A local businesswoman has taken up arms against a visiting cruise ship captain who threatened to encourage his passengers to boycott her store.

Joan Aspinall of Pina of Bermuda on Hunter's Wharf in St. George's seized upon a brilliant idea when the Zenith limped into St. George's on Wednesday.

And hours later she was selling T-shirts with "I survived Hurricane Edouard on the Zenith. September 1-2, 1996'' faster than she could make them.

The T-shirts feature a rendering of the ship and a weather map from the Bermuda Weather Service which shows Hurricane Edouard's location at 9 a.m. on August 31 -- before the Zenith left New York.

At that time, the storm was due west of the Island but its effects were being felt up and down the East Coast so Mrs. Aspinall said she felt the ship's captain must have known he was not going to avoid rough seas.

"It wouldn't have taken a rocket scientist to see where they were heading,'' she said.

Sales went so well that last night, Mrs. Aspinall said: "We were just overwhelmed with the response. We've only got a small selection left.'' Passengers off the ship queued until 11 p.m. Wednesday night in order to buy a shirt and staff worked all night on printing the shirts in order to have stock ready for yesterday.

And the majority of passengers congratulated the shop's inventiveness. Mrs.

Aspinall said she made a number of friends who were excited about getting their hands on real Bermudian designs.

Only one man accused her of "making money out of the misery of others'', she said.

As a final statement against the voyage, she said, all the passengers who bought a shirt -- more than 600 were sold -- intended to wear them off the ship when it docked in New York.

But Mrs. Aspinall said she was later told by a representative of the ship that the captain of the Zenith had found out about the T-shirts and was "infuriated''.

The captain even sent some crew members to the store to buy some of the shirts and will be taking them back to New York and telling people to boycott the shop.

"Who does he think he is to threaten local businesses,'' she asked.

Also last night, The Royal Gazette learnt that Zenith passenger Rocco Desiderio from Philadelphia has been circulating a petition in St. George's "because of the incompetence of the crew members and the captain''. Mr.

Desiderio said he injured a muscle in his leg during the hurricane mishap but he did not want to speak over ship to shore radio when contacted.