Do you think only men were pirates? In the eighteenth century, life was not easy for people, and often the girls who lived on the seashore were forced to do men's work: knitting nets, fishing and even making a pirate craft if it got very tight.
One of these women is the Englishwoman Mary Reed, who from a young age pretended to be a boy. Her life is similar to the plot of an adventure novel, but this is a real person. She had a friend - the same pirate named Annie Bonnie, and together they robbed merchant ships, being in no way inferior to men during the battle.
Biography
Mary Reed was born in 1685 in London. Her father was a sailor and fed the whole family until tragedy happened - he returned from one fishing trip. He died at sea, and his son was born without him. The widow grieved for a long time, and then found herself a roommate who promised to live with her and raise children, but did not fulfill the promise. From him Reed gave birth to a daughter, Mary. The girl never found out who her father was.
Her older brother was very sickly and died as a child. The roommate left, and Reed's widow was left without any funds. Then she came up with one trick: she dressed Mary in her son's clothes and went to visit her mother-in-law. She said that this was her grandson and that he needed money. Grandmother believed and began to help Mary. For a while, life became more or less bearable.
However, the girl was forced to walk in boyish clothes all the time, and she got so used to it that later she did not want to change into her own clothes. She also had to behave like a boy: bully, climb trees, spit through her teeth.
Surviving in a cruel world, Mary realized that in the society where she is, it is much easier for men to live: they are hired everywhere; they are given more wages than women; they are more respected after all. Therefore, she was in no hurry to change clothes, even when she became an adult girl. She did not receive any education and was interrupted by odd jobs.
And then she found herself a man's job at all: she became a sailor on a Dutch ship, posing as a young man. Soon the captain took his vessel to the West Indies, and from that moment Mary's incredible adventures as a sailor began.
At sea, she did not suffer from rolling, did not experience any inconvenience, and worked on an equal basis with men, contributing to the common cause. But the crew's journey did not last long - the ship was attacked by pirates. The sailors fought desperately for their ship, and Mary stood out the most. However, the forces were unequal, and the pirates seized all the goods, and the team was sent ashore.
Mary the pirate
On the same day, they invited Mary to join their team and become a pirate, she agreed. After several successful "operations", the glory of a real fighter, brave and desperate, was entrenched in her.
However, one funny incident happened: there was a woman on the pirate ship - Annie Bonnie. She fell in love with the new sailor and followed Mary everywhere, trying to please her and make friends. The girl hid her secret for a long time, but then she still opened up to Annie, and began to make friends. The rest of the team thought Mary was a guy.
Moreover, both pirates were fearless, sometimes to the point of insanity. They were also very cruel, and spared few people. Among the pirates, they received the fame of the most courageous and fierce fighters, and Captain Jack Rackham was proud of them, not suspecting that the second was also a woman. He robbed ships in the waters of Jamaica and lived happily ever after.
Since Mary's secret was revealed to Bonnie, her life has become a little easier because she has a like-minded person. Although her friend had a completely different story: she was the daughter of wealthy parents. Her father owned a plantation where slaves worked, they had a luxurious home, and Annie did not need anything.
Despite this, she was an angry and cruel girl. She told Mary that when the servant disobeyed her in some way, she simply stuck a knife in her chest, and she died. There were no consequences for the rich man's daughter, and Annie continued to live as if nothing had happened.
When it was time for her to get married, her father found her a rich groom. However, Annie already had a lover - poor sailor James. She begged him to take her with him, and they left for the island of New Providence.
Accustomed to a rich life, Annie was unhappy with her poor friend, and when she saw the captain of the pirate ship Jack Rackham, she decided to seduce him. Soon she and Jack went to his ship, having previously changed into a man's dress.
When Mary got on the ship, it became clear that there was more in their crew as another thug, because both girls fought on a par with men, sometimes even more ruthless.
The end of the pirate "career"
In 1720, the authorities of Jamaica opened a hunt for pirates, and Rackham's crew was captured by a warship. Part of the crew was killed, some were imprisoned, and the captain and Mary and Annie were sentenced to death.
However, the girls managed to avoid it because they were both pregnant. According to rumors, Rackham was the roommate of both girls. Although there could be another version - the time is old and vague.
As a result, the pirate captain was hanged, Mary died in the prison hospital from childbirth fever, and Annie was again rescued by her rich dad: he ransomed her from the Jamaican authorities. She was at that moment a little over twenty years old.
She returned home, got married. She arranged her personal life and began to live in a large family with her husband and her eleven children, reaching old age.
