Continuing with my women's history month project. I still haven't installed and played Pirates so I was thinking about doing that tonight. Then I thought maybe I should profile a pirate! Talk about mystique! Women who would dress as men and grab power where they could get it - even in piracy.
Mary Read was born in London, England in the late seventeenth century to the wife of a sea captain. Some historical documents claim that Mary Read was disguised as a boy so that her father would believe that she was his son, whom had died while Mary’s father was at sea, asserting that Mary Read was supposedly the by-product of an illicit affair that her mother had engaged in with an unknown man. Other documents state that Mary’s mother was a widow, and simply wished for her daughter to have all of the advantages offered to a man. Either way, history agrees that Mary Read lived her entire childhood as a boy.
Her mothers’ deception apparently paid off, for after the death of her husband she was able to secure his company and holdings as an inheritance for his “son”, Mary. The little family was able to survive nicely for some time, until Mary’s early teen years, when the money ran out. At this time Mary was forced to procure employment in order to support herself and her mother. Still disguised as a boy, Mary found a job as a footboy to a wealthy French woman living in London. Mary was not happy in her position, and soon managed to run away. Being a girl who longed for excitement, Mary found new employment aboard a Man-o-War, but life on such a ship was not what she had expected.
After a few years of grueling hardship and abuse, Mary managed to jump ship and joined the British military. At first a lowly foot soldier, Mary showed true bravery at the battle of Flanders and was soon promoted to the Horse Regiment. While in the Horse Regiment Mary became friends with another soldier, who believed her to be a man, and soon she found herself in love. Mary confessed her true gender to the man and he accepted her gladly. The two were wed, bought out their commission in the military and together opened an inn by the name of The Three Horseshoes.
Mary's husband died a few years later, and once more she donned men's clothing, and attempted a life in the Army again. She failed at this, so she shipped off to the West Indies. On her way, her ship was taken by Captain Calico Jack Rackham.
As fate would have it, another woman pirate, named Anne Bonny, was part of Calico's crew. Anne saw a young strapping sailor among the captured and decided that she would "have her way" with him. She was not a subtle woman. To Anne's surprise, when she got the man alone, he opened his blouse and he exposed to Anne that he too was a woman. Calico, knowing a good thing when he saw it, hired the two talented women to be a permanent part of his crew aboard the Curlew.
Calico was a fairly successful pirate and his crew managed to capture many different ships. Mary fell in love with a young sailor they captured. He got into a quarrel with an older pirate with more experience while at anchor one night, and as the laws decreed, a duel was to be set the following day. Mary realized that her lover wouldn't stand any chance againt the other pirate, so she started a fight with him and demanded an immediate duel.
The quartermaster rowed the two ashore, with pistols and cutlass, and the duel started. They both fired their pistols but missed, then continued the duel with the cutlasses. He had strength but Mary was more agile and cunning. The duel went on for quite a while. At one point the larger pirate slipped and stumbled when making a thrust. He would probably have managed to recover but Mary ripped her blouse open , flashing her the unsuspecting pirate. Naturally he was completely surprised and stood there in shock. Mary grabbed her cutlass and with just one swing of her blade, nearly cut the man's head off. He lay on the ground gasphing for breath, still astonished that he had been duelling with a woman. Mary's lover showed up to fight the duel but Mary had already taken care of him. They were married and continued to sail on the Curlew.
In October of 1720, their ship was attacked by an armed British sloop on orders from the Governor of Jamaica. While the rest of the pirate crew hid below deck, Read and her friend, Anne Bonny, and one other pirate took up the fight. Read shouted for the others to join them, but they refused. To scare them into action, Read fired her pistols down the hatch, killing one man and wounding others. But the pirates, including their husbands, still wouldn’t fight. Finally, the whole crew was captured and taken prisoner.
They were tried at St. Lago de la Vega in Jamaica on November 28. During the trials, Mary told the court, "As to hanging, it is no great hardship. For were it not for that, every cowardly fellow would turn pirate and so unfit the sea, that men of courage must starve." Read and the crew of the Curlew were found guilty of piracy and sentenced to hang. As Calico Jack Rackham went to the gallows, Bonnie told him, "Had you fought like a man, you need not have been hanged like a dog!"
Both Read and Bonny were pregnant, so they were given a delay in execution until their babies were born. Bonny was executed shortly after the birth of her child but Read and her baby died from a high fever soon after the trial.