Mary Read (c. 1685 - 1721-27-04) female pirate. The paradox is this: the only thing that we really know about Mary Reed is that in 1720 she, together with her friend Anne Bonnie, pirated in the Caribbean. When the royal ships managed to capture the ship of the pirate Jack Rackham, the two women were also found on board.
At first, the court treated them very favorably, granting them a pardon. Nevertheless, when they began to listen to the testimony of witnesses, they found out that the ladies, with their ferocity and bloodthirstiness, playfully outshined the men! The court immediately changed its verdict, sentencing Mary Reed along with Ann Bonnie to be hanged.
Both pirates appealed to the court, assuring that they were pregnant, and asking for leniency. The execution was postponed. However, then, according to some sources, Anne Bonnie managed to escape, and Mary Reed, after being released from the burden, nevertheless landed on the gallows. But other sources claim that both managed to escape.
Everything you've read so far is in the realm of facts. But even now, a completely different version of the fate of both Mary Reed and Anne Bonnie is much more in demand. The fact is that Daniel Defoe in his "History of the Pirates" presented his vision of the problem. And his story turned out to be so popular that, in fact, overshadows the truth itself …
How could it be …
“Mary Reed was born in England, her mother, as a young girl, married a man related to the sea and, having set sail shortly after marriage, left her difficult, and she was resolved as a boy.
As for her husband, whether he was wrecked or died on the way, Mary Reed could not tell; but he never returned, and yet the mother, who was very young and windy, was confronted with an accident that often happens with young and not very careful women; namely, the fact that she soon found herself with a child again - without a husband to be his father, but how or from whom no one but her could tell, for she enjoyed a fairly good reputation among the neighbors.
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Finding that her burden was growing, she, in order to hide her shame, arranged a formal departure from her husband's relatives, announcing that she was going to live with her friends in the village. In accordance with this plan, she left and took with her her little son, who was then less than a year old. Soon after the departure, the son died, but Providence, in compensation for that, deigned to give her a daughter, with whom she was safely resolved in her refuge; this was our Mary Reed.
The mother lived there for 3 or 4 years, until the money that she had almost all came out. Then she thought about returning to London, and taking into account that her husband's mother was very prosperous, she did not doubt that she could persuade her to provide for the child, if only it was possible to marry him off to the one who had been before, but the transformation of the girl in a boy it seemed difficult, and it was almost unthinkable to deceive a sophisticated old woman in such a matter. But she risked dressing her daughter as a boy, brought her to the city and introduced her mother-in-law as her husband's son. The old woman wanted to take him to her upbringing, but her mother pretended that if she parted with him, this would break her heart. Therefore, it was decided between them that the child would live with his mother, and the imaginary grandmother would pay a crown a week for his maintenance.
So the mother was able to achieve her goal and raised her daughter as a boy, and when she grew up in a certain sense, she felt that she should be dedicated to the secret of her birth in order to induce her to hide her true gender. It so happened that the grandmother passed away, for which reason the support coming from that side ceased, and they were more and more constrained by the circumstances. In this connection, she was forced to give her daughter into the service of a certain French lady as a page, and at that time she was 13 years old.
Here she did not live long, because, having grown up bold and strong and having a penchant for vagrancy, she arbitrarily entered a military ship, where she served for some time, then left it, went over to the Flanders and joined the infantry regiment as a cadet. And during all the hostilities she behaved with great courage, but still could not get an officer's rank, because almost all of them were bought and sold.
Therefore, she left the service in the infantry and transferred to the cavalry regiment, where she proved herself so well in several battles that she won the respect of all her officers. However, since her companion, a Fleming, by chance turned out to be a handsome guy, she fell in love with him and from that time began to somewhat neglect her duty, so it seems that it is impossible to serve Mars and Venus at the same time.
Her weapons and equipment, which had always been kept in the best order, were now in complete neglect; however, if a comrade was assigned to the patrol, she usually went there without orders and often threw herself into danger where the matter did not concern her, just to be near him. The rest of the cavalry, suspecting a secret reason that prompted her to such behavior, imagined that she had lost her mind, and her friend himself could not explain this strange change in her, but love is inventive, and since they slept in the same tent and were constantly together, she found a way to let him discover her true gender without pretending that this was done on purpose.
He was very surprised by what he discovered, and this gave him considerable pleasure, for he took it for granted that he should have a mistress for himself alone, that there is an unusual thing in a military campaign, because here you rarely find one of those regimental ladies, and this is equally true for cavalry and infantry; so he thought of nothing but gratification of his passion without much ceremony. And then it turned out that he was badly mistaken, because she turned out to be very restrained and modest and rejected all his claims, and at the same time was so kind and insinuating in her behavior that she was able to completely change his intentions, so that, moving away from the thought of doing her his mistress, he now began to seek her as a wife.
This was the greatest desire of her heart; in short, they exchanged promises, and when the campaign ended and the regiment departed for their winter quarters, they bought for her women's garments for as much as they could collect in total, and openly decided to marry.
The regiment instantly spread amazing news - two fighters decided to get married. All regimental officers attended the wedding. It was there that tough men learned the true story of their fellow soldier. At that time, such a phenomenon as a soldier-woman was absolutely incredible. The newlyweds were able to acquire their own strong household by opening the Horse Harness tavern near the walls of the Bled fortress. Trade was going briskly - there was no end to those wishing to gawk at the warrior who had turned into a pretty innkeeper. However, the idyll did not last long. Mary's husband died in an accident. The war in Flanders ended, the garrison of the fortress was disbanded - and the affairs of the innkeeper were completely upset. She decided to go to America. To an exotic country where a lot of gold was rumored to be hidden. But she was not destined to get to distant lands and become an exemplary innkeeper …
And at the same time in America, where the restless Mary aspired with her soul, there was another unusual woman who also preferred a man's dress to a woman's skirt. Her name was Ann Bonnie.
The ship on which ex-innkeeper Mary Reed was sailing was captured by Calico Jack Rackham and his girlfriend Anne. The passengers were told that volunteers could join the sea bums. Mary, who was traveling in a man's dress, decided to stay with the pirates.
The handsome new sailor immediately caught the attention of Anne Bonnie. Without hesitation, she decided to have an affair with him. What was the surprise when it was revealed that the object of her sympathy was a woman! Whether the spicy news made Anne annoy, or amused by its incredible absurdity, strong friendships developed between the women. Rackham, who began to be outright jealous of Ann, was privy to the secret and immediately calmed down. However, the misadventures of the two pirates did not end there.
Mary fell in love with the ship's carpenter. The same, to his misfortune, quarreled strongly with one of the sailors, who was distinguished by remarkable strength and fierce disposition. It was not possible to hush up the quarrel, and during the ship's anchorage they appointed a duel. Realizing that the chances of the carpenter to get out of the fight alive are small, Mary decided to stand between her lover and death: she challenged the thug to a duel, setting the time of the duel a few hours earlier. The opponents chose sabers and pistols as their weapons. A few minutes later, the brute was finished. Mary took it for God's providence, decided to put on a skirt and live a simple family life. But she did not succeed either.
In the fall of 1720, Jack's ship was captured by the Governor of Jamaica's flotilla. Jack and his crew were sentenced to the gallows. But it turned out that among the pirates there were two women, who were also pregnant. The hearing of the unusual case dragged on for quite a long time, but the final verdict against the pirates was the same - to be executed by hanging, with the sentence pending until delivery.
Nothing else is known about Anne's fate, but Mary died in prison from postpartum fever.
G. Blagoveshchensky