Both the regular readers of this blog know that if I had been born even longer ago than I was, and I had the choice, I’d have chosen to be a pirate. On of my favorite days is National Talk Like a Pirate Day. Anyhow, I’ve always been fascinated with pirates. Don’t get me wrong — I don’t condone real pirates and their ruthless activities. I just like the idea of peg legs, eyepatches, parrots, and just swashbuckling in general.
Lady pirate might not sound like a job description your great-great-grandmother would have gone for, but according to history books, many women did really pursue lives of plunder on the high seas.
The most famous female pirates operated during the golden age of pirates throughout the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. Often dressed as men and running away from arranged marriages or following their lovers, these women have contributed to a significant chapter in history.
If you look up the “top ten” lady pirates, or the most famous — or notorious — female pirates, you’ll get a lot of names. There doesn’t seem to be any agreement as to who should be at the top of the list.
On of the earliest lady pirates was Artemisia of Persia, whose fleet preyed on the city-states of Greece during the 5th century B.C. The Athenians put a price of 10,000 drachmas on her head, but there’s no record of anyone ever collecting it.
Around 230 B.C. Ceuta of Illyria was a pirate queen that led raids against Roman ships. Another notable female pirate was Alfhild, a Viking princess who reportedly kept a viper for a pet and whose all-female longboat crew ravaged the Scandinavian coast. Prince Alf of Denmark captured Alfhild, but her beauty so overwhelmed him that instead of beheading her, he proposed marriage…. and they ruled together happily ever after.
One name that seems to make all the lists of lady pirates is Grace O’Malley. Born in 1530, O’Malley’s father, an Irish chieftain, educated her in seafaring. When she was a child, Grace shaved her head and dressed as a boy to sneak aboard her father’s ships. When her father died, she took to the seas, and even gave birth to her son Toby while at sea. The story has it that the very next day, she led her men to a victory over a Turkish warship.
Maybe one of the most notorious of all pirate queens was Madame Ching Shih. She was originally a Cantonese sex worker, but she married a powerful pirate named Cheng I. The couple quickly built one of China’s most formidable pirate armies. When her husband died, Ching Shih took power and partnered with her trusted lieutenant and lover, Chang Pao. Over the following years, they plundered their way across Southeast Asia and assembled an impressive fleet of around 300 Chinese ships and a pirate army of between 20,000 and 40,000 men, women and children. Madam Ching ruled with an iron hand — anyone caught stealing loot for private use was executed immediately. But she was relatively kind to some of her prisoners — she ordered that captive women and children not be hung by their hair over the sides of her ships.
Anne Bonny and Mary Read both dressed as men and served aboard pirate ships that sailed the Caribbean. They met when Marty, disguised as James Morris, joined a ship that was commanded by Anne and her husband, Calico Jack Rackman. One night while the men were sleeping off a rum binge below deck, Anne and Mary were left to face down a British man-of-war alone. But their ship was quickly captured and the pirates were hauled off to prison. After learning that Calico Jack had received a death sentence, Anne’s last words to him were: “I’m sorry.. ..but had you fought like a man, you need not have been hanged like a dog.”
At least that’s one story — of course there’s a little blarney in every pirate yarn.
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