Anne Bonny and Mary Reed
Years active:
approx 1714 - October 1720
Anne Bonny was Jack Rackham's lover, and pirated along side him. Bonny, Rackham, and Mary Read stole the ship Revenge, then at anchor in Nassau harbour, and put out to sea. Rackham and the two women recruited a new crew. Rackham's crew spent a lot of time in Jamaica and the surrounding area. Over the next several months, they were enjoyed success, capturing many, albeit smaller, vessels and bringing in an abundance of treasure. Bonny did not disguise herself as a man aboard the Revenge as is often claimed. She took part in combat alongside the men, and the accounts of her exploits present her as competent, effective in combat, and respected by her shipmates. Her name and gender were known to all from the start. Governor Rogers had named them in a "Wanted Pirates" circular published in the continent's only newspaper, The Boston News-Letter. Although Bonny was historically renowned as a female Caribbean pirate, she never commanded a ship of her own. After being sentenced, Read and Bonny both "pleaded their bellies", asking for mercy because they were pregnant. In accordance with English common law, both women received a temporary stay of execution until they gave birth.
Lady Mary Killigrew
Years active:
approx 1530-1570
Mary was the daughter of a former Suffolk pirate. Mary's husband Sir Henry Killigrew, a former pirate himself, was made a Vice-Admiral by Queen Elizabeth I and tasked with suppressing piracy. Whenever her husband went to sea Mary engaged in piracy using the staff of her castle (Arwenack Castle in Cornwall) as crew and possibly with the Queen's knowledge. In 1570 she captured a German merchant ship off Falmouth and her crew sailed it to Ireland to sell. However, the owner of this ship was a friend of Queen Elizabeth who then had Lady Mary arrested and brought to trial at the Launceston assizes. Some sources say she was sentenced to death and then pardoned by the Queen but this is due to confusion with another family member. According to sources, her family either bribed the jurors and she was acquitted or Queen Elizabeth arranged a short jail sentence. Whatever transpired, she gave up pirating and took up fencing stolen goods until she died several years later.
Ching Shih
Years active:
approx 1801-1810
Ching Shih was a Chinese prostitute who married a pirate and rose to prominence after his death. Regarded as one of the most powerful pirates in human history she commanded her husband's fleet after his death. While the fleet she inherited was already large she further increased the number of ships and crew. At its height her fleet was composed of more than 1,500 ships and 80,000 sailors. She controlled much of the waters of the South China Sea. After years of piracy where British, Chinese and Portuguese navies could not defeat her, China offered her peace in 1810 and she was able to retire and married her second in command. The powerful female pirate with the name Mistress Ching who appeared in the third movie of the popular Disney movie franchise "Pirates of the Caribbean" was based on her.
Grace O’Malley
Years active:
approx 1555-1577
Grace O'Malley, commonly known by her nickname Granuaile in Irish folklore, is a well-known historical figure in 16th-century Irish history, and is sometimes known as "The Sea Queen of Connacht". Because Galway imposed taxes on the ships that traded their goods there, the O'Flahertys, led by O'Malley, decided to extract a similar tax from ships travelling in waters off their lands. O'Malley's ships would stop and board the traders and demand either cash or a portion of the cargo in exchange for safe passage the rest of the way to Galway. Resistance was met with violence and even murder. Once they obtained their toll, the O'Flaherty ships would disappear into one of the many bays in the area. By the early 1560s, O'Malley had left O'Flaherty territory and returned to her father's holdings on Clare Island. She recruited fighting men from both Ireland and Scotland, transporting the gallowglass mercenaries between their Scottish homes and Irish employers and plundering Scotland's outlying islands on her return trips. She attacked other ships at least as far away as Waterford on the south central coast of Ireland, as well as closer to her home port in northwestern Ireland. She did not limit her attacks to other ships as she also attacked fortresses on the shoreline, including Curradh Castle at Renvyle, the O'Loughlin castle in the Burren, as well as the O'Boyle and MacSweeney clans in their holdings in Burtonport, Killybegs, and Lough Swilly.
Rachel Wall
Years active:
approx 1760-1789
Rachel Wall may have been the first true American woman who became a pirate. She was born in 1760 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania to devout Presbyterians. A runaway, she eloped with George Wall, a fisherman and former privateer who had served during the Revolutionary War. Soon after they arrived in Boston, Wall deserted Rachel and she earned a living as a servant. Several months later, her husband returned, showed her his plundered treasure, and convinced her to join him in his piracy.Rachel, George, and their cohorts became quite adept at piracy. Between 1781 and 1782 they captured twelve boats, murdered twenty-four sailors, and appropriated $6,000 worth of cash and merchandise. Trouble came in September 1782 when a storm really did batter their sloop and broke the mast. George and the other pirates were washed overboard and drowned, leaving only Rachel on board. She was soon rescued and returned to Boston where she became a maid. Seven years later Rachel was accused of robbing a woman on the streets of Boston. In spite of her innocent pleas, Rachel was found guilty of the crime. She confessed to being a pirate, but not to being a thief. Even so, she was the last woman hanged in Massachusetts.
Female Pirate Artistic Rendering
Away Rio by The Revels from the album Blow, Ye Winds, In the Morning