Mary Read

The pirate sloop Revenge with Calico Jack Rackham as captain held a rum party when the pirate hunter Captain Jonathan Barnet disabled the ship with a volley of fire. The crew fled or were too drunk to fight, leaving Mary Read and Anne Bonny to fend off Barnet's troops. They were overcome and Rackham surrendered. They were all arrested and sentenced to hang for acts of piracy. The two women "Pleaded the Belly", which granted them a temporary mercy until their children were born. Mary Read told us of her life before she joined Rackham and Bonny, born an illegitimate child to the widow of a sea captain. Her mother disguised her as a boy and called her "Mark" to receive money from her dead brother's grandmother. When she became a teenager, she first found work as a foot-boy and then took employment on a ship. Still dressed as a man, she joined the British military and proved herself through battle. After falling in love with a Flemish soldier, they bought an inn with their military commission and gifts from friends in the army, who until her marriage had not realized that "Mark" was actually "Mary". Her husband died young and Read once again donned male dress and took employment as a soldier. But there were no wars, no battles to fight and no room for advancement. She quit the army and boarded a ship. It was taken by pirates and Read was forced to join them. After having taken the King's pardon and a commission to privateer, she joined the crew in mutiny and returned to piracy. Then she met the pirate captain John "Calico Jack" Rackham and his companion Anne Bonny.