Special pirates...

That was the “preferential treatment” in general reserved to women. And two famous piracy’s figures prove this fact!

On the Jamaïcan coast, in 1721, three gallows were waiting for their victims. A captain and his two powerful companions.

  You can called me Jack Rackham, nicknamed “Calicot Jack” or Rackham the Red because of my indian clothes. I was the specialist in the attack of coastal ships in the Caribbean Seas. I certainly inspired the great movie character Jack Sparrow, as my famous flag:

                                 

On may of 1718, I received a forgiveness, but not for long! In fact, I encounter two exceptional pirates: two women friends!

But the History shows that some of the greatest pirates were women, like the first one, the Irish Grace O’Malley, “the Pirates’ Queen”, nicknamed as “Granuaille” fighting against the British for the independence of her people, escape from jail, and maybe respected for her bravery by Elizabeth the first!

My two companions were named Anne Bonny and Mary Read.

 

Ann Bonny was feared as a nasty and unpredictable woman, born in Ireland, bastard child of a lawyer and his maidservant. They flew together in South Carolina. Heiress of a huge fortune, Anne gaved it up to run away with  James Bonny. But she leaved him quickly and after a lot of men and disappointments, I encountered her in 1719. We married each other, and I  started again the piracy, as she loved the job!


That’s where we met Mary Read, a bold woman, brought up as a boy. Hide under the name and the clothes of a dead brother, Mary could help her mother to receive money of her father’s family.

Later, Mary joined the navy, then the cavalry. She felt in love with a soldier (or a sailor) and lived a few years as a wife. When her husband died, she put again the masculine clothes and leaved for the Caribbean. There, pirates attacked her ship and she choose to join them. Soon, she met us.

Together, we stole a sloop to loot the oceans and have a greate life! Mary falled in love and saved one of our prisonner, and they secretly get on a marriage.

Until one day of 1720, the Jamaïcan’s Governor took us and my drunk crew by surprise. We tried to flee but we’d been caught. The fire battle didn’t save us.

Following the most sensational trial of piracy: everybody knew the outcome: me and my crew was condemned to death. But the trial of Ann and Mary was different: the judge listened evidences, and decided the hanging, except if the two women had a good reason to escape to execution. And they had: they were pregnant! She’d been carried in jail, where Mary died before her child birth. Ann disappeared of every registers.