Mistresses Of The Sea. Female Pirates Mary Read & Anne Bonny
In October of the year 1720, Calico Jack Rackham might have gazed out across the azure blue waters of the Caribbean Sea from the bow of his pirate ship and smiled. All was right in his world. Known as the 'Terror of the Caribbean,' he had assured his place within the pirate realm. Calico Jack, so called because of his habit of wearing calico pants, knew, as he approached Jamaica, that despite the 1692 devastation of Port Royal by earthquake, the early 18th century saw piracy alive and well in the region. Calico Jack was happy to be a member of the brotherhood of pirates. He was as proud of his crew as he was of his own daring and success. Indeed, it seems he was fond of saying his crew was unlike any other.
It didn't take long for word to reach Jamaican Governor Nicholas Lawes that Calico Jack Rackham had been sighted off the coast of Ocho Rios. Determined to stamp out piracy, Lawes wasted no time in setting a sloop commanded by Captain Barnet in pursuit of the notorious Terror of the Caribbean. Barnet followed Rackham's progress around the coastline and steadily gained ground. Finally, Barnet encountered Rackham and his 'special' crew anchored off of Negril enjoying a rum punch party, a celebration of their recent capture of a commercial vessel.
Caught by surprise and groggy from drink, much of Rackham's crew fled below deck. Only two members are said to have held their place and fought steadily against Barnet's entire crew for over an hour. Occasionally, they were also said to have fired on their own crew for not fighting like men. Their strength was not enough, however, and the vessel was captured. The law had caught up with Calico Jack.
As shocked as people were by Rackham's capture, nothing prepared them for the surprise that was to come at the court of St. Jago de la Vega (now Spanish Town). Two members of Rackham's crew were women -- the same two that had put up such a magnificent last stand against Capt. Barnet and his men. Their names were Mary Read and Anne Bonny. Today they are remembered as the Female Pirates, women who defied convention by living out their desire for adventure in a man's world.
Mary Read
Mary Read was born in London, England in the late seventeenth century to a sea captain and his wife. Historical documents claim that Mary lived most of her childhood disguised as a boy.
When her father died, Mary's mother secured his company and holdings as an inheritance for his 'son', Mary, who may have used the name Mark. The money lasted until Mary became a teenager at which point she was forced to find employment. Still disguised as a boy, Mary became a footboy to a wealthy French woman living in London. Unhappy in her position, Mary soon ran away. Giving in to her longing for excitement, she found new employment aboard ship but life onboard was not what she had expected. After a few years, Mary managed to jump ship and turned her sights to military. She joined the British army as a foot soldier. Later, while a member of the Horse Regiment Mary is said to have fallen in love and confessed her true gender to the soldier. The two were wed and bought out their commission in the military. Together they opened an English inn called The Three Horseshoes.
For the first time in her life, Mary lived as a woman, and she and her husband were happy and prosperous. Soon, however, Mary's husband died. Alone and unhappy, Mary turned to what she knew and donned men's clothing, once again becoming a 'man'. She left her inn and joined the military again, but did not last long, perhaps due to memories of her dead husband. Leaving the military, Mary joined up with a ship bound for the West Indies. While enroute, the ship was attacked and captured by Captain Calico Jack Rackham and his crew.
While a member of Rackham's crew, Mary met Anne Bonny, Rackham's mistress. Anne quickly figured out that Mary was a woman and swore that she would keep her secret safe. Anne and Mary became fast friends, often fighting together. It is said that they were the first in battle and the first to volunteer in any boarding parties. The crew respected their strength and ferocious courage, but feared their unpredictability. Rackham became jealous of the time Anne spent with Mary but when he discovered Mary's true sex, he also promised to keep her secret safe.
Anne Bonny
Anne was born the illegitimate child of a maid, Mary Brennan, and her employer, William Cormac, a lawyer, in County Cork, Ireland somewhere between 1697 and 1700. He took his mistress and their child with him to America, and settled in Charleston, South Carolina and eventually became wealthy enough to own a plantation.
Anne always had a taste for adventure and, when she was 16 years old, she met, fell in love and married a sea captain named James Bonny. Her father disowned her, and Anne and James left Charleston for New Providence, Bahamas, where piracy was in full swing.
Anne soon grew bored with her husband and began to think of ways to escape. When she met the handsome Jack Rackham she saw her chance and seized it. It is said she approached Bonny and asked him to declare a formal separation in exchange for a settlement. When he agreed, she disguised herself as a man and snuck aboard Rackham's ship. Knowing that her sex would be considered unlucky aboard ship, she remained clothed as a man for some time. It is said that Anne was so viciously adept with both pistol and cutlass that her gender was never really questioned. The one man who did challenge her lost his life. Anne is rumored to have gutted him.
Eventually, however, she became pregnant and her affair with Calico Jack was revealed. Jack is said to have sailed to Cuba where he left Anne with friends until she had given birth. Their child did not live.
In October of 1720, not long after the couple had happily resumed their life of piracy, their adventures came to an end. They were captured off the Jamaican coast by Capt. Barnet and his crew.
...after the trial
Rackham and his crew were brought to trial, an account of which can be found in a 1721 pamphlet at London's Public Record Office. They were found guilty of piracy. Rackham himself was executed at Gallow's Point on the Palisadoes, his body gibbeted (exposed on a gallows) on a sandy cay near Port Royal that today bears his name as a reminder to all who still chose piracy as their calling. It is said that Anne visited her lover on the morning of his execution. Declaring her sorrow at seeing him in that state, she offered little consolation, reminding him, 'If you had fought like a man, you would not now be hanged like a dog.'
Mary Read and Anne Bonny, in deference to their sex, were granted a separate trial, held a week after Rackham and his crew had been hanged. After testimony from witnesses who stated that the female pirates were 'cursing and swearing much, and very ready and willing to do any thing on board', they were found guilty. At that point, both women pled their bellies, declaring pregnancies, which were subsequently said to be confirmed. Anne's baby, of course, was believed to be Rackham's. Mary is believed to have had an affair with a member of Rackham's crew.
The women received stays of execution until after the births of their children. This probably saved Anne Bonny's life, but Mary Read died of a fever while in prison at Port Royal in 1720, her unborn babe with her. They are buried in Jamaica, as recorded in the earliest registrar of burials for the parish of St. Catherine.
As for Anne, she not only cheated the gallows, she managed to disappear from recorded history. One story states that her father used his connections to arrange her return to the Carolinas. Another, that she escaped with an unknown lover. Still another story states that Anne was granted a pardon by Governor Lawes on the condition that she leaves the West Indies and never returns.
Pirate's knife
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Whatever happened to Anne in reality, the fame of these female pirates lives on, perhaps as much for what is not known about them as for what it is. Whether believed to be vicious criminals or liberated, independent minded women ahead of their time, Mary Read and Anne Bonny are fascinating historical figures that straddle myth, legend and reality while still managing to give meaning to the phrase, fact can be stranger than fiction.
Notes:
Some accounts have it that James Bonny, rather than having agreed to a deal with Anne prior to her having run off with Rackham, appeared at one point while Anne was with Rackham to reclaim her. He kidnapped her and brought her bound and naked before the governor, charged with the felony of deserting her husband. Bonny suggested "divorce by sale," as an option, hoping to profit by the proceeds of such an auction. But Anne refused to be as she is said to have stated, "bought and sold like a hog or cattle". In fact, she is said to have expressed herself so vehemently that no buyers dared step forward to claim such a "hellcat." The governor was forced to release her on condition that she return to her rightful master, but James, who only wanted the money, fled in terror. Mary, who by this time was friendly with Anne, had to persuade Anne not to shoot the governor. Instead, together they set out in a sloop in pursuit of James who eventually escaped. The female pirates did, however, get their revenge by burning his turtle business to the ground. (Rictor Norton, "Lesbian Pirates: Anne Bonny and Mary Read", The Great Queens of History, updated 8 Jan. 2000. )
- The history of piracy dates back more than 3000 years. The Greek historian Plutarch, writing in about 100 A.D., gave the oldest clear definition of piracy: those who attack without legal authority not only ships, but also maritime cities. Descriptions of piracy can be found in Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey. In medieval England, pirates were known as sea thieves. In the 17th and 18th centuries, pirates were also known as buccaneers, filibusters, freebooters and once granted “letters of marque” by England and France which guaranteed authority to act against hostile nations, they became known as privateers – unlike piracy, a legal profession.
- Some historians regard Read and Bonny as homosexuals although evidence of their homosexuality is not clear cut. At most, according to Rictor Norton (2000), they were “bisexual.”
- Some historians doubt that both women were actually pregnant when they claimed to be.
Reprint from Pieces of the Past
Some Female Pirates Through History (From "History of Piracy"):
Ch’iao K’uo Fu Jen — Chinese legend from c. 600 B.C.
Queen Artemisia of Halicarnassus (in Greece) — 480 B.C., Mediterranean.
Princesses Sela (420 A.D.) and Rusla— c. 420 A.D., Norwegian Vikings.
Lady Killigrew — 1530-1570, Atlantic.
Sadie the Goat — 1800s, New York State.
Catherine Hagerty —1806, Australia and New Zealand.
Sources:
Black, C. V. (1966). Tales of Old Jamaica. Kingston: Carlong Publishers Ltd., p. 62-77. Norton, R. (2000). "Lesbian Pirates: Anne Bonny and Mary Read";
The Great Queens of History (updated 8 Jan. 2000).
Wilczynski, K. (2002) History of Piracy, A Biography of Anne Bonny , A Biography of Mary Read.
Jones, D. J. (2002). Ahoy, Matey! That Pirate Has Breasts!
Famous women pirates
Every man who was a boy and has dreamt of the sea
- Has dreamed a dream of piracy;
- The patch on the eye;
- Some grog in a cup;
- On some of their victim’s hearts, they will sup;
- Villains, and cutthroats, and thieves are these;
- Their ravenous carnal appetites do they seek to appease.
Not a hero among them is present today
But history paints a portrait kinder by far
For all pirates victim’s had some type of scar.
Black beard, Morgan, and Captain Kidd doth make the seaman shiver.
But it takes a femme fatal such as Mary Read, Anne Bonny to force the seaman to beseech the good lord their souls to deliver.
Who springs to mind when you utter the word pirate? What picture springs to mind? Is it a peg-legged, scruffy rascal with a parrot on his shoulder and a patch over his eye? Or is it a picture of the handsome and flamboyant Errol Flynn; swinging from a yardarm by a rope to stand beside his lover with sword and pistol protecting the virtue of his bountiful and beautiful co-star Brenda Marshall from a shipload of scurvy looking rouges?
One thing that doesn’t generally come to mind is a woman and most especially not in the role of captain. If a woman doesn’t spring to mind in the role of captain then how about the admiral of a fleet of pirates; and not just any fleet of pirates but the largest fleet of pirates ever assembled. Mrs. Ching Yin Saou also known as Mrs. Ching Shin was that phenomenal woman.
Mrs. Saou a former prostitute from Canton was the wife of Chen I, a pirate of some standing. They were married from 1801 – 1807 when Chin I died. Together they had built a fleet composed of fifty thousand pirates that dominated the sea to the south of China.
After her husbands death Mrs. Saou took over command of the fleet by securing the help of her husband's relatives and seducing her husband's adopted son and placing him in charge of the most powerful of her various fleets. Mrs. Saou and Chang Pao were later married and together with him running the day to day operation of the fleet and her acting as commander and chief of the fleets, came up with a code of conduct that brooked no disobedience.
Mrs. Cheng (Cheng I Sao) in action, the famous woman pirate chief who took command of the federation on the South China Sea coast in 1807. She led a community of fifty thousand pirates. This fanciful depiction is from the History of the Pirates of all Nations published in 1836. |
Ching Shih and her husband successfully defended themselves against the government for three years by defeating all of the fleets sent against them and by raiding ships and villages along the south China coast and killing the men and carrying the women and children away.
Together Mrs. Shih and her first husband Cheng I had built a fleet composed of fifty thousand pirates at its height. With her second husband, she fought off government forces bent on destroying the pirate fleets for three years. Every empire must fall and all things, good or bad, must end. When the Chinese government asked Portugal and Britain for help, Mrs. Shih saw her empire ending. The Chinese government made her an offer for amnesty. Mrs. Shuh took it but on her terms. After nine years as a pirate, three of which she acted as commander and chief, Mrs. Shih brokered a deal of amnesty for her fleet that would have made a cigar smoking politician proud.
The pirates kept their plunder and those that choose to would join the army. Her husband kept twenty junks and was bestowed a rank in the army. Of all of the fleet that surrendered over seventeen thousand pirates, only a handful had any type of punitive action perpetrated against them. Of the ones that were punished, only about one hundred and twenty six were executed.
After their retirement from their life at sea, Ching Shuh and her husband moved to Canton and then moved to Fukien where she had a boy child. After her husband's death in 1822, Ching Shuh moved back to Canton were she died in 1822 at the age of sixty-nine.
Ching Shuh was indeed a phenomenal woman to have accomplished so much in so short a period of time. However, she had an advantage over her Western contemporaries. It wasn’t unusual for a strong woman in the orient to carve out her own destiny and secure her place in legends. In the West, it was practically unheard of for a member of what was considered the lesser sex to want, let alone have the ability, to distinguish themselves in martial matters. Women were for decoration, social advancement, and having babies.
There was only one problem with this scenario - somebody forgot to tell the ladies.
Though it was unusual for women to ship out as seaman and even rarer for them to ply the bloody trade of piracy, it was known to happen. Two instances were Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Shipmates and pirates in the truest sense of the word these women shipped together fought together and stood trial together.
About Anne Bonny and Mary Read, there are many facts and legends. Unfortunately, the two seem to blend together to create a larger than life picture of these two women of the seas. It is known that Anne Bonny born Anne Cormac was born March 8 in 1700 near Cork in Ireland, a bastard child born to her fathers wife’s maid. In some accounts the father was so fond of the girl that he had her dressed up as a boy so that he could keep her with him and claimed that he was training a boy as a lawyer’s clerk. This ruse didn’t work long and a scandal ensued that ruined the lawyer's practice and forced the lawyer, maid, and Anne to leave and settle in the Carolinas.
Anne’s father seems to have met with some success in his new location, as he was able to purchase a plantation from the proceeds he secured from his merchant endeavors. The plantation did well enough that it and Anne caught the attention of James Bonny, a sailor of dubious reputation at best. Anne fell in love with James much to the displeasure of her father, and at sixteen was turned out of the house after her father disowned her.
James relocated Anne to New Providence in the Bahamas where their love seems to have cooled because of the new trade that her husband plied. He had turned informant to Governor Woodes Rogers where he accused anyone that he disliked of piracy for a reward of course.
After Anne left James she seems to have had an affair with Chidley Bayard, one of the wealthiest men in the Caribbean, until a little trouble with another women who is reputed to be the sister-in-law of Governor Lawes of Jamaica. Unable to accompany Bayard on his trips, Anne seems to once again to catch the attention of a scoundrel, Calico Jack, a.k.a. Jack Ransom; who as pirates go seems to have shown a large amount of restraint for his bloodthirsty nature.
Sailor's sword (machete) "cutlass"
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Jack was an ex-pirate who was taking advantage of an amnesty that the Governor of Jamaica was offering at the time. Bored with the life ashore he soon returned to his nefarious ways, taking Anne Bonny with him aboard ship.
After a short time, Anne found to her great displeasure that she was with child. She stayed aboard until her condition was noticeable and then went ashore in Cuba to deliver. It’s said that she was actually looking forward to the arrival of her child and was hoping for a daughter. Alas, it was not to be. The baby born two months early and dead within an hour of her birth devastated Anne.
Jack Ransom took Anne back to New Providence to recuperate where Anne saved the Governors life with some information that some of her old friends had supplied her with. Luckily, Governor Rogers owed her one as Anne’s ex-husband had her and Jack arrested and brought before the Governor. The Governor waved the usual punishment of the charges brought against her, but told Jack that if he didn’t get James to divorce his wife by sale that they must stop their relationship and she must return to her husband or she would be flogged.
Jack and Anne, unable to accept these circumstances, stole a sloop and returned to pirating. During this time, Jack and Anne captured a merchant ship. One of the young men on board caught Anne’s fancy. Anne propositioned the young man only to find that her amorous advances had been made toward another woman Mary Read. The exact nature of their relationship isn’t known but it wouldn’t be remiss in stating that the two women were of kindred spirit.
The ladies' time together would be short but adventure filled. The star that shines twice as bright lasts half as long. In 1720 Jack, Anne and Mary Read along with some other confederates stole a sloop from the harbor in Nassau. There was little doubt as to the identity of the thieves that liberated the vessel and marked them as pirates who’s punishment, if caught, would be death.
It’s generally agreed that Jack and the other pirates aboard his vessel were surprised and captured with a majority of the resistance coming from Anne and Mary. All of the prisoners were taken to Spanish Town jail. On November 16, 1720, Calico Jack and his men were tried and sentenced to hang. On the 28th of November the two women were tried. They too were found guilty but when the judge asked them if they had anything to say after their sentence of death was pronounced, Anne proclaimed to one and all that she and Mary were pregnant.
The court ordered the judgment be withheld until it was verified that both women were indeed with child. The statement turned out to be true and the judgment was rescinded. Mary Read died in Prison before the birth of her child. She was buried on April 28th 1721. It’s unknown exactly what happened to Anne or her child.
There are stories that state that Anne’s father who had influence saved her and brought her back home to start a new life. There are other stories that the Governor granted her a pardon on the condition that she would never return to the West Indies. Anne then took the father of her child, who in this story is a doctor, whose life Anne had saved and left for North Folk Virginia. From there, they joined some settlers headed westward.
Wherever Anne ended up you can bet your last dollar on one thing. Adventure was her companion, bravery supper and that she squeezed every once of life from every breath that that she took. Goodbye Anne.
Jack Rackham flag
Reprint from eSSORTMENT
Acknowledgement to Viktor Ushkuynikov for the idea of the publication and for some illustrations.
Bibliography
Charles Johnson . A General History Of The Robberies And Murders Of The Most Notorious Pirates.
The classic source for the history of piracy, as used by Robert Louis Stevenson in the writing of "Treasure Island". The first part was issued in 1724, the second one - in 1828. Later, a version circulated that Charles Johnson was a nickname of Daniel Defoe, the author of "Robinson Crusoe".
Jo Stanley (Editor). Bold in Her Breeches : Women Pirates Across the Ages
Sandra Riley. Sisters of the Sea: Anne Bonny and Mary Read Pirates of the Caribbean
Internet links
List of Known Women Pirates
Female Pirates (bibliography)
Pirate Trials
Mistresses Of The Sea. Female Pirates Mary Read & Anne Bonny
Famous women pirates
Pirates! Facts & legends. Anne Bonny
Domain of Anne Bonny
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Anne kills a pirate, mocking at her
Mary challenges a male pirate and kills him in order to save her beloved.
Mary revealing her true identity
Anne and Mary - shoulder to shoulder
Episodes of stage productions - Anne Bonny, Mary Read and other female pirates
Post stamps - Anne Bonny and Mary Read
Book covers - Anne Bonny, Mary Read and other female pirates
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