Women on board: Pirates that we had no idea
Text: Roman Moon, Sports.ru
No matter how many women are on the Forbes list, gender discrimination is still flourishing even on the pages of Wikipedia: The Hairpin recently published lists of web encyclopedias with women grouped according to different, sometimes completely ridiculous, criteria. They have collections of women who become pregnant after 50 years, women-cyborgs in pop culture, women who have ever and everywhere been first, and even a list of craters on Venus, named after great women or simply by female names. We chose and studied the most unexpected wikipedia list - women pirates, the existence of which, we assume, very few people guessed at all. We are talking about 7 heroines who refute the well-known myth that for a long time there was no place for women on board (and even now they are not always welcome).
Zheng Shi
Ching shih
The origin of Zheng Shi is a mystery: the exact day and place of her birth, as well as her real name are unknown. The circumstances in which a prostitute from a modest brothel in 1801 married Zheng Y, one of the main pirates of Asia in the early nineteenth century, are not very clear. According to one version, Zheng Yi sent several loyal people to him to take away his beloved woman by force. According to another, the enchanted pirate came for her himself, promised her half of all the booty and the opportunity to participate in the planning of the raids.
After six years of marriage, Zheng Shi was widowed. In her essay by Borges "Ching's Widow, Pirates," she wrote a beautiful story about a dish of poisoned caterpillars with rice, served to her husband. In fact, his ship, most likely, simply sank the typhoon. After the death of her husband, Zheng Shi took upon herself questions of tactics, strategy, and general planning, and put her stepson, Zhang Bao, who soon became her second husband, to lead the fleet (by the way, according to some testimonies, Zheng Yi's lover immediately after adoption). She wrote a revolutionary code of conduct for her pirates, providing for the harshest punishment for robbery and rape without the permission of the captain and other violations of discipline.
In the best years, Zheng Shi and her fleet controlled the entire South China Sea. 1800 ships, 17 thousand people and even a whole espionage network, reporting the latest news of the court of the ruling Qin dynasty, obeyed her. Attempts by the emperor to stop Zheng Shi by force invariably ended in failure - in the end she herself offered the authorities acceptable conditions for amnesty, they agreed. Almost all of her pirates were pardoned, Zhang Bao took the side of the government and received a fleet of 20 ships. Zheng Shi kept all her wealth, opened a brothel and a den for gambling, and she dealt with them until her death.
Ann Bonnie and Mary Reed
Anne Bonny, Mary Read
Mary Reed was on the crew of one of the ships captured by Bonnie and Rackham. To survive, Mary from childhood had to impersonate a man and wear men's clothes. About the sex of the new prisoner, Ann found out only when she tried to drag her into bed. Bonnie and Rackham agreed to keep Reid's secret, and the “Revenge” team did not learn anything, Mary (as well as Ann, by the way) was able to drink and fight no worse than others. A well-educated red-haired daughter of a wealthy lawyer was predicting a marriage with a worthy young man - provided that violent Ann Cormeck would stop getting drunk to oblivion in taverns and wake up in dirty bunks of local fishermen. In the end, Anne secretly married an impoverished sailor, James Bonnie, and fled with him to New Providence Island, where pirates who hunted Spanish merchant ships flocked to the XVIII century. The marriage of James and Ann cracked the whole island: she continued to sleep with strangers, and he certainly was not an example of loyalty (once his wife found James in bed with a man). Having met Jack Rackham, the captain of the pirate ship "Revenge", Ann left her husband - at sea.
The adventures of Rackham, Reed, and Bonnie ended when the mercenary Jonathan Barnet attacked Revenge, acting on behalf of the Jamaican authorities. The moment Barnet chose the perfect one: the ship had just finished drinking and half of the crew simply could not get to their feet. Reed and Bonnie resisted for a long time, but Barnet won anyway. Rackham was soon hanged. His last wish was to see Ann. Having come to him, she said that if he had fought "like a man," he would not have died "like a dog." Reed died in prison. Bonnie's exact fate is unknown, but apparently, Ann’s father found her and took her to the USA, where she lived a long and peaceful life.
Rachel wall
Rachell wall
Rachel Schmidt, a girl from a poor but decent religious family, married a man named George Wall and went with him to Boston. There she settled a maid, and he - on a fishing boat. Having quickly drunk his money, George decided to engage in piracy and pulled his closest friends and wife into a new business.
Wall plan was very simple. Their schooner sailed off the coast of New Hampshire, waiting for the storm. As soon as the weather got better, Rachel went on deck and started calling for help with shouts and gestures. Those who agreed to help were killed, all their valuables were taken away, and the ship was heated to make it look as if the bad weather was at fault. Walla piracy about a year. According to some estimates, during this time they captured 12 ships and killed more than 20 people.
Everything ended badly for the couple: George was washed overboard by the wave, Rachel had to return to Boston, where she became a servant again, and then went to jail. Some sources claim that Wall was caught stealing from the owners, in others it is written that she went into prostitution and unsuccessfully tried to steal something from the client. Rachel pleaded guilty to piracy and theft. On October 8, 1789, she was hanged.
Marie-Anne of God Will
Anne God-Wants / Anne Dieu-le-Veut
He said something disgusting about her, she promised to shoot him. That is how the novel began a French adventurer and the Dutchman Lawrence de Graff - the famous pirate, who became famous for raids on British and Spanish ships in favor of France. Being married, the couple continued to live a dangerous life: as they say, Marie-Anna participated in the battles on a par with her husband and his team. In 1695, the British captured Marie-Anna and her children. It was liberated only three years later, when Risviksky peace ended the nine-year Orleans war between the French and the Great Alliance, which included England. The fate of Marie-Anne is unclear. Most often there is a cozy version of the fact that she and her husband settled somewhere in the south of the United States and survived to old age.
Grace O'Malley
Grace o'malley
Grace was born in the family of Owen Dubdara, the leader of the clan O'Malley, who controlled the entire coast of Irish County Mayo. According to legend, the girl already in her youth so much wanted to go to sea, that when her father forbade her to approach the ships under the pretext that her hair would get tangled in cables, she cut them off without a second thought. O'Malley and her first husband began robbing at the end of the seventeenth century. They were waiting for ships leaving or sailing to the port on the shores of Galway Bay (the eponymous Irish city then was the center of trade with Spain and France), and offered to pay or give away some of the goods transported. Those who resisted were beaten, sometimes even killed.
Irish knew that the biggest trouble threatened her not even because of piracy, but because she opposed British colonization and incited her compatriots to resist. In 1593, she went to negotiate with Queen Elizabeth I. It is known that O'Malley refused to bow to someone she did not consider the Queen of Ireland, but women spoke Latin (Elizabeth did not know Irish, and Grace knew English). O'Malley’s demands were not finally met, and in the war that broke out a year later, the leaders of the Irish clans against the British colonialists were on the side of Ireland. Most likely, Grace did not live to see the end of the war - both violent death and death for natural reasons are possible (O'Malley was already over 70).
Saida al-Hurra
Sayyida al hurra
In 1492, the family of Saida Al-Hurra (most likely not the real name, but something like the title “noble, free and independent lady”) had to leave her native Granada to hide from the Spanish Reconquista. Subsequently, she became the wife of the King of Morocco, but the inability to forget the hardest childhood episode and cope with the hatred of Christians forced her to turn to Aruj Barbarosse, the ruler of Algeria and one of the most famous pirates of the time. Saida and Barbarossa controlled almost the entire Mediterranean and regularly attacked Portuguese and Spanish ships. At the same time, Said managed to maintain good relations with the governments of both countries. She was even invited as a mediator when the authorities in Spain and Portugal tried to free the prisoners captured by pirates. Perhaps it was all about Saida’s diplomatic talent; there is also an opinion that she was simply very afraid. Saida al-Hurra was almost all her life as governor of the Moroccan city of Tetouan, until in 1542 she was overthrown by her own son-in-law. A woman was deprived of power, titles, and property; what was next with her was unknown.