Yo, Ho! Yo, Ho! A pirate’s life for me; well at least, it would be if I had a ship and a crew… or any idea how to sail. I remember watching ‘Pirates of the Caribbean, Curse of the Black Pearl’ at the cinema and that was it, I was ready to be the best swashbuckling pirate there was and then I heard about the Titanic, Queen Anne’s Revenge and various other shipwrecks, rendering me too terrified to follow my true dreams of sailing with the muppets and singing Cabin Fever.

Once again, I’ve got carried away and I digress from the real reason we are here and that is to learn about one of the most well-known female pirates to ever sail the seven seas! Mary Read.

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Mary Read was an English pirate who used a male alias for most of her time aboard an active ship; changing the Mary to Mark. Mary’s story starts in the 1695, the year she was born, her mother, we can assume was jobless and living off the maintenance money provided by her dead husband’s parents who, provided the money for Mary’s half-brother. When Mary’s half-brother died shortly after his sister was born and Mary’s mother realised that her in-laws would stop sending her money if they knew about the child’s demise, Mary’s mother disguised her newborn as her half-brother to trick the mother and father in-law into sending maintenance cheque’s and to hide the fact that Mary was an illegitimate child.

Mary, at this point, was so comfortable with her male persona that, at the age of 13, after her ‘grandmothers’ death, she was sent to work as a footman (basically a male servant), supporting her mother financially. Of course, servant life did not suit Mary well and instead of living as a woman, she realised she could get further in life by continuing her alias and joining the military in Flanders where, she earned quite the reputation as a brave and heroic soldier amongst her comrades and commanding officers.

While in the military, Mary fell in love with a Flemish soldier whom she shared a tent with and now she had two options: to tell the man how she felt, exposing her real identity; or, to keep it quiet and live alone. Choosing the first option, she finally revealed her real gender to the gentleman who luckily felt the same way about her. When they were discharged from the military, Mary lived as a woman with him and they both purchased an inn together near Breda, Netherlands, running it until her husband’s death.

Presumably heartbroken over her husband’s death, Read sold the inn and resumed her life as a man joining the military once again for a short period of time, before finding work as a sailor in ‘the golden age of piracy’ – which went from about 1650 to the mid 1720’s.

The ship Mary had joined in the West Indies had started off its adventure and she was most likely looking forward to a new life aboard an active vessel; however, not long into its journey, English pirates took over the ship and I’m going to assume, gave the offer of being thrown overboard and meeting Davy Jones, or working on the ship as a pirate. Mary was not stupid and chose to become part of the crew and at the age of about 22, Mary had pledged herself to a life of crime on the high seas… that was until George I extended an offer of pardon for all pirates who surrendered and its believed her and the crew accepted.

Life on land is pretty dull and has little adventure; Read remembered that quickly and like most of the pirates who surrendered she found herself sailing on the seas again, this time joining a crew captained by Calico Jack. The crew also featured another female pirate called Anne Bonny, who lived life as a woman and was also sleeping with Jack ‘Calico Jack’ Rackham. Calico became envious of the relationship between Anne and Mary (rumors have circulated for years claiming they were having an affair). However, to ease Jack’s mind Mary agreed to reveal her gender to him, but not the rest of the crew.

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Mary and the crew mostly ran around Jamaica and the West Indies, stealing and looting ships and recruiting men as they went. One new recruit captured Mary’s heart and she set out to woo him, apparently by slandering the pirate’s life when she found out he hated it. When a friendship had blossomed between the two, Mary began to drop subtle hints she was a woman and once the man had seen her breasts, it was game over for Mary and her true identity had been revealed.

Explaining she was a woman and why she lived like this, the man and Mary decided to give romance a go. Mary even dueled another pirate for her new partner, knowing that if he backed down from the fight, he would be a coward, but he would not win a duel with a true pirate. Mary’s military experience and being the badass she is, she won the duel and saved her partner. After the duel, the two got married by exchanging oaths, as there are no churches on the seas. Mary was pregnant.

Then everything went wrong for Calico Jack’s crew in 1720 when they went to party off the coast of Jamaica. While the crew were off getting drunk they were attacked and arrested and only Mary and Anne fought back against the attackers, while Rackham quickly surrendered. The two continued fighting until they were overwhelmed and taken to Jamaica. In November of 1720, all the crew were tried, convicted and hanged, all apart from Mary Read and Anne Bonny, who were tried on November 28^th and sentenced to death. The reason for this extension on their trial was because they were both pregnant and their executions would be postponed until both children had been born; however, Read died in April 1721 after contracting a fever from the dreadful prison conditions.

So that’s it. The story of one of the most – if not the most fearsome female pirate to sail the seas. Of course, the story of Mary Read is all legend and we will never accurately know who she was or if it’s all true, but one thing is certain, she surely lived an interesting life.

Thank you as always for reading and if you don’t already, please give my page on Facebook under the same name a like to receive an update on all new blogs!

Stay safe and hoist the colours high!

Cait