially with the rank of 3rd Radio Officer then with the 2nd . Finally, I became head of the W/T Office on board M/V Santa Rosalia / ICSR, a super- tanker I left in 1974 , when the headphones hanging on the wall to devote to the family.

Curious episodes ? A lot ! . Because of my last name (Goffredo), which was often mistaken for a male name it created many misunderstandings, I list just a few.

– In contact with Roma Radio RTF / IAR: the operator with extreme embarrassment said me l was loud and clear but with a tone of woman voice that he could not eliminate from his receiver . “Thank God, I answered, otherwise I would be worried … I am a woman of the opposite in fact .”

– On board “Angelina Lauro / IBHO” : in the Atlantic Ocean , we took on board from a Norwegian cargo ship an officer in serious condition to be urgently operated by medical personnel. Several times per day the radio operator of the Norwegian ship insisted asking the patient’s condition . Until she told me to be his wife . The surprise was when we found each other to be colleaugues.

– On M/V Santa Rosalia / ICSR : bound to a port in South America, I never visited before, I had contacts with a colleague wanted to give me the list of ” local to play”. When I said that those type of entertainments did not interest me, a chorus of commas ( worst insult for a radio operator ) of others listening to me rained down on him. I intentionally omitted my identity as a woman, which he discovered, embarrassed , when we switched to voice.

In 1980 I began teaching “Radiocommunication ” in the Nautical Institute “M. Colonna” in Rome where I lived with the family ( In the mean time I had a daughter I called Marina) and stayed there until 1988, when passed on the role then I moved to Genoa to teach in the Nautical Institutes of Genoa and Camogli. Later I went to other higher education institutions with a mandate as “support teacher “. Since 2007 I am retired and, like a good grandmother, I write stories for Lucrezia, my granddaughter . Regrets? Yes ! I miss the long hours spent to fish when the ship was at anchor and I have a big gripe : I have never crossed the Panama Canal.

 Norma was the second woman officer RT Italian, preceded by Miss Cesco (or Di Cesco ) that after a few months of sailing married a mate of the ship on which she was embarked .

Norma on a foreign newspaper

Norma on T/S ROMA