Anne Bonny and Mary Read, Women of Piracy!

The “Golden Age of Piracy” lasted from the middle of the seventeenth century until the middle of the eighteenth century. During this period, massive number of pirates swarmed the Atlantic and the Indian oceans, obscene amount of wealth traveled through the hands of pirates, and piracy was enacted throughout the globe on an incredible scale.

The Golden Age was such a successful period of pirating that those who roamed the seas were seen as “enemies to all nations.” While most people today may naturally assume that men were the only active participants in piracy, women also played an impressive role in the period and historians like Jo Stanley estimate that one percent of pirates during the Golden Age of Piracy were women.

Anne Bonny and Mary Read are two of the most famous female pirates during this Golden Age of Piracy. The two women along with other female pirates in history proved that women could sail under the same circumstances as men, just through different means.

Anne Bonny represents the group of women sailors who went to sea without disguising their gender. Bonny’s story is one-of-a-kind when it comes to the romantic notions that drew her to the sea, however, it does not make her story particularly unique. Although there was a contempt for women who were highly stigmatized and mostly considered “bad luck” for being onboard, but it was never made illegal during this time period for women to become sailors.

The notion that women were “bad luck” when brought aboard made it difficult for a woman to sail without hiding her gender, at the same time there were dozens of ballads and stories that contradicted sailor superstition and celebrated women pirates and women sailors before and during the time of Anne Bonny and Mary Read. For example, Princess Awilda of Sweden in the twelfth century turned to piracy in a fit of rebellion against arranged marriage, and assembled a crew made entirely of women sailors.

Lady Killgrew of Cornwall, along with her husband, Sir John Killgrew, were referred to as “members of the ‘oligarchy of sea-robber capitalists,” who attacked a German ship for its prizes. Lady Killfrew escaped the death sentence, however, due to her old age.17 Grace O’Malley is a particularly interesting female pirate.

There be theories that Anne Bonny returned to her husband in Nassau, her family home in England or perhaps she resumed a life of piracy. The world may never know the rest o’ her story!

You can know even more about pirates by boarding a pirate ship cruise in St Pete Beach, FL. The crew staff will tell you pirate stories, show pirate movies, conduct pirate shows, and much more. Enjoy onboard!