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

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.

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 come to an end. When the Chinese government asked Portugal and Britain for help, Mrs. Shih saw her empire coming to an end. 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 politican 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.

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.