Mary Read

Hi there Mateys! You make think that this older posts are kind of boring and with the need of more information but, TODAY its going to be different. As you know this is my major assignment post so I will make it a little bit more special. Today I’m going to tell you the… wait for it  MOST awesome pirate adventure ever and I’m not telling this because this story is about a legend known all over the seas. Im going to talk you about a female pirate that personally I would like to have few characteristics that she had. Her name is Mary Read was born in England and raised as a boy so that her widowed mother could get money from her husband's parents.

About the age of 12, Mary served as a "footman" for a Lady. Later she joined the Flemish army and fought as an infantryman. No one knew the soldier was a woman until her heart got the better of her. She fell in love with a fellow soldier, who at first was alarmed at the advances of this "man." She finally revealed herself to be a woman and the soldier became enamored of her. At the end of the conflict, they revealed their secret to their fellow soldiers. The unit gave them a lavish wedding and chipped in to buy them a tavern near Breda, The Netherlands.

Alas, happiness was not to last and Mary’s husband died of an illness soon after. Having nothing better to do with herself, Mary donned her male disguise and went to sea on a ship to the West Indies. As was common in that time pirates captured the vessel and pressed the captured crew into pirate life. Mary apparently took to the life of piracy very well. She was said to "Swear and Shoot as well as any Mann." She fell in love with a sailor — who apparently didn’t return her affections. When the sailor offended another pirate and was challenged to a duel, Mary created an offense with the pirate that also demanded a duel — only she scheduled their face-off a half-hour before her would-be lover’s. Then she promptly killed the man, thus saving her love interest. He was less than grateful.
As luck would have it, the ship Mary boarded belonged to "Calico Jack" Rakam. Aboard this vessel was the only other woman pirate of the Caribbean,Ann Bonny. Bonny, although she was openly living with Calico Jack, was attracted to one of the new crew and made her interests know to the "fellow," who revealed "himself" to be Mary Read. There are some historians who believe there may have been a sexual relationship between the two.

Simonds, Jacqueline Church. "Women Pirates." Beagle Bay, Inc. - Books That Enlighten, Empower and Inform. 23 Mar. 2009. Web. 06 Sept. 2011. <http://www.beaglebay.com/women_pirates.html>.