Introduction
When you think of a pirate, what do you see? Do you see
Captain Jack
Sparrow, from Pirates of the Caribbean? Or do you see Captain
Hook,
from Peter Pan? Even if you didn't see either of these popular
pirate
figures, majority of you probably thought of a male pirate. Did
you
even know that there was such thing a women pirates?
For the
most part, we know very little of women pirates because women in
general were thought to be bad luck on a ship, much less women
pirates. That is why, if there were a woman pirate on the ship,
she
probably hid her female status. Such is the case for Charlotte
de Berry,
a woman pirate of the 17th century . Charlotte choose to marry a
sailor against her parents' wishes. She then joined his ship and
worked along side him. One of the officers found out that
Charlotte
was a women and wanted her. The officer then gave all of
dangerous
duties to Charlotte's husband. He managed to live through these
duties
with the help of Charlotte. The officer then accused the husband
of
mutiny. He was convicted of mutiny and killed. Well,
Charlotte still
did not want the officer, so at the next port, she killed him.
She
then started working the docks as a woman, and was kidnapped by the
captain of another pirate ship. She didn't like this captain, who
forced her to marry him. She then convinced the crew to overthrow
the
captain and then she took over as captain, where her real pirating
career begins. Join Charlotte on her next
adventure.
There are stories of other women who did not hide the fact that
they were women. One of those women was Anne
Dieu-le-Veut,
a 17th century woman pirate whose name means Anne God-wants-it, so
named for her strong will. Anne was initially a prisoner who was
sent
overseas to be the bride of one of the men of the local government in
Haiti or Tortuga. One day she and her husband were in the bar and
her
husband was killed in a bar fight. Anne then challenged the man
who had
killed her husband to a duel. He pulled a sword and she a
gun. He
then said that he wouldn't fight a woman, but did offer to marry
her.
She then went away with him and fought by his side for many
years.
Escape into the seas with Anne.
Another way that a woman could be a pirate would be if she were to take
over her pirating from her father. As a child, Grace
O'Malley,
who was born around the year 1530, wanted badly to join her
father on
the ships when they would make runs to Spain. Her dad said she
could
not come because her long hair would get in the way. Grace cut
her
hair off and was still not allowed to make the runs with her
father.
After she grew up, Grace got married- twice, in fact. The first
husband died in battle and she divorced the second husband. From
both
unions she produced kids, acquired land, and followers who were loyal
to her. This is important in her story because these followers
allowed
her to have a successful career as a pirate. Help Grace raid the
next
ship.
There was another women, Jeanne
de Clisson
, or the Lioness of Brittany, who was a pirate in the 14th
century.
She neither hid her sex, nor did she marry a pirate, or inherit
pirating from her family. Her second husband, Oliver de Clisson,
was
originally loyal to the British. He failed to keep a fort from
the
English in battle and was criticized for it. This criticism
caused him
to join forces with the English instead. During this war, Oliver
was
at a French tournament, and was arrested and convicted of treason, and
later beheaded. Jeanne was not happy about this. She sold
many of her
assets and bought a fleet of ships. She later used these ships to
attack French vessels for many years. Witness Jeanne's revenge.
Image Information: Captain Hook and Peter Pan. Websource.