Times of the Islands Winter 2016/17

had you not better make One of us, than sneak after
the Arses of those Villains for Employment?”
Imagine for a moment standing on a deck face-to-face
with the commanding bearing of a defiant pirate captain
in whose hands rested your fate, and hearing the forceful
logic of why he chose to live this way—and why you
should too.
To say pirates were sea-going Robin Hoods would be
a stretch, but their actions could be seen as an early form
of civil disobedience to authority. And though they were
often correctly described as bloodthirsty sea-robbers, it
can be argued they were no less bloodthirsty than the
actions taken by the more powerful against Indians or
African slaves or a poor thief whipped or condemned to a
long prison sentence for stealing a loaf of bread. What is
notable is how many were motivated by a well-articulated
sense of justice.
In some ways, the Articles to which pirates adhered
put them a good century and a half ahead of their time.
Ships were run democratically with captains elected by the
crew—often one captain for launching attacks and one for
when they were not raiding. If a captain was not up to the
task, he was voted out of the job. Booty was divided in
even shares among the crew, with the captain getting just
one more share than the others. Some pirates instituted
a form of worker compensation, so that a pirate who lost
a hand, leg or eye was compensated in specific amounts
for the injury from the spoils of the raids.
Anne Bonny and Mary Read took it to another level
by fighting with and against men in deadly encounters to
earn equality in an era when such rights for women were
scarcely imaginable. In so doing, they posed not only a
threat to inflexible institutions of wealth distribution as
pirates, but to an ingrained social structure of women
subservient to men. We can only surmise, but Anne and
Mary must have been cognizant of their unique status as
free women who bowed to no man. Even by today’s standards,
they held a status seldom matched.
Unbreakable bond
How Anne discovered Mary’s female identity has invited
much speculation. It seems that Mary in her male role
struck quite a handsome pose as the pirate called Mark,
and soon caught the eye of Anne. Apparently, the crush
was so strong that Anne could not resist approaching
Mary, possibly on a calm, starry night when Calico Jack
was asleep or ashore, and let the sailor-turned-pirate
know her feelings. Mary, probably sensing the moment,
responded by telling Anne conspiratorially that “he” was a
“she” named Mary Read. Anne is said to have been taken
aback at this revelation and initially disappointed. But she
quickly agreed to keep Mary’s true identity a secret, and
the two became fast friends.
In the days to come, Calico Jack noticed that Anne was
spending more time in the company of Mary. One can just
imagine a brooding Calico Jack, accustomed to getting his
women and his way, strolling the decks and seething at
Anne’s affections for the pirate he knew as Mark. When
he threatened to “slit the boy’s throat,” Mary took it upon
herself to reveal her true identity by discretely exposing to
him a pair of breasts and announcing, “As you can clearly
see, sir, I am no threat to you.” The revelation of just two
women liking each other apparently calmed him down,
though he surely must have been startled. The rest of the
crew, however, continued to know Mary as a man.
But Mary too developed a strong attraction for another
pirate and faced the same dilemma as she did with her
bunkmate commanding officer in Flanders. Once when
her secret love got into a quarrel with another pirate,
Calico Jack ordered the two men to settle it on the beach.
Mary, desperately anxious that her heart-throb might be
killed in the fight, stepped in to take his place in a duel
of swords. Being superior with the weapons, Mary quickly
killed the pirate who had threatened “her man,” who was
unaware of the real reason she risked her own life.
While the pirates respected Anne for her bravery and
notable contribution in raids, at least one apparently
lusted after her. While Calico Jack was away, the pirate
attempted to bed Anne against her will. When Mary saw
what was happening, she intervened and challenged the
perpetrator to a sword fight on the beach—the winner
presumably getting Anne.
The lusty pirate and Mary, still known as Mark, fought
it out. Mary, being the better fencer, quickly dispatched
the pirate by running him through the stomach with her
saber. As he lay dying in the sand, Mary ripped open her
blouse to expose her breasts, crying out, “Look here, you
were just killed by hand of a woman,” thus adding a double
dose of humiliation to the pirate’s defeat and demise.
After that, Mary’s identity as a woman was known to the
crew, but nobody troubled either one of the women again.
With her gender no longer a secret, Mary was free
to pursue the pirate she wanted, and they apparently
became lovers, while at the same time she forged a deep,
unbreakable bond with Anne.
Soon, reports of two “hellcat” female pirates sailing
with Calico Jack Rackham began spreading in the Bahamas,
London and the American colonies. Anne and Mary were
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