Women Pirates!

Research borrowed from:

https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/were-there-female-pirates

 

https://www.piratesquest.co.uk/top-10-famous-female-pirates/

 

Mentalfloss.com

 

https://www.badassoftheweek.com/teuta

There have been dramatic Tales of women sailing the open oceans and seas throughout history. Most of these legends began from the Golden Age of Piracy (1650 to 1720). However, there are stories of female pirates dating back thousands of years. 

 

According to history, women weren't permitted to stay on ships once they had set sail. Sailor superstitions thought that women on merchant and military vessels were bad luck and could mean disaster at sea.

The presence of women was believed to anger the water gods, which might cause storms, violent waves, and weather. Others thought that women would just distract the male sailors at sea and fall victim to harassment and even violence. 

Women weren't allowed to hold jobs at sea until the 20th Century. Some women would disguise themselves as men, using a fake name, but there could be severe penalties if they were caught. So the only way for most women to participate in running a merchant vessel before 1900 was through their relations or marriage. 

Only recently, women were allowed at sea within the British Royal Navy. In October 1990, during the Gulf War, the HMS Brilliant carried the first women officially to serve on a functioning warship. In 1998, Commander Samantha Moore became one of the first female officers to command a Royal Navy warship, HMS Dasher. 

 

The superstitions and old-school customs for military and commercial vessels were also held for pirates. Historically, women who remained on ships at sea would have to do so illegitimately and in disguise.

They would also need to learn the critical skills necessary for a life at sea before setting sail. Without this knowledge, it would have been tough to be a female sailor, let alone a pirate. 

Piracy was a criminal act, so becoming a pirate could mean being arrested and even killed. It wasn't a decision taken lightly. Although pirates are often portrayed as swashbuckling heroes or villains, many were ordinary men and women forced into piracy to survive difficult times. 

 

Piracy has been around since people first hopped on a boat, so it's likely women dressed like the women or as sailors of their time. But unfortunately, many of the depictions of male and female pirates we see today are glamorized accounts of the 17th Century's golden age of piracy.

The rise of popular fiction tales in the 1800s dramatically affected our understanding of pirate attire.

One example is "The Penny Dreadful," a famous book series of the 1860s - both in the United States and the British Empire. These cheap books told sensational stories of adventure. They featured pirates and highwaymen, likely a leading source for many tales and imagery of female pirates today. 

As we mentioned, many women who became sailors often had to hide their identity and conceal their gender by dressing like men. However, the stories of Grace O'Malley, Mary Read, and Anne Bonny show that these pirates did not hide their gender. They wore whatever they wanted, depending on what they were doing. In the pamphlet "The Tryals of Captain John Rackam and other Pirates" published in 1721, people of the time said:

"When they saw any Vessel, gave Chase, or Attacked, they wore Men's Cloaths; and, at other Times, they wore Women's Cloaths."

 

Ok, let's talk about some of the more famous lady pirates. 

 

Queen Teuta of Illyria

Queen Teuta of the Illyrians was a badass Classical Age warrior queen who oversaw a fleet of hardcore pirates. She tormented the Spartans in their own backyard, led armies and navies that conquered cities and islands along the Adriatic coast, and told the Romans to eat a bag of dicks. Then she went out on her own terms by hurling herself off a mountain after supposedly burying 6,000 pounds of gold in a secret location at a place called Devil's Island. Her last words were a curse that doomed the Albanian city of Durres to "never have a seafaring tradition." Yet, she's still a national heroine of Albania, appears on their 100 lek coin (basically the $1 bill), and is generally depicted in full armor with a take-no-prisoners demeanor. 

 

Queen Teuta's husband was King Agron, a pretty brutal warrior-type dude. He ruled over one of the more powerful Illyrian tribes. Illyria is what Greeks called anyone who lived on the Adriatic coast north of Greece. Still, Agron and Teuta were almost certainly from present-day Albania. This detail bears mentioning mostly because the Albanians don't really like being confused with Serbs or Croats.

In 231 BC, King Agron put together an awe-inspiring army, conquered Illyria in a whirlwind of blood, and set his sights south towards Greece. One tribe near the Greek border that was really pissing him off was the Aetolians. So when they laid siege on a city allied with Agron, the Illyrian King responded by launching 5,000-guys in a water-based night attack from the Adriatic Sea. The King captured the high ground, charged downhill with heavy infantry, destroyed their camp, and broke their Army's spirit. The victory was considered so awesome that everyone just went nuts and had this colossal rager party. In all of his amazingness, King Agron got so drunk that his lungs exploded.

 

Rule of the Illyrians technically passed to Agron's son, but he was only two years old. Teuta took over as the boss. She went right to work taking over where her hubby King Agron left off plundering, conquering, destroying everything in sight, and so on. She sent armies to the Peleponnese, sacking and ravaging the lands Sparta was supposed to defend. Her troops captured Phoenice, the wealthiest city in the Northern Greek region of Epirus. She held it for ransom and then gave it back to its people in exchange for money, slaves, treasure, and the undying loyalty of its citizens. When she wasn't dispatching armies to loot and plunder her enemies, she told any Albanian man with a rowboat and a scimitar to step up. She wasn't going to punish them if they raided, pirated, and plundered ships along the Adriatic… as long as she received a percentage of the profits.

For the next few years, no ships were safe. The Illyrian pirate fleet destroyed Greek and Roman shipping, dominating the wealthiest and most trade-heavy waters on earth, taking whatever they wanted.

Yes, they were killing it. However, this craziness didn't really go down well with the new power in the Mediterranean-- the Roman Republic. So Rome sent two brothers to talk to Teuta and tell her to knock it off. 

They met her in her throne room in the city of Scoda. They demanded that she order a cease-fire on all Illyrian piracy and pay Rome reparations for all the ships and goods they lost. 

Teuta was busy managing the Siege of Issa and all the other conquests she was undertaking. So (according to Roman sources), she told the brothers that "it was contrary to the custom of the Illyrian kings to hinder their subjects from winning booty from the sea." Or, eat one!

Well, as you probably guessed, the Romans didn't like hearing this, especially from a woman.

The ambassadors basically started lecturing Queen Teuta on manners, respect, and yadda yadda yadda.

Naturally, Queen Teuta had that dude's throat cut, and his brother chucked into an Albanian prison.

 

Things were great until five or six years into Queen Teuta's reign when the Romans showed up with a big ol fleet and 20,000 legionnaires. All battle-hardened from the War with Carthage and drilled by professional Roman drill instructors. Teuta rallied the Illyrian defenses, but she was immediately betrayed by her top General named Demetrius. Teuta fought heroically but ultimately was forced to surrender to Rome in 227 BC. There are rumors that she took a bunch of treasure she'd accumulated from her pirates and armies and buried it in a cave on an island somewhere in her domain.  

The Romans allowed Teuta to rule a small domain after she surrendered. Still, they made that traitor Demetrius the regent for King Agron's young son. Not long after, Rome decided to get rid of Demetrius, and of course, our fearless Queen. Upon hearing of Rome's plans, Teuta fled her palace. She climbed to the top of a nearby mountain, placed a curse on the city of Risan so that they'd never be able to build a good ship again, and then hurled herself off a mountain to her death. 

Teuta is a pretty common name in Albania to this day. She appears on their money and has a special place in the hearts of the Albanian people. Go to the city of Durres. You'll see that the National Bank of Albania has a statue of her reclining on a chaise lounge and wearing nothing but a spear, a shield, and a helmet.

Ladgerda

Ladgerda (also spelled Lagertha) was a Danish Viking pirate who lived in the 9th Century AD.

She was a shieldmaiden - Viking women who carried a sword and shield, known for their ferocity and skills in battle on land and sea. 

With only a few accounts of her life known to exist, historians have controversy whether Ladgerda is, in fact, a legendary figure and a substitute for the actions of a group of women.

One story suggests that she rescued her husband's fleet from a warring tribe but, on saving him, murdered him with a concealed knife and took his place as the leader of the tribe. You may have heard of her from the show "Vikings," kicking ass and taking names.

 

Jeanne de Clisson

Jeanne de Clisson, the Lioness of Brittany. Noblewoman, wife, mother, pirate. Jeanne swore revenge against the French King after the execution of her husband. She raised a fleet of ships that terrorized the French and led a loyal army to sack many French strongholds for over a decade. And she did so alone in the 14th Century.

Jeanne de Belleville was born in 1300 in Belleville-sur-Vie into the French nobility. She married her first husband, Geoffrey de Châteaubriant VIII, at only 12 years old. He was seven years her senior. In fourteen years of marriage, they had two children. In 1326, Jeanne was widowed.

In 1328, she married Guy of Penthièvre, though this marriage was short-lived and annulled in 1330.

The same year, Jeanne married for the third time, which would lead to her infamy. Olivier de Clisson IV was a wealthy Breton nobleman whose property included Château de Clisson, a manor house in Nantes, and lands at Blain. Jeanne had also inherited land in the province of Poitou, south of the Breton border, and these combined assets made them a real power couple of the 14th Century.

Their marriage resulted in five children, including their son, Olivier V de Clisson, later known as 'The Butcher', due to his brutality in battle. Their eldest child, Isabeau, was born in 1325. At the time, Jeanne was still married to her first husband and Olivier to his first wife, who died in 1329. We know little of their relationship, but it's easy to note the timing of the annulment of her second marriage, in 1330, to the death of Olivier's wife a year prior. Their marriage was likely a rare love match.

Amidst a complex backdrop of conflict, like so many wars, Jeanne and her husband supported Charles de Blois as Duke of Brittany. But for reasons unknown, Charles de Blois was mistrustful of Olivier de Clisson, questioning his loyalty. 

Sources differ on the cause for this mistrust. Some claim that Olivier defected to join the English side.

Another story points to Olivier's capture by the English during the capture of the city of Vannes in 1342. Olivier de Clisson had been acting as military commander alongside Hervé VII de Léon, in defense of the city when it fell. What is strange, however, was the terms of Olivier's release. He was released in exchange for Ralph de Stafford, 1st Earl of Stafford, a prisoner of the French, and for a suspiciously low ransom. Hervé VII de Léon, meanwhile, was never released. It is thought that the low ransom for Olivier's freedom gave Charles de Blois reason to distrust him. He made a devil's deal!

Due to Charles de Blois' suspicion, in 1343, Olivier was captured with fifteen other Breton Lords at a tournament and taken to Paris to be tried in court.

On August 2 1343, Olivier de Clisson was found guilty on several counts of treason and sentenced to be executed by beheading immediately.

Olivier's trial shocked the nobility due to his guilt's lack of available evidence. However, his death was equally shocking, as the public desecrating/exposing a body was usually reserved for low-class criminals rather than members of the nobility.

The death of her third husband was a turning point in Jeanne's life, and it is fair to say that she was never the same again. She took her two young sons to Nantes to show them the head of their father, displayed on a pike at the Sauvetout gate. She did this with the intention of searing hatred in their hearts. She swore her revenge against the French King, Phillip VI, and Charles de Blois in her fury. She considered her husband's execution to be an act of cowardice and murder.

She sold the de Clisson estates, using the money to raise an army of men who had been loyal to her husband.

Leading this Army, she attacked many French strongholds. First, her Army massacred the entire garrison, except for a sole survivor. Then, her Army rampaged along the Normandy coast, burning many villages to the ground.

In 1343, Jeanne was found guilty of treason, confiscating her remaining lands. However, it seems she otherwise escaped the charge without punishment. That same year, King Edward III granted Jeanne income from English-owned lands in Brittany.

Soon, she turned her attention to piracy, building a fleet of ships. Painted coal-black, their sails dyed blood red, others dubbed the ships "The Black Fleet." During this time, she earned her nickname, the Lioness, or Tigress, of Brittany.

Jeanne named her flagship 'My Revenge.'

 

With the support of the English King, Jeanne's fleet scoured the channel, attacking any French ship that she encountered, massacring entire crews. However, she left a few witnesses to send a warning message to the French King.

Jeanne continued pirating the English channel for another 13 years until the sinking of her flagship in 1356. Along with her two sons, she was adrift at sea for five days, during which Jeanne rowed non-stop in search of rescue. Unfortunately, despite her best efforts, her son, Guillaume, died of exposure. Jeanne and her surviving son were eventually rescued and taken to Morlaix.

It is said that Jeanne de Clisson's ghost still haunts Château de Clisson, her beloved third husband's castle, to this day.

Lady Mary Killigrew

Another fearsome pirate of the Elizabethan era, Mary Wolverston, or Lady Killigrew (before 1525 – after 1587) was known for her pirate activities along the Cornish coast. Mary was the daughter of Lord Phillip Wolverton, a former pirate. She later married Sir Henry Killigrew, a pirate who was later made a Vice-Admiral by Queen Elizabeth I. 

While Henry was employed to uphold maritime law, some ex-pirates were engaged as "privateers," sailing under the favor of the Crown to amass illicit profits for England. Mary was known to be a champion of her husband's criminal activities. She redesigned their home at Arwenak castle to hide stolen goods, cut deals with smugglers, and raid ships.

It is thought that the Queen turned a blind eye to this and even pardoned her in later life. 

Grace O'Malley

Grace O'Malley (a. 1530 - 1603) was a formidable Irish pirate and a decisive leader who successfully defended her lands against English governance and other hostile Irish clans. O'Malley was the daughter of a chieftain and was educated in seafaring by her father. After his death, she took to the seas (even giving birth to her first child while aboard a vessel). 

As the English began occupying Ireland, O'Malley fortified important coastal defenses and offered her support to Irish rebels. She even met with Queen Elizabeth I in September 1594 at Greenwich Castle where they created a treaty in Latin.

 

Mary Read

Mary Read was born in Devon County, England, in the late 17th Century. She had a harsh childhood. Her father had died before she was born, and her half-brother Mark passed away soon afterward. Nevertheless, Mary's paternal grandmother supported Mary and her mother only because she thought her grandson Mark was still alive. To keep the death of Mary's brother a secret from his grandmother, Mary was raised as a boy, pretending to be her older brother.

When Mary Read was about thirteen years old, her grandmother died. Mary still dressed as a boy and had to find a job with boyish habits. She became a footboy to a wealthy French woman who lived in London. Unsatisfied with her current position, Mary escaped and boarded a man-o-war. A few years passed, and she became bored again. This time she joined the Army, where she met her future husband. After confessing love and her true gender to him, they left the Army, married, and opened an Inn called Three Horseshoes near Castle Breda. 

Mary Read was always surrounded by death. After just a few months of marriage, her husband got sick and died. Desperate, she just wanted to escape from everything and joined the Army again. This time, she boarded a Dutch ship that sailed to the Caribbean. Mary's ship was attacked and captured by the pirate, Calico Rackham Jack, who took all English captured sailors as part of his crew. Unwillingly she became a pirate. Soon after, she started to enjoy the pirate way of life. When she could leave Rackham's ship, Mary decided to stay. 

On Rackham's ship, she met the one and only Anne Bonny. Being the only women on the boat and sharing a lot in common, they quickly became good friends. Some people believe that Mary Read was in a romantic relationship with Anne Bonny, Rackham, or even crewmembers. 

Mary's pirate career ended in October 1720. She was captured by Captain Barnet in a desperate battle. In Port Royal, they stood trial. Rackam and his crew were found guilty of piracy, but Mary and Anne were spared because they claimed to be preggers. 

Mary Read died with her unborn child in prison from fever. She was buried at St. Catherine's parish in Jamaica.

 

Anne Bonny

Most of what is known of Bonny’s life comes from the volume A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates (1724), written by a Capt. Charles Johnson (thought by some scholars to be a pseudonym of English writer Daniel Defoe, not to be confused with the green goblin, Willem Defoe) and considered highly speculative. Anne was thought to be the illegitimate daughter of Irish lawyer William Cormac and a maid working in his household. Cormac separated from his wife after discovering his cheatin’ ass ways and later assumed custody of Anne. Following his hookup with her mother, he lost most of his clientele, and the trio emigrated to Charles Towne (now Charleston, South Carolina). Anne’s mother died of typhoid fever when Anne was 13 years old.

Her father betrothed her to a local man, but Anne resisted. Instead, in 1718 she married sailor John Bonny, with whom she traveled to the island of New Providence in the Bahamas. Her husband became an informant for the governor of the Bahamas. Not happy with her marriage, she became involved with pirate John (“Calico Jack”) Rackham, which hopefully sounds familiar unless you’re drunk like Logan. He offered to pay her husband to divorce her—a common practice at the time—but John Bonny “aw, hell Nah!”

In August 1720, Anne Bonny abandoned her husband and assisted Rackham in commandeering the sloop William from Nassau Harbour on New Providence. Along with a dozen others, the pair began pirating merchant vessels along the coast of Jamaica. Rackham’s decision to have Bonny accompany him was highly unusual, as women were considered bad luck aboard ships. Her fierce disposition may have swayed him: fictional stories claimed that when she was younger, she had beaten an attempted rapist so severely that he was hospitalized. Bonny did not conceal her gender from her shipmates, though when pillaging, she disguised herself as a man and participated in armed conflict. Accounts differ on when her female compatriot Mary Read joined the crew. Some state that Read—who had served as a mercenary while disguised as a man—was among the original hijackers of the William, while others claim that she was aboard a Dutch merchant ship that Rackham’s crew captured.

On November 15, 1720, Capt. Jonathan Barnet caught up with the William at Negril Point, Jamaica. Except for Bonny and Read, who fiercely battled their pursuers, the crew was too drunk to resist, and they were captured and brought to Spanish Town, Jamaica, for trial. Rackham and the male crew members were immediately found guilty and hung. Bonny and Read were tried on November 28. Though they too were found guilty and sentenced to death, their recently discovered pregnancies won them stays of execution. Read died in prison the following year, but Bonny was released, likely because of her father’s influence. She returned to Charles Towne, where she married, had children, and lived out the remainder of her life.

Jacquotte Delahaye

Delahaye was born around 1630 in Haiti, though there is no evidence of her birth, and many of the stories seem to originate from 1940s writer Léon Treich. Legend believes that the British navy killed her father, and her mother died during childbirth. As she was destitute, she joined a pirate crew and later commanded a fleet of ships. 

With striking red hair and the legendary status of surviving many dangerous encounters, she was named "Back From The Dead Red."

 

Ching Shih

Contrary to popular belief, the most successful pirate-lord in recorded history was not Blackbeard, Henry Morgan, Sir Francis Drake, or any other human with a wiener.

Instead, it was an extraordinary Asian woman known today by Ching Shih, which translates to ‘Ching’s widow.’ Her saga is nothing less than an exhilarating rag to riches story. At the height of her power, she commanded over 800 large ships, 1000 smaller vessels, and over 70,000 pirate crew, comprised of both men and women.

In comparison, Blackbeard, at his peak, commanded only 300 ships and a few thousand pirate crew.

Ching Shih was born as Shih Yang, in 1775, in the poverty-ridden society of Guangdong province, in China. Like many of the women of this period, on attaining puberty at the age of thirteen, she was forced into prostitution to supplement her family's income. She worked in one of the floating brothels, also known as flower boats, in the Cantonese port city. These boats would sail along the nearby coast with the customer on board. Back then, the Chinese perceived that the boat's rocking added an entirely new dimension to sexual pleasures and enhanced the overall experience. If the ships a Rockin… you get it.

In a short period, young Ching Shih had become the talk of the town due to her striking beauty, poised nature, and lavish hospitality. These attributes attracted several high-profile customers, including courtiers of the royal palace, army military commanders, wealthy merchants visiting the port city, and many more. Apart from this, very little is known about her early life, given her humble origins.

In 1801, Zheng Yi, a notorious pirate commander of the infamous Red Flag Fleet, encountered Ching Shih in the Cantonese port and was smitten by her beauty. Of course, he visited the floating brothel and met Ching Shih, expressed his feelings, and asked her to marry him. Ching Shih told him that she would marry him if “she was granted fifty percent share over his monetary gains and a partial control over his pirate fleet.” This demand showed that she did not want to end up as eye candy for her husband for the rest of her life. Drowned in his boner-filled love for her, Zheng Yi invariably agreed to her conditions, and they got hitched. The truth of this chain of events is often debated today. Historians claim that Zheng Yi had ordered his men to abduct Ching Shih from the brothel, forcibly marrying her.

Regardless, it was Ching Shih who benefited the most from their union, and her encounter with Zheng Yi is often considered to be her stepping stone to greater glory, which in turn got her etched into history as one of the most successful pirates in recorded human history.

Under the joint command of Zheng Yi and Ching Shih, the Red Flag Fleet began to grow and prosper like never before. The fleet grew from 200 ships, at the time of their wedding, to 1800 ships, in the next few months.

Immediately after joining her husband, Ching Shih implemented some crucial changes and constituted the code of laws to be followed to the T by all the crew. Here are a few:

1) Pirates who gave unauthorized orders or those who refused to follow orders were executed on the spot without a chance to justify themselves.

2) All seized goods had to be presented for inspection. If any pirate was found hiding or under-reporting goods, a part of their body was chopped off depending on the scale of the crime.

3) Loyalty and honesty were greatly appreciated, and worthy pirates were rewarded generously, setting an example for the others.

4) Female captives needed to be treated respectfully. They were segregated based on their looks. The weak, pregnant, and ugly ones were freed as soon as possible.

5) The beautiful women captives were held back for ransom. The pirates were given the freedom to marry these attractive women under mutual consent.

6) Infidelity and rape were treated as serious offenses. These offenders were immediately hanged. In the case of consensual pre-marital sex, both the offenders were executed. In some instances, the man was castrated, and the woman was banished from the fleet.

 

Apart from these, several economic reforms were implemented, considering the crew's happiness as an expression of gratitude towards them. This addition resulted in many of the pirate groups of the region merging themselves unconditionally under the banner of the Red Flag Fleet, which resulted in it becoming the largest pirate fleet on the face of the planet.

Meanwhile, unable to conceive a future heir, the pirate couple decided to adopt a young angler in his mid-twenties named Cheung Po from a nearby coastal village, which means that Cheung Po became the second in command to Zheng Yi and the most respected crew after him and Ching Shih. This move puzzled many crew members as to why the pirate couple chose to adopt a fully grown man. Let’s find out!

Just six years into their marriage, in 1807, Ching Shih’s life took a sudden tragic turn; Zheng Yi passed away during a devastating storm off the coast of Vietnam. Their adopted son Chang Pao was instated as the leading commander of the Red Flag Fleet and the pirate queen Ching Shih’s confidant.

Amidst this tragedy, there was an internal rift for dominance amongst the power-hungry captains of partnering ships. The future of the Red Flag Fleet was in danger. Ching Shih managed to secure command of the fleet and win the support of factions loyal to Zheng Yi, including his nephew and cousins, by utilizing a few cunning business tactics. Soon after, the power-hungry traitors were captured and executed in public to set an example and deter any future possibilities of a coup.

 

Following this situation, stricter disciplinary measures and codes of laws were implemented, and the lawbreakers were hacked to death instantly regardless of their rank.

 

Less than two weeks after the tragic death of her husband, the pirate queen announced that she was getting married to her adopted son, the commander of the Red Flag Fleet. AH HA!!

She had shared a relationship with him for a long time, which is why she was not conceiving from her first marriage. It was under her influence that her sucker husband, Zheng Yi, had adopted the young fisherman and declared him as his willful heir.

Under the leadership of Ching Shih, the Red Flag Fleet set off to capture new coastal villages and flaunted total control and domination over the South China Sea. This onslaught added to the trouble British and French colonizers faced as the pirates regularly plundered their ships.

The Red Flag Fleet was operating its businesses at an enormous scale. Not a single ship moved in the South China Sea without the knowledge of Ching Shih’s army. Entire coastal towns worked for them, supplying them with food, goods, and other provisions. The pirates taxed ships that wanted to cross the South China Sea. If they refused, they were attacked and plundered immediately.

 

Nevertheless, the Chinese dynasty desperately wanted to end all this. So, the novice Mandarin navy vessels were sent out to confront the Red Flag Fleet in the South China Sea and destroy them. A few hours into the battle, the Mandarin navy began a humiliating defeat. Ching Shih used this opportunity and announced that the Mandarin crew would not be punished if they joined hands with the Red Flag Fleet. So, just like that, the Mandarin navy was absorbed by the pirates, and the Qing dynasty lost a considerable part of their navy.

 

The Emperor of China was enraged to think that a woman controlled such an enormous amount of the land, sea, resources, and people that belonged to him. So, in an attempt to ink a peace deal with the pirates, the emperor offered an amnesty to all pirates of the Red Flag Fleet, hoping to terminate Ching Shih’s reign over the sea.



Meanwhile, the Red Flag Fleet came under attack from the Portuguese navy. That navy had already been defeated twice before. However, this time things were different because they came prepared with bigger ships and weapons. This superiority gave the Portuguese an upper hand, and the Red Flag Fleet could not return with an attack of the same size. The Europeans were slaughtering them in their own backyard.

Ching Shih recognized no point in fighting; the Portuguese navy ruthlessly destroyed her fleet. So she readily accepted the treaty offered by the Chinese emperor. The entire crew of the Red Flag Fleet was forced to surrender. The emperor allowed pirates to take home all the loot they had accumulated over the years without facing any significant repercussions. Plus, several pirates were granted jobs within the Chinese bureaucracy. Ching Shih’s adopted son and later husband Chang Pao became the captain of Qing’s Guangdong navy. In 1813, she welcomed her first child, Cheung Yu Lin, followed by a daughter whose whereabouts have been long lost in history.

 

In 1822, her second husband lost his life at sea, after which she relocated to Macau along with her children and opened a gambling house with all the loot she had grabbed at sea. She was also involved in trading salt. Towards the end of her life, she opened a brothel in Macau, bringing her life full circle.

 

Ironically, after kicking so much ass, she died peacefully in her sleep at the age of, yep, “sixty-nine.”

 

Sadie the Goat –

In 1869, Sadie the Goat joined the Charlton Street Gang, headquartered at a gin mill at the end of Charlton Street on the West Side of New York. Her real name was Sadie Farrell, but she became known as Sadie the Goat because of her favorite form of fighting: headbutting men in the stomach and having a male sidekick knock the victim out so they could steal his money and valuables.

Before joining the gang, she prowled the streets of the Fourth Ward and was known as a brutal mugger. However, after a terrible fight with another female gangster, Gallus Mag, Sadie the Goat lost her ear fled. Gallus Mag had bitten the ear off entirely and stored it in a jar in a saloon she owned. 

After Sadie lost the fight and her ear, she left the Fourth Ward and found a new home on the West Side with the Charlton Street Gang. Before her arrival, the gang had decided to become pirates and cause problems along the shores of the Hudson River, but they weren’t very good at it. However, with Sadie stepping in, things began to turn around.

With Sadie commanding the gang, they stole a ship and made her captain of their pirate crew. These pirates patrolled the Hudson River stealing and terrorizing, becoming rich in the process. It is said that Sadie the Goat was known for her cruelty and made several of her own men walk the plank throughout the pillaging. True to form, her ship carried the Jolly Roger flag.

After a few months of pirate life, local farmers along the river banded together and engaged the pirates in gun battles. As a result, the Charlton Street Gang decided to call it quits and Sadie the Goat returned to the Fourth Ward. There, she surrendered to Gallus Mag, the gangster who ripped off her ear in their last fight. Honored by the gesture, Mag returned Goat’s ear to her, and it’s said Sadie the Goat wore it in a necklace, in a locket, for the rest of her life.

Maria Lindsey – Maria Lindsey met notorious pirate captain Eric Cobham, and it was love at first sight. Cobham revealed his profession to Maria, but she was not put off – in fact, they were married the next day! The two left Maria's hometown of Plymouth and spent around 20 years sailing the seven seas as swashbucklers.

 

Rachel Wall

Rachel Wall's biography is riddled with myths and legends, but if tales about her are true, she was one of the first and only American women to try her hand at piracy. As the story goes, Wall was a Pennsylvania native who ran away from home as a teen and married a fisherman named George Wall. The couple settled in Boston and tried to survive, but constant money problems eventually led them to turn to a life of crime. In 1781, the couple bought a small boat, hooked up with a few low-life mariners, and began preying on ships off the coast of New England. Their strategy was as ingenious as it was brutal. Whenever a storm passed through the region, the pirates would dress their boat up to look like rough seas had ravaged it. Rachel would stand on the deck and plead for help from passing ships. When the unsuspecting rescuers came near, they were promptly boarded, robbed, and murdered.

Wall may have lured over a dozen ships to their doom, but her luck ran out in 1782 when a real storm destroyed her boat and killed her husband, George. She continued her thieving on land and was later arrested in 1789 for attacking and robbing a Boston woman. While in prison, she wrote a confession admitting to "Sabbath-breaking, stealing, lying, disobedience to parents, and almost every other sin a person could commit, except murder." Unfortunately for Wall, the admittance wasn’t enough to sway the authorities. On October 8, she became the last woman ever executed in Massachusetts when she was hanged to death in Boston

 

Anne Dieu-Le-Veut

 

She was also from Brittany, and her name translates to “Anne God-Wants.” She came to the Caribbean island of Tortuga in the late 1660s or early 1670s. From there, she suffered some rocky years that made her a widow twice, as well as a mother of two. But, her second husband was killed by the man who'd become her third. Dieu-le-Veut insisted on a duel with Laurens de Graaf to avenge her late husband. The Dutch pirate was so taken by her courage that he refused to fight her and offered her his hand. They married on July 28, 1693, and had two more children.

 

Dieu-le-Veut set sail with de Graaf, which was considered odd as many seamen thought women on ships bad luck. Yet Dieu-le-Veut and de Graaf's relationship has been compared to that of Anne Bonny and Calico Jack, inseparable partners who didn’t give a shit about superstition.

 

Dieu-le-Veut's legend took over as captain when a cannonball blast struck down de Graaf. Others suggest that the couple fled to Mississippi around 1698, where they may or may not have continued to pirate. And still, other tales claim that Dieu-le-Veut's spirit lived on in her daughter, who was said to be a badass in her own right by demanding a duel with a man while in Haiti.

Awilda, 

Aghast at the thought of marrying a snake-slayer named Alf, she took off, leaving the palace disguised as a man. She gathered a band of disgruntled women also keen to staying single, commandeered a ship and set sail for a life of piracy; Together Awilda & her female crew learned to weild axes and swords, quickly establishing a fearsome reputation across the Scandinavian seas.

When they came across another ship, full of male pirates whose captain had just died, she managed to convince them all to follow her as their new captain!

Word had spread of this growing band of pirates and the Danes sent their own ships to try and capture her. By this time Awilda commanded a large fleet, when her old flame Alf led an expedition to hunt her down, he found himself outnumbered. However, displaying the same courage & wit as he had when defeating those snakes, he managed to put ship after ship out of action until he finally made it to the lead ship where Awilda was waiting, sword in hand.

He didn’t know that it was Awilda he was hunting and the realisation only hit him when, in the midst of a swashbuckling swordfight he knocked the helmet clean off her head and recognised the girl he had risked life & limb for all those years before by killing all those snakes!

Perhaps she was impressed by his sword skills or his willingness to stand down, perhaps she just had a change of heart or realised how perfect their names would sound together, either way she decided that Alf wasn’t too bad after all and that she would take him as her husband. In true fairy tale style they lived happily ever after as Queen & King of Denmark.

Sister Ping 

Cheng Chui Ping, aka Sister Ping, was a woman who ran a successful human smuggling operation between Hong Kong and New York City from 1984 until 2000. She was arrested in Hong Kong in 2000 and extradited to the United States in 2003. She was held in U.S. Federal prison until she died in 2014 and nicknamed "The Mother of All Snakeheads," a translation of the Chinese word for "smuggler."