The Most Famous Female Pirates 

      There is a stereotype that for many centuries women were rarely seen at sea. But this is not entirely true. The wives of European captains and officers, for example, sometimes accompanied their husbands on merchant ships. Some women even secretly made their way to their husbands on warships. There are also known cases when they dressed for this in men’s clothes. They also spoke like men and gambled like men. Though the price sometimes could be more than money. Today you can feel like a pirate and gamble all day long at slots online and win your first jackpot. 

      However, women could work on ships openly, being engaged in fishing and whaling on an equal basis with men. On board British warships, one could sometimes see a female servant, and in some regions, including Asia, women were not only sailors but also captains of fishing and merchant ships.

      It is impossible to estimate how many of these “sea wolves” could have set foot on the path of piracy – the sea robbers really did not want to see women on board. The leaders of the pirates who hunted in the Caribbean Sea strictly forbade taking women and children on board in order to avoid quarrels on the ship.

     Though, we do know of several women who not only became pirates but also became famous in this field.

Maria Lindsey The Legend of the Atlantic

      The Englishwoman Maria Lindsey, along with her husband Eric Cobham, sailed the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the western Atlantic in the 18th century, paying particular attention to ships carrying expensive furs. The couple was known for their brutality towards captured sailors. They threw some of their victims overboard in bags and used the prisoners as targets for practicing pistol shooting skills.

       With the proceeds of piracy, the couple acquired a luxurious estate in Le Havre, France, and lived a more respectable life. Eric Cobham even became a local judge. However, Maria committed suicide for unknown reasons. According to another version, Cobham killed her. By the way, some historians even doubt the existence of Cobham and Lindsey.

   Mary Read 

       Mary Read was born in 1685 in Plymouth, England. Her widowed mother dressed the illegitimate girl in the clothes of Mary’s deceased brother in order to pass her off as her son and receive money from her mother-in-law.

     Continuing to disguise herself as a boy, Mary got a job as a lackey, and later joined the British army and took part in the war with France. Having fallen in love with a Flemish officer, she revealed her secret to him and soon married him. The couple began a peaceful life and opened the Three Horseshoes inn in the Netherlands, but soon Mary’s husband died, and the brave woman went to seek new happiness in the West Indies.

       The ship on which Read was sailing was captured by pirates, but she managed to escape death. Read joined the sea robbers. Soon she was in the team of Jack Rackham and met Ann Bonnie. After her arrest, she, like other members of the Rackham team, was sentenced to hang. She also reported being pregnant and escaped the gallows, but died in the custody of a fever in 1721.