Thread:ElizaCreststeel/@comment-4482187-20121204181528/@comment-1051147-20121210201218

I've done a bunch of reading on the topic. I'm not full versed but it is interesting stuff to hear about women like Mary Read who actually joined the British military pretending to be her older brother who had died. She served as a privateer until she met Anne Bonny. The most famous image of Mary is her standing over a fallen man whom she has just bested in a duel. She's opening her blouse to show him that a woman has done him in.

Women like Mary, Anne, Grace O'malley, Catherine Berry, etc. have made good stories but I'm quite sure there are a lot of women who plundered that we will never hear of. Either they kept themselves will hidden or men around them didn't want the truth be known.

But one truth is known. The single most successful and powerful pirate in history - was a woman. Ching Shih, a chinese woman in the 19th century at her peak had a fleet of ships and an army of men under her. She was likely the inspiration for Mistress Ching, though Ching is from the 18th Century. Ching was so powerful, she had to be paid to retire.