The Tribune

The legendary Anne Bonny and Mary Read hold a special place in the annals of piracy in the Bahamas. Sir Christopher Ondaatje recounts their extraordinary tales of disguise and daring

History is full of stories, poems, ballads, plays and even films of the great pirates of the Caribbean.

Edward “Blackbeard” Teach, who terrorised Atlantic shipping in the early part of the 18th century, was captured in battle in 1718 and beheaded. Bartholomew “Black Bart” Roberts, who plundered over 400 ships, died in battle in 1722. Sir Henry “Captain” Morgan, who dominated Spain’s Caribbean colonies in the late 1600s – although arrested – was knighted by Charles II and released to become Deputy Governor of Jamaica. Captain William Kidd, who started out as a pirate hunter, not a pirate, was eventually jailed and hanged in 1701 after a lengthy, sensational trial.

And then there was John “Calico Jack” Rackham, who sailed the Caribbean and the southeastern coast of the United States during the so-called “Golden Age” of piracy from 1680 to 1725. Although Rackham was not one of the most famous or more successful pirates he is infamous because he had under his command two female pirates, Anne Bonny and Mary Read.

Their incredible stories are two of the most improbable in the annals of Caribbean piracy.

Rackham himself was a brave and inscrutable figure. He earned his name because of his fondness for colourful clothes. He loved women and was rumoured to have kept a harem of mistresses in the coastal towns of Cuba. Once a quartermaster of Captain Vane’s pirate ship, the crew, disagreeing with Vane’s reluctance to attack a French frigate, revolted and chose Rackham as their captain. He never looked back. In charge of Vane’s vessel he embarked on a career of plundering smaller vessels, first around the Bahamian islands and then around the coast of Jamaica.

Rackham met Anne Bonny in a New Providence tavern in 1719 while seeking an amnesty from the then Governor, Captain Woodes Rogers. Although already married to James Bonny – a poor sailor and part-time pirate – he soon became her lover and persuaded her to leave her husband and join his crew.

Finding herself pregnant by Rackham, she went to Cuba where the child was left with friends. She rejoined Rackham and resumed her position with his crew – dressed as a man. At sea they lived together as pirates. She divorced her husband and married Rackham at sea.

It was while at sea that she became attracted to a young member of Rackham’s crew, who in an intimate moment revealed herself to be a woman. This was the now famous other lady pirate, Mary Read. They revealed their secret to their captain, “Calico Jack”, and they became a powerful and feared trio – plundering and stealing ships near Nassau harbour and building their pirate crew.

How these two women dressed in men’s clothing came to be on the same ship, in the same pirate’s crew and serving under the same charismatic pirate captain are two of the most incredible stories. And both stories had a more incredible ending.

Anne Bonny was born in 1700 in Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland, and was the illegitimate daughter of a servant maid, Mary Brennan, and her employer William Cormac - an Irish lawyer. Accused of stealing three silver spoons, the attractive servant-maid was reported to the constabulary by Cormac’s jealous wife and was jailed for theft.

However, after a few months, it became apparent that the servant-maid was pregnant. This changed the attitude of the Irish courts and she was discharged for want of evidence. After her release, she gave birth to a girl.

Not surprisingly, Cormac’s marriage foundered – not least because he continued to be involved with his former maid and because he developed a deep affection for his spirited red-haired daughter. Because of the growing town scandal, the young girl was dressed in breeches and shirt and disguised as a boy.

Scandal continued to plague Cormac. His wife left him and he lost his Irish practice. Wanting a better life, he took his servant-maid and young daughter and shipped them to the Carolinas in North America. Finding it difficult to start his law practice in the New World, Cormac eventually found success in “merchandise” and earned enough money to buy a considerable plantation for his young family.

He continued to live with his maid (who was accepted as his wife) and his daughter. Sadly, his servant-maid companion succumbed to a fever and died, after which the young Anne, now grown up, kept Cormac’s house for him. Still dressed in men’s clothing, history reports that Anne Bonny had a fierce and courageous temper and there was even a rumour that she had killed a fellow servant with a “case-knife”. Another rumour, probably nearer the truth, was that some young stalwart had forcibly tried to seduce her against her will and that she had beaten him to such a degree that it had taken him weeks to recover.

Life was good for father and daughter until the impetuous Anne fell under the spell of a wayward young sailor who was expelled from the plantation.

Headstrong as ever, she followed her young sailor, married him and headed for the island of Providence in the Bahamas. It was there that, while frequenting the local taverns, she met Rackham, who promised her a better life.

The story of Mary Read in England has its own surprising turns and adventures. Her mother married a sailor while still a young teenager. The marriage didn’t last long. He left her with a young child – a boy – and was never seen again. The young mother, trying hard to make ends meet, was careless in her behaviour and soon found herself pregnant again. Hiding her shame she left for the country, taking her young son with her.

Unfortunately the son died. Therefore, when her new baby was born – a young girl, Mary Read – she dressed her as a boy hoping to deceive her family when she returned to London that it was her first born son. The ruse was successful and the secret maintained as her mother continued to bring up her daughter as a boy.

When the young Mary was 13 she was (still disguised) first sent to work as a “footboy” to a French lady. But as she grew, bold and strong and of a roving mind, she found work on board a man-of-war where she served for some time before joining a “Regiment of Horse”.

Admired by her superior officers the young, disguised Mary fell in love with a fellow soldier and let him discover the truth about her sex as they lay together in a shared tent. The young couple kept their secret, enjoying each other’s company until, returning to winter quarters in London, they married, setting themselves up in a popular local tavern. This happiness did not last long. Mary’s young husband died and the young widow found that to make a living she had to again don men’s apparel and find herself another job – this time in a Dutch “Regiment of Foot”. Dissatisfied with the way she was treated, Mary, still keeping her man’s disguise, then shipped herself on board a vessel bound for the West Indies.

Curiously, on its way to the West Indies, the ship was taken by pirates and the disguised Mary Read, being the only English speaking person on board, was kept on by the pirate captain as a member of his crew. It was about this time that the pirates, hearing about the amnesty offered to them by the Governor of the island of Providence, headed there hoping to get a pardon.

This they achieved and there followed a quiet existence on shore after which they joined forces with the Governor’s privateers to cruise against Spanish ships sailing in the Indies. But here again, sensing a more profitable existence, the disguised Mary and fellow crew members mutinied, seized their vessel and turned again to their old trade of piracy.

This was how Mary Read and her crew came to be enjoined with the crew of Captain “Calico Jack” Rackham. Continuing to be dressed as a man Mary is reported to have been more resolute and more willing to undertake anything that was hazardous. Her true sex was never suspected and not discovered until Anne Bonny, recently returned to Rackham’s crew, took a liking to Mary, taking her to be just another handsome young stalwart. Surprised, but sensibly, the two women shared their secret with their potentially jealous captain.

Anne Bonny, Mary Read and the pirate crew of Captain “Calico Jack” Rackham (keeping their secret from other crew members) continued successfully to plunder ships belonging to Jamaica and other parts of the West Indies bound for England. It is said that Mary became so smitten with one new member of the Rackham crew that, breaking her disguise, allowed him to discover her secret.

To the other crew members they appeared to be friendly “messmates”. Not surprisingly, being again a little careless, she found herself to be pregnant. Confiding this information to her intimate friend Anne, she was told that she too was carrying another of Calico Jack’s children. It was in this state that the two woman pirates fought their last fierce battle.

In 1720 Captain Rackham’s pirate crew had raided and then stolen the sloop William out of the Nassau harbour. Flushed with success they embarked on their final stage of piracy. After looting several vessels off bays in the Bahamas, they made south to Jamaica, taking several merchant vessels on the way.

The furious Bahamian Governor, Captain Woodes Rogers, pursued Rackham, forcing him to encounter and run afoul of a Captain Barnet, who had received a further commission to halt piracy in the Caribbean. It was Rackham’s final, fatal mistake.

Drinking heavily with his crew below decks, it was left to his two female crew members to put up a fight. They fought fiercely and managed to hold off Barnet’s heavily armed troops for a short while with pistols, cutlasses and a certain amount of swearing. Anne and Mary, fighting valiantly but in vain, failed to stir Rackham and his crew. Many of them were too drunk to fight and others too afraid to join in a losing cause. Everyone was captured and taken to the Spanish town jail.

On 16 November 1720 the entire crew were tried for piracy and convicted. Anne Bonny’s last words to the imprisoned Captain Rackham were “Sorry to see you there, but if you’d fought like a man you would not have been hang’d like a dog.” Rackham and four fellow pirates were executed the next day at Gallows Point in the town, taken down and hung up in chains for everyone to see.

Anne and Mary were also convicted of piracy and asked if they had anything to say why sentence of death should not be passed on them. Both pregnant women “pleaded their bellies”. Thus in accordance with English Common Law, they received a temporary stay of execution until they gave birth – it being unlawful to kill an unborn child.

The Court therefore passed sentence in keeping with their crime of piracy but ordered the women back when a proper jury could deal with the matter after they had given birth. It is possible that the jury might have passed a lenient sentence but Mary Read died in prison – almost certainly of typhus.

Anne Bonny received several reprieves and history notes that she escaped execution. It is probable that her wealthy father bought her release after the birth of her child and settled down to a quiet life in the Carolinas.

Sir Christopher Ondaatje is an adventurer and writer resident in the Bahamas. A Sri Lankan-born Canadian-Englishman he is the author of several books, including Journey to the Source of the Nile.