I’m taking a class this semester on the History of Women in Aerospace and Ocean Engineering. We’re approaching this chronologically by subject area, starting with pirates (then mariners, aviators, astronauts, etc.). Everyone in the class had to submit their top 3 subject interests so we could be assigned a week to lead the class discussion. To my disbelief, I was the only person interested in doing the pirate lecture!
So here’s the presentation I put together. I’ll spare you the half-hour lecture, but some additional info on all the pirates are below to explain some of the references in the slides.
Artemisia of Caria
Artemisia of Caria came into power when her husband died in 480 BC. She became the only female advisor and commander to Xerxes of Persia. Prior to the Battle of Salamis, she advised him to attack Greece with a combined land-sea strategy to spread the Greek forces thin and leave their ships unattended to protect the people, but Xerxes did not listen to her and decided to attack the Greek fleet head on at Salamis.
The Persian strategy was to overwhelm the Greeks with a massive invasion force, while the Greeks defended strategic locations, keeping the Persian fleet at sea as long as possible. Xerxes was soon defeated in the Battle of Salamis. Artemisia commanded 5 ships in this battle, standing by him loyally. When she was down to 1 surviving ship, she advised Xerxes to retreat, seeing that their defeat was imminent. Xerxes heeded her advice over that of Mardonius, another commander and life-long friend of Xerxes, and survived the battle.
Xerxes expressed his gratitude to Artemisia by sending her to raise his sons in Ephesus and in return the Caria towns prospered in their alliance with Persia.
Teuta of Illyria
Teuta of Illyria came into power after the death of her husband, King Agron of Ardiaei. She started to treat the neighboring states violently and supported her subjects when they raided nearby villages. As the Illyrian pirates extended their reach, they were soon feared as the “Terror of the Adriatic.”
The Roman Republic felt threatened by this and sent 2 ambassadors to demand an end to the piracy, the brothers Gaius and Lucius Coruncanius. Queen Teuta defended her people, saying that in Illyria, piracy was a lawful trade and “it was never the custom of royalty to prevent the advantage of its subjects they could get from the sea.” Upon hearing this, one of the ambassadors disrespectfully disagreed with the Queen, and as a result, she had her men follow them to their ship and killed the offending ambassadors before they could return to Rome. The other ambassador was held captive.
Once word got back to Rome, they declared war on Illyria, sending their entire fleet of 200 ships. Teuta’s governor, Demetrius, surrendered early and was rewarded handsomely with the Queen’s wealth. Queen Teuta eventually surrendered and was allowed to continue her reign, but with huge restrictions on where her ships could sail and stripped her of her properties. They also required her to pay an annual tax and acknowledge that Rome was the final authority in her land. Queen Teuta was later succeeded by Gentius.
Alfhild
Alfhild was a Viking princess protected by a lizard and a snake. Her father, the king, said that whoever can defeat the guards could have his daughter’s hand in marriage. After many failed attempts, leading to the death of many suitors, Prince Alf defeated the guards by covering himself in animal flesh for the animals to feast on, and using tongs and hot steel in one hand and a spear in the other to attack both serpents at once.
King Siward, however, would only accept a man for her daughter if she agreed to him, which was typical in Norse cultures. Alfhild did not want to marry Prince Alf, so her mother told her to run away. Alfhild proceeded to acquire a boat, an all-female crew, and became a successful pirate. So successful that the Danes sent multiple parties out to stop her.
Prince Alf lead one of these expeditions to stop the pirate, which he didn’t realize at the time, was his run-away princess. After boarding Alfhild’s ship during an attack, Alf knocked off Alfhild’s helmet and recognized her. Alf, again, professed his love for Alfhild and she ended her life of piracy to rule Denmark with Alf.
Grace O’Malley
Grace was daughter to chief of the O’Malley clan. Her first experiences at sea were accompanying her father on trade expeditions. She married Donal O’Flaherty to strengthen their alliance with a neighboring clan. They had 3 children together, Owen, Margaret, and Mourrough. Donal was somewhat of a war-mongerer and was killed in battle trying to take land from the Joyce clan. Grace avenged her husband’s death and took Cork’s castle back from them, no referred to as “Hen’s Castle.”
After Donal’s death, Grace returned to the sea to make her living. She rescued Hugh de Lacy his shipwrecked ship during a storm and nursed him back to health. He became her lover and was later killed by the MacMahon family. Grace took her revenge on the MacMahon clan by burning their ships, killing the family, and taking Doona Castle from them.
Grace next married her nephew, Richard “Iron Dick” Bourke, and had a son with him. After a year, according to the Brehon law of the day, a marriage could be dissolved, having lasted a trial period. Grace divorced Bourke, but kept Rockfleet Castle, giving her complete control of Clew Bay.
In 1593, Grace’s sons Tibbot Bourke and Murrough O’Flaherty, and her half-brother, Donal-naPiopa, were taken captive by the English governor of Connacht, Sir Richard Bingham, who had also killed her eldest son, Owen O’Flaherty. Grace sailed to England to petition Elizabeth I for their release. They agreed to a list of demands, including removing Richard Bingham from his position in Ireland and Grace agreed to stop supporting the Irish Lords’ rebellions. After returning home, Grace found that the agreement was only partially fulfilled. Cattle and land that Bingham stole from her was not returned and Bingham was removed from service, but only temporarily.
Upon Bingham’s return, Grace realized that the meeting with Elizabeth had been useless, and went back to supporting Irish rebellions.
Lady Mary Killigrew
Lady Mary Killigrew was married to Sir Henry Killigrew, a former pirate, who was later named Vice-Admiral by Queen Elizabeth I and tasked with suppressing piracy. Whenever her husband went to sea, Mary engaged in piracy using the staff of her castle (Arwenack Castle in Cornwall) as crew.
In 1570, Mary captured a German merchant ship off Falmouth and her crew sailed it to Ireland to sell. However, the owner of this ship was a friend of Queen Elizabeth who then had Lady Mary arrested and brought to trial.
According to sources, her family either bribed the jurors and was acquitted or Queen Elizabeth arranged a short jail sentence. After being freed, Mary gave up pirating and took up fencing stolen goods.
Anne Dieu-le-veut
Anne Dieu-le-veut was married to a pirate, Pierre Length, who was killed in a bar fight by Laurens de Graaf. Anne challenged Laurens to a duel, drawing a gun while he drew a sword. He then declared that he would not fight a woman and proposed marriage instead. Apparently, she accepted, but, since Laurens was already married, they had a common-law marriage.
In 1693, Laurens raided Jamaica and was awarded the title of Chevalier – the equivalent of knighting in French. A year later, Anne and her 2 daughters were taken prisoner by the English in retaliation and held hostage for 3 years.
A few years later, Anne and Laurens attacked a Spanish ship and Laurens was killed by a cannon ball. Anne took command, but her crew was outnumbered and was overtaken. They were imprisoned, but Anne’s fame was so great that, while in captivity, the French Marine Secretary of Pontchartrain heard of her capture and wrote to Louis XIV of France and asked him to make the king of Spain intervene. Anne was then freed as a special service between kings, and she was never heard of again.
Ingela Gathenhielm
Ingela Gathenhielm and her husband, Lars, were granted permission from King Charles XII to attack and plunder any enemy ships in the Baltic during the Great Northern War. As reward for protecting Sweden in the war, Lars and his brother were both knighted.
Ingela took over the pirating business after Lars passed away, but eventually ran out of ships to plunder when Denmark and Russia signed peace treaties with Sweden. After the war ended, Ingela married her lieutenant, Isak Browald.
Anne Bonny
Anne Bonny was the illegitimate child of her father and his servant. After her father was kicked out, he married the servant and moved to Charleston, SC. Her father was wealthy, a lawyer and then a plantation owner, who wanted her daughter to live an honorable life. Anne, however, rebelled and married James Bonny, a small-time pirate, and moved to the Bahamas.
In the Bahamas, Anne had an affair and left James for Calico Jack. James threatened to have Anne flogged for cheating on him and offered to allow Calico Jack to buy her off him to save her from the flogging. Anne refused the offer, saying she would not be bought and sold like cattle.
While on Calico Jack’s crew, Anne met “Mark Read,” who she later found out was Mary Read. There were rumors that Anne and Mary also had a relationship, but sources were inconsistent.
In October 1720, Rackam’s crew was captured by Jonathan Barnet, working for the governor of Jamaica. The crew was too drunk to fight back, but Anne, Mary, and an unidentified man held off Barnet’s troops briefly. They were eventually all captured and sentenced to death.
When Rackam was taken to be hanged, Anne said to him, “I’m sorry to see you here, Jack, but if you’d have fought like a man you needn’t hang like a dog.”
Anne and Mary were given a stay of execution because they both claimed to be pregnant. It’s unclear whether Mary actually was pregnant, but she died in April 1721 from a fever, which some sources said was related to childbirth. Anne Bonny was rumored to have been ransomed by her father and descendants of Anne indicate that she gave birth to Rackam’s second child in South Carolina.
Mary Read
Mary’s grandmother believed that Mary was illegitimate, so refused to support her. When her brother passed away, her mother raised her as her deceased brother in order to get financial support from her grandmother.
Mary joined the military to make her living until she met her husband and confessed to being a woman. They opened an Inn together, but he died young, so Mary rejoined the army. She soon quit because there were no opportunities for advancement in times of peace
Mary was on a ship to the West Indies, when it was taken by pirates – Calico Jack’s crew. Disguised as “Mark Read,” she joined Rackam’s crew. Anne Bonny took a liking to her, forcing Mary to reveal her true identity. There were rumors that Anne and Mary also had a relationship, but sources were inconsistent.
Mary fell in love with an artist on Rackam’s crew. He got himself into a duel, which he would have certainly lost, but Mary started a fight with the offending pirate and challenged him to a duel. During the duel, Mary revealed to the other pirate that she was a woman and he was so stunned, she gained the upper hand and was able to kill him.
In October 1720, Rackam’s crew was captured by Jonathan Barnet, working for the governor of Jamaica. The crew was too drunk to fight back, but Anne, Mary, and an unidentified man held off Barnet’s troops briefly. They were eventually all captured and sentenced to death.
Anne and Mary were given a stay of execution because they both claimed to be pregnant. It’s unclear whether Mary actually was pregnant, but she died in April 1721 from a fever, which some sources said was related to childbirth.
Ching Shih
Zheng Yi found Ching Shih at a brothel in Canton when she was a teenager. She agreed to marry him even though she didn’t particularly like him because it gave her the opportunity to leave the brothel.
Zheng Yi had a long family history of pirates and used his influence and family reputation to build an alliance between competing pirate fleets. Ching Shih took over command of the fleet when Zheng Yi was killed by a tsunami.
She continued to build the fleet by offering captive sailors the option to join them or be killed. The fleet grew to such a size that the Chinese Navy decided they must step in. However, this was a mostly unsuccessful attempt. The Admiral of the Chinese Navy, Kwo Lang, committed suicide when being faced with the prospect of being captured by her forces.
Ching Shih eventually accepted amnesty from Chinese government and retired from piracy. She and all her crew were permitted to keep all their pirated possessions and her crew was offered the opportunity to join the Navy.
Ching Shih later married her leuitenant and adopted son, Cheung Po Tsai, and spent the remainder of her life running a brothel/casino
Other Pirates
- Sayyida al Hurra controlled the western Mediterranean Sea.
- Jacquotte Delahaye was known as “Back from the Dead Red” because of her red hair and return to piracy after faking her own death and hiding dressed as a man for several years.
- Rachel Wall accused of robbery and confessed to being a pirate. She was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging.
- Johanna Hard was Sweden’s last pirate. She was arrested with her crew for boarding and murdering the crew of a Danish ship. Evidence was insufficient for Johanna, but the rest of her crew was imprisoned or sentenced to death. After her release, Johanna was never heard from again.
- Sadie the Goat was known for headbutting her victims before taking their money.
- Hon-cho Lo was known for attacking villages and fishing fleets, and selling women prisoners into slavery. Her fleet was intercepted by a Chinese warship, destroying 40 vessels. Lo Hon-cho escaped, but was turned in to authorities by her crew in exchange for clemency.
- Cheng Chui Ping smuggled thousands of Chinese immigrants to the U.S. and Europe. She was convicted in the U.S. and sentenced to 35 years in prison and is due for release in 2030.
