The Daring Book for Girls - Andrea J. Buchanan [55]
Anne and Mary became close friends, and once Anne knew the truth about Mary, she swore that she would never reveal Mary’s true identity. But Calico Jack, jealous of Anne’s attention, grew suspicious of their friendship and demanded an explanation. Soon the secret was out, but, luckily for Mary, Jack was relieved and not angered to discover she was a woman. He allowed her to continue on the crew, and just as Anne had been accepted by her crewmates despite being female, Mary was accepted too. Unfortunately for the crew of the Revenge, the Bahamian governor was not so accepting of pirates who flouted amnesty agreements by returning to pirating after promising not to, and he issued a proclamation naming Jack Rackam, Anne Bonny, and Mary Read as “Pirates and Enemies to the Crown of Great Britain.”
In 1720, the Revenge was attacked by a pirate-hunter eager to capture an enemy of the Crown. Calico Jack, along with nearly the entire crew, was drunk at the time, and the men quickly retreated to hide below deck and wait out the attack. Only Anne and Mary stayed above, fighting for the ship. It is said that Anne shouted to the crew, “If there’s a man among ye, ye’ll come out and fight like the men ye are thought to be!” Enraged by the crew’s cowardice, Anne and Mary shot at them, killing one man and wounding several others, including Calico Jack. Despite the women’s efforts, the ship was captured.
The crew was taken to Jamaica and tried for piracy in November of 1720. All of them were hanged, save for Anne and Mary, who were granted stays of execution due to the fact that they were both pregnant. Mary was brave in the face of her punishment, telling the court, “As to hanging, it is no great hardship. For were it not for that, every cowardly fellow would turn pirate and so unfit the sea, that men of courage must starve.” But as it turned out, Mary never had to face the gallows: she died in prison of a fever. As for Anne, after the piracy trial, the historical record is silent. Rumors say alternately that she was hanged a year later; that she was given a reprieve; that she reconciled with the father who disowned her, or with her first husband, whom she had left; that she gave up the pirate’s life and became instead a nun. We may never know for sure what happened to her.
CHING SHIH
Ching Shih—also known as Shi Xainggu, Cheng I Sao, Ching Yih Saou, or Zheng Yi Sao—ruled the South China Sea in the early 19th century, overseeing about 1,800 ships and 80,000 male and female pirates.
She became the commander of the infamous Red Flag Fleet of pirates after her husband Cheng Yi, the former commander from a long line of pirates, died in 1807; she went on to marry Chang Pao, formerly her husband’s right-hand man. To say that Ching Shih ran a tight ship was an understatement: pirates who committed even innocuous offenses were beheaded. Her attitude in battle was even more intense, with hundreds of ships and thousands of pirates used to engage even a small target.
Ching Shih was also a ruthless businesswoman. She handled all business matters herself, and pirates not only needed her approval to embark on a raid, they were also required to surrender the entire haul to her. She diversified her business plan by expanding beyond the raiding of commercial ships, working with shadowy businessmen in the Guangdong salt trade to extort the local salt merchants. Every
BOOKS ABOUT PIRATES
Granuaile: Ireland’s Pirate Queen, 1530-1603
by Anne Chambers
This book was made into a Broadway musical called The Pirate Queen. It tells the story of Grace O’Malley, also called Granuaile, a remarkable and notorious Irish pirate.
The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd
by Richard Zacks
A vivid account of the often brutal nature of pirate life and politics in the seventeenth century.
Under The Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates
by David Cordingly
A look at the realities of the oft-romanticized pirate life through stories of real and fictitious pirates between