Women Pirates, Female Pirates in History

Many of the stories about women pirates are just that: great made up tales that showcase females as pirates, yet when truth be told, are found to be total fiction. History has shown us that several women throughout history have hung the moniker of pirate around their necks, from Queen Artemisia, to female Vikings to modern-day women pirates who populate the Philippine waters. Among these many made-up swashbuckling stories we will find some truth, as many of the pirate females we hear exciting stories about, have been verified and documented in our history books. What you will find here today, are some of the women who truly did live and (in a few cases) even die a pirates life while conducting "business trades" on the treacherously pirated high seas.

Among the drivel of fantasy female pirate's few names pop-up that have valuable historic information to share. Charlotte Badger, Ann Bonny and her friend Mary Read, Ching Shin, and last but not least American born Rachel Wall. Each of these fighting deck maidens donned the fashion of male pirates to reap the bloody bounty found in the holds of those unfortunate ships who dared to sail within view of their wooden-hulled pirate vessel. With as much grit and guts (and in some cases much more) these women pirates discovered and looted riches and heirlooms from their victims, while hiding their deadly secret. Let's find out just how they kept the simple fact that they were girls hidden from a ship populated with vicious male pirates.

Charlotte Badger was a convicted felon when she was sent to Australia from England. Her seven year deportation stemmed from being convicted as a thief who was found guilty of breaking and entering when she was eighteen years old. As a passenger on the convict shipThe Earl of Cornwallis, she sailed to Sidney and into Port Jackson, in 1801. She served five years of her sentence in a factory, during which time she also gave birth to a baby girl.

With two years of her sentence remaining, she was assigned to work as a servant to a settler in Hobart Town, Tasmania, along with another prisoner named Catherine Hagerty. In mid spring 1806, Charlotte, her daughter, Catherine, along with several male convicts traveled to Hobart on a ship called Venus. While docked at Port Dalrymple in June, the convicted passengers mutinied the ship. Charlotte and her friend Catherine joined the brigade and helped to seize control of the vessel. The Venus now headed for New Zeland with the navigationally-weak pirate crew. Charlotte, her child, Catherine, and two male convicts were dropped off at Rangihoua Bay in the bay of Islands.

Charlotte and her scruffy crew built huts and lived on the shore of the island. However by 1807, Catherine Hagerty was dead, and the two male convicts had fled. By this time the Venus had been captured by the Islander's and burned. The Maori islanders allowed Charlotte and her daughter to live along side them. Two times she was offered safe return to Port Jackson, but she refused, stating she would prefer to die among the island people.

The rest of the story regarding Charlotte (after 1807) is rather murky. Some say she lived out her days with the Maori Chieftain bearing him children; others say the Maori turned on her causing her and the child to leave Tonga; and still others place her back in America, having stowed away on another ship. How ever the story really ends is no matter really, as Charlotte Badger made her mark in history. She was very likely the first European woman to have lived in New Zealand, and certainly one of New Zealand's first women pirate's!

Arguably the most well known of the women pirates in History, Anne Bonny was born around 1700 in Ireland. Disowned by her father as a young teen, she married James Bonny and the two sailed away to the Bahamas. James worked as a well paid informant there, turning in pirates to the authorities. As James was turning them over to the government, Anne was making them her friends. One friend in particular was Jack Rackam, better known as the pirate "Calico Jack." Jack was a reformed pirate who was given amnesty by the Bohemian governor, who vowed not to prosecute pirates who gave up the pirating life. In 1719, however, Anne and Jack ran off together, and of course jack immediately returned to pirating—this time with Anne at his side. She wore men's clothing so to join the crew on his ship, the Revenge , and was so good at the work, even those crew members who discovered she was a female accepted her as a crew mate.

After overtaking another ship during a raid and absorbing the crew, Anne found she was not the only female among the male pirates. A woman named Mary Read also had disguised herself as a man to be accepted as a pirate. Mary, born in London in the late 1600s, had been disguised as a man nearly all of her life. Her mother had raised Mary as a boy from birth to keep the family free from poverty. (Mary's father died before she was born, and her brother, the only legal heir, had also died. Back then, only men could inherit wealth, so baby Mary became baby Mark.)

Anne and Mary became close friends, and once Anne knew the truth about Mary, she vowed to keep her secret. Anne's husband, Calico Jack, became uncomfortable with just how close these two had become and demanded of Anne an explanation. Lucky for Mary, Jack was actually relived to find that she was actually a woman and allowed his wife's friend to stay aboard and serve on his ship.

The Revengewas captured by a pirate-hunter while her male crew members were in a drunken state from celebrating two successful raids. When the invasion started these drunken souls retreated and hid below deck. Only Anne and Mary stayed on deck fighting for the ship. The girls were angered by the cowardice of the men and actually shot at them killing one and wounding many of them, including Calico Jack. Despite the womens's effort, the ship and crew was taken captive, tried and sentenced to death in Jamaica. Both women were spared hanging because both were pregnant at the time, delaying their death until after the birth of their children. Mary never faced the gallows: she died in prison of a fever. As for Anne, after the trial her record goes silent. Some say she was hanged later that year after giving birth; that she was given a reprieve; that she gave up the pirates life and became a nun. No one really knows for sure.

With many names in tow, Ching Shih—was known as Shi Xainggu, Cheng I Sao, Ching Yih Saou, and 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 was the commander of the famous Red Flag Fleet of pirates after her husband Cheng Yi, the previous commander and from a long line of pirates, died in 1807; she went on to marry Chang Pao, formerly her husband's right-hand man. This female pirate was ruthless not only to those ships she raided, but to her own crew as well. Should the crew make even a minor error, "off with their head" would likely be the result.

She was also a ruthless business woman. She headed all matters of business personally and in any and all raids her approval was required prior to overtaking any vessel; and the bounty was all to be turned over to her in full. No crew was willing to take a chance at being caught doing otherwise!

The Red Flag Fleet under Ching Shih's rule could not be defeated by any country—not by Chinese officials, not by Portuguese navy, not even by the British; all of whom encountered losses to her pirating ways. But in 1810, amnesty was offered to all pirates, and Ching Shih took advantage of this, negotiating pardons for nearly all of her troops. She retired from pirating with every bit of her ill-gotten loot and ran a gambling house until her death in 1844.

Rachel Schmidt was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1760. When she was sixteen she met George Wall. Against her mother's wishes, Rachel married the former privateer who had served in the Revolutionary War. The two moved to Boston where George worked as a fisherman and Rachel as a maid in Beacon Hill. George, whom Rachel's mom had always felt to be a little shady, began socializing with a pretty rough crowd and gambled away what money they had. As things got tougher financially, and lured by his fast-living fisherman friends, George took up the life of a pirate to make ends meet, talking Rachel into joining him.

Together the two stole the ship Essex and began working as pirates off of the Isle of Shoals. Rachel would pretend to be a beautiful brown haired damsel in distress and when ships would come to aide her rescue, George and his men would kill them and take their bounty, and sink their ship. These two and their crew were very successful pirates and looted many ships taking thousands of dollars in cash and valuables. A pirate's life indeed it would seem!

Their devilish plans to take over the weak vessels came to an abrupt end when George and his crew all drowned during a furious storm. Rachel, who really did need rescuing this time, was saved, brought to shore and then taken back to Boston. She spent her days working as a maid, but at night her pirating ways would spring into action. She would sneak aboard ships that were docked in the harbor, breaking into the cabins to steal any and all of the goods she could carry.

Her luck ran out in 1789, when she was accused of robbery. During her trial she admitted to being a pirate, but certainly not one who was a murderess or a thief! She was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. She died on October 8, 1789, as the first and possibly the only woman pirate in all of New England, and the last woman to be hanged in Massachusetts.