The First Lady Marine Engineer

Victoria Drummond’s life proves one simple truth: skill has no gender.

She was born in 1894 in Scotland, inside a castle. She was Queen Victoria’s goddaughter and came from a wealthy, privileged family. Everyone expected her to live a quiet, comfortable life—marriage, social events, and respectability. But Victoria wanted something very different. She wanted to work with engines.

At the age of 22, she announced she wanted to become a marine engineer. At that time, this was almost unthinkable for a woman. Her family thought it was a phase. To discourage her, her father sent her to work in a garage, believing the noise, grease, and hard labour would make her quit. Instead, she stayed for two years and loved every minute of it.

In 1916, she joined the Dundee shipyards, working among nearly 3,000 men as the only woman. People mocked her and told her she did not belong. Victoria ignored them. She worked long, exhausting days and studied engineering at night. She learned engines inside out, not because she wanted to prove a point—but because she genuinely loved the work.

In 1922, she finally went to sea as a tenth engineer, the lowest and toughest rank. She accepted the dirty, hot engine room without complaint. In 1926, she became Britain’s first certified female marine engineer by earning her Second Engineer’s certificate. But instead of being promoted, she was refused the job and forced to work three ranks below her qualification.

Victoria then aimed higher. She decided to become a Chief Engineer. From 1929 onwards, she repeatedly sat for the exam. She failed again and again—not because she lacked knowledge, but because the examiners refused to accept a woman in charge of an engine room. By 1939, she had failed the exam 37 times.

Then World War II began. Ships were under constant attack, and experienced engineers were desperately needed. Britain still refused her. So she joined a foreign ship, SS Bonita, under a Panamanian flag.

In August 1940, the ship was attacked by a German bomber in the Atlantic Ocean. Bombs damaged the ship, and water flooded the engine room. The crew panicked. Victoria ordered everyone out and stayed behind alone. With steam, heat, and water all around her, she pushed the engines beyond their limits. She increased the ship’s speed far above what was considered possible. That extra speed saved the ship and everyone on board.

For her bravery, Victoria received the MBE and Lloyd’s War Medal for Bravery at Sea—the first woman engineer to do so. Still, Britain refused to grant her a Chief Engineer’s certificate. She finally took the exam in Panama, where it was marked anonymously. She passed on her first attempt.

Victoria Drummond spent the next 17 years sailing as a Chief Engineer. She retired in 1962 after 40 years at sea and died quietly in 1978.

When asked why she never gave up, she answered simply:“Because I loved the engines.”

And that love kept them running—no matter who tried to stop her.