by Jamaica Rose
Best known for: John Rackham was known by the nickname “Calico Jack” because of the colorful calico outfits he wore. He caused a sensation after his capture when it was revealed that two of his crew were actually women pirates. Anne Bonny and Mary Read had fought fiercely to protect their ship. The men had been too drunk to fight and had cowered belowdeck.
Burn, Flora
A female privateer, one of the thirty-five-member crew of the privateer Revenge sailing off the American coast in 1741. Very little is know about her other than her name is on the ship’s crew list.
Cheng I Sao (or Zheng Yi Sao or Ching, Mrs.)
She controlled the largest band of pirates ever! She was the wife of the leader of a Chinese pirate fleet in the early 1800s. Her name translates to simply mean “wife of Cheng I.” Her personal name was Shih Hsiang-ku, and she was said to be a great beauty. When Cheng I died suddenly in 1807, she took over leadership of the fleet and made it even stronger. Cheng I Sao became so powerful that she was able to dictate the terms of her own amnesty with the Chinese government. She then retired and set up a gambling house in Canton.
Lai Choi San
Like Mrs. Ching, Lai Choi San controlled a fleet of Chinese junks in the South China Seas. She was active in the 1920s and ’30s. Her story is told by only one person: American reporter Aleko Lilius. It has not been confirmed by other sources. Some believe her to be fictional or a greatly exaggerated truth. Her story, however, was the basis for The Dragon Lady, the cold-hearted arch-villainess in “Terry and the Pirates,” a newspaper comic strip of the 1930s and 1940s.
Granuaile (Grania ny Maille or Grace O’Malley)
Granuaile was a pirate and clan leader on the western Irish coast. She lived around 1530–1603 CE. Her proper name was Grania ny Maille. Granuaile is a nickname meaning “The Bald One,” most likely because she cut her hair short. Grace O’Malley is just an English version of her name. Many legends have grown up around her, so it is hard to sort out the truth, but she definitely existed. She lived at about the same time as Queen Elizabeth I of England. During this time, England was invading Ireland, and Grania, with her fleet of pirates, became a problem for the queen. Grania met with Elizabeth to sort things out. The two women communicated in Latin, because Granuaile did not speak English and Elizabeth did not speak Irish. They came to an agreement, and Elizabeth gave Grania a letter of marque. Grania lived a very long life and died the same year as Queen Elizabeth. In 2007, there was a Broadway musical production based on Grania’s life, called The Pirate Queen.
Killigrew, Lady Mary
Elizabethan-era pirate who was active in the mid 1500s. She was perhaps the wife or the mother of Sir John Killigrew (history isn’t always clear on details like this because a father and son often shared the same name). He was the head of a large smuggling operation in Falmouth Harbor, Cornwall (the southwest corner of England). In 1577, John was accused of buying stolen French wines from a pirate. He settled the matter by paying the real owners for the wine. Lady Killigrew is famous for leading an attack on a Spanish (some say German) cargo ship that took shelter in their harbor in the winter of 1580–81. She had heard there was a hoard of pieces of eight aboard. She and two of the men with her were arrested. The two men were hanged, but she was reprieved at the last minute. There is some confusion if Sir John paid bribes to free her or if Queen Elizabeth reprieved Lady Killigrew. Also, some stories say Lady Killigrew ordered the raid but did not participate herself. So it is unclear if Lady Killigrew is actually a pirate or not.
Read, Mary
Immediately after her birth in England, Mary’s mother dressed her as a boy to fool her mother-in-law, who thought the baby was a boy. Mary was used to acting and dressing as a boy, so when she grew up, she joined the army. She kept her secret from everyone until she fell in love with her tent mate. She told him she was a woman, and he fell in love with her too. They left the army and bought a tavern in Flanders (presently in the Netherlands). Mary was happy until one day her husband died. She then put on her men’s clothes again and went to sea as a sailor, perhaps using the name Mark Read. Pirates captured her ship, and she was invited to become a pirate with Calico Jack’s crew, where she met Anne Bonny. Mary told Anne her secret and soon the whole crew knew. When the crew was captured in 1720, the men were hanged, but since she was pregnant (like Anne), she was held in jail until her baby was born. In April 1721, she died while still in jail, perhaps of a fever or of problems giving birth. (See Bonny, Anne.)
Talbot, Mary Anne
According to her autobiography, Mary Anne was the daughter of Lord Talbot, but he was not married to her mother. As a teenager, her guardian, Captain Essex Bowen, dressed her up as a footboy, called her “John Taylor,” and forced her to go with him to the Caribbean. He later made her a drummer boy in his regiment. She was able to escape only after his death in 1783. Trying to return home to England, she signed aboard a ship as a sailor. Too late, she found out it was a privateer. She next changed ships to the Brunswick and became the captain’s cabin boy. She later retired and wrote her story. She died in 1808 at the young age of thirty, due to the many battle wounds that afflicted her. She had never properly healed from a musket ball wound in her left thigh and a shattered kneecap. She certainly did exist, but whether all of her story is true or not, we don’t know.
Unknown Privateer Captain
In 1805, an American who was held prisoner in Cuba reported on a French privateer vessel, La Baugourt. He said the ship had a crew of one hundred, “commanded by a woman.” This is about all that is known of this unnamed captain.
Wall, Rachel
Rachel’s husband, George Wall, served aboard an American privateer during the American Revolution. They married after the war and together stole a sloop in Essex County, Massachusetts. With a pirate crew of four, they would pose as a fishing family. After big storms, they fooled other ships by pretending to be sinking. Rachel stood on the deck, screaming for help, while the others hid. When a ship came to help them, they murdered the would-be rescuers, then robbed the vessel and sank it. No one was the wiser. In 1782, a hurricane washed George and another crewmember overboard and they drowned. Rachel’s screams for help were real this time. After this close call, Rachel retired from piracy and got a job as a maid. She was later hanged in 1789 for a murder she did not commit. The night before her death, she confessed to all the piracies she had committed. She hoped her death would be a warning to young women to stay away from bad people. Rachel Wall was the last woman to be hanged in the state of Massachusetts.
The Maid on the Shore
(Traditional Ballad)
There is a young maiden, she lives all alone,
She lives all alone on the shore-o
There’s nothing she can find to comfort her mind.
But to roam all alone on the shore, shore, shore,
But to roam all alone on the shore.
’Twas of the young Captain who sailed the salt sea
Let the wind blow high, blow low
“I will die, I will die” the young Captain did cry
“If I don’t have that maid on the shore, shore, shore,
If I don’t have that maid on the shore.”
“I have lots of silver, I have lots of gold
I have lots of costly ware-o
I’ll divide, I’ll divide with my jolly ship’s crew
If they row me that maid on the shore, shore, shore,
If they row me that maid on the shore.”
After much persuasion, they got her aboard
Let the wind blow high, blow low
They replaced her away in his cabin below
“Here’s adieu to all sorrow and care, care, care,
Here’s adieu to all sorrow and care.”
They replaced her away in his cabin below
Let the wind blow high, blow low
She’s so pretty and neat, she’s so sweet and complete
She’s sung Captain and sailors to sleep, sleep, sleep,
> She’s sung Captain and sailors to sleep.
Then she robbed him of silver, she robbed him of gold
She robbed him of costly ware-o
Then took his broadsword instead of an oar
And paddled her way to the shore, shore, shore,
And paddled her way to the shore.
“Me men must be crazy, me men must be mad
Me men must be deep in despair-o
For to let you away from my cabin so gay
And to paddle your way to the shore, shore, shore,
And to paddle your way to the shore.”
“Your men was not crazy, your men was not mad
Your men was not deep in despair-o
I deluded your sailors as well as yourself
I’m a maiden again on the shore, shore, shore,
I’m a maiden again on the shore.”
(repeat 1st verse)
“X” Marks the Spot
There are very few cases of pirates burying treasure, and there were even fewer authentic pirate treasure maps. Pirates usually spent their plunder as fast as they could once they made it back to port. So where did we get the idea of Xs on maps indicating treasure?
The author Robert Louis Stevenson was very close to his young stepson Lloyd. One rainy afternoon in 1883, Lloyd was amusing himself with his paints. He later recalled:
...busy with a box of paints I happened to be tinting a map of an island I had drawn. Stevenson came in as I was finishing it, and with his affectionate interest in everything I was doing, leaned over my shoulder, and was soon elaborating the map and naming it. I shall never forget the thrill of Skeleton Island, Spyglass Hill, nor the heart-stirring climax of the three red crosses! And the greater climax still when he wrote down the words “Treasure Island” at the top right-hand corner! And he seemed to know so much about it too—the pirates, the buried treasure, the man who had been marooned on the island.... “Oh, for a story about it,” I exclaimed, in a heaven of enchantment.
Stevenson wrote the stories down. They became his first major success and one of his most popular books. The book was originally called The Sea Cook. Luckily, his editor changed it to the title we know now: Treasure Island.
Pastimes for Scurvy Dogs
Making Antique Paper for Maps, Messages, and More!
Even though we know there were few, if any, pirate treasure maps, they are still fun to make. For a “real” looking treasure map, you need paper that looks really old, like it’s been around for a few hundred years.
It’s not easy to buy this kind of paper. You can get “parchment” paper from office supply stores, but it’s nothing like the real thing. It looks phony. REAL parchment is yellowed, mottled in places, and cracked along the edges. REAL parchment is made from sheepskin! That’s why a slang term for a diploma is a “sheepskin.” Though real parchment is from a sheep, after you make your paper, you will be able to claim “No Sheep Have Been Harmed in the Making of This Parchment.”
You will need:
paper (see below for details)
bucket
tea, coffee, and/or brown acrylic paint
Paper: You can use plain typing paper, but it is nice to get paper that is bigger. Try to get a larger piece, perhaps white butcher wrapping paper. You can also use brown craft paper or even brown paper bags (try to find a bag with no writing on it, or just use the part of the bag that is blank).
Trim your paper to the size you want it. Don’t use scissors. Straight, even edges just don’t look right. Instead, fold the paper where you would cut it. Fold it over one way, then back the other. Do this a few times. Then use a damp sponge to get the folded edge wet. You will then tear the paper apart. The paper should tear very easily along the dampened edge. Just tear very slowly, and if other rips start, go slower. You can also use the edge of a kitchen counter or table to tear along. Torn edges have little fibers sticking out and a few little cracks, and look much more like the edges of old paper.
Fold the paper as if you were making it small enough to fit into an envelope. Open it and, at the folds, fold it back the other way. Do this over and over until it looks like someone has kept it folded in his or her vest pocket for years but brings it out now and then to look at it.
Then wad your paper up into a ball and flatten it out again. Do this a few times. The idea is to make your paper look like a long-lost document that has been worn and stained by neglect and time.
In a small bucket, mix some brownish water using any of a number of things (tea, coffee, brown acrylic paints, etc.). Do not make your stain too strong or it will make your paper too dark. Now, put your crumpled paper into the brownish water, squeezing and releasing the paper like a sponge until the water has worked completely into the paper.
For the last step, lay the paper out flat in the sun to dry and get crisp (be careful if there is any wind so it doesn’t get blown all over the yard). You’ve now got some old-looking paper, perfect for your treasure map creation. This type of paper is also great for authentic-looking invitations, signs, etc.
The Money Pit of Oak Island
It is not certain whether the Money Pit of Oak Island is connected with pirates or whether it contains any treasure, but it certainly has the right name. Over the years, a large fortune has been spent digging for what treasure might be there.
Oak Island is a 140-acre island just a few hundred feet from the coast of Nova Scotia, on the east coast of Canada. Today there is a land bridge connecting it with the mainland.
More than two hundred years ago, in 1795, teenager Daniel McGinnis went canoeing by himself. It was early summer. He paddled around Oak Island and tied up his canoe. He got out to explore the woods.
He found a man-made clearing. In the middle was a spot on the ground that sank down a little. It looked like what happens when you dig a hole and fill it back in. The sinkhole was about 13 feet across. Next to the sinkhole was an old oak tree. One of its branches hung over the sinkhole. Some say there was even an old tackle block dangling from this limb. Daniel immediately thought of pirates and buried loot. Stories had gone around that the island was haunted—people had seen lights on the island at night. Maybe they had seen the lanterns of the pirates burying their treasure.
Daniel rushed off and came back the next day with two friends, John Smith and Anthony Vaughn. The teenagers began digging. A couple of feet below ground level they found a layer of flat stones. Below that was the mouth of a round shaft going straight down. It had been filled back in with softer dirt. They kept digging.
The soft dirt was easy to remove. At ten feet down one of the shovels hit wood. They were thrilled. They thought they had found a wooden chest of treasure. Instead, they uncovered a platform of oak logs. The ends of the logs were securely stuck into the walls of the pit. They pulled the logs out and saw they were very rotten. The logs had been there a long time. They thought the treasure had to be just below the platform. They found nothing except a two-foot gap of air, and then more dirt. They figured if someone had gone to all this trouble, there had to be a fantastic treasure waiting below. They kept digging and digging. Day after day. Just more dirt. When the hole got to 25 feet deep, the digging got too hard. The boys realized they needed more help. They drove wooden sticks into the sides of the shaft to keep the sides from falling in. They covered the hole with trees and brush. It was the end of summer.
Right after they discovered the Money Pit, John Smith bought the parcel of land it was on. He eventually bought twenty-four acres, the whole eastern side of the island. He built a house near the pit so he could keep an eye on the treasure hole.
It was not until eight or nine years later when anyone returned to dig the hole again. This time they came with hired men and heavy equipment.
Finally, the digging had resumed. Eventually a shovel hit wood again. Everyone was excited. This was it! But no, it was ANOTHER platform of oak logs. They dug farther. The shaft just kept going. As they dug, they went through layers of various materials, including cha
rcoal, putty, dried grass, and coconut fiber. They also found other wooden platforms, perhaps at 10-foot intervals. At 90 feet deep, they found a 3-foot by 15-inch flat stone with cryptic markings carved on it (the markings might have been added after it was found). At this point, water started seeping in. At 93 feet the water was coming in really fast. It was getting dark. Just before leaving for the night, someone probed the bottom of the pit with a long iron bar to get an idea of what was waiting next. At about 5 feet deeper, the bar struck a hard layer.
That was a Saturday night, and they would not be able to resume digging until Monday. All day Sunday they were probably imagining, more so than ever, what could be in the pit. Were they finally near the bottom? Could it be Captain Kidd’s buried treasure just waiting for them?
On Monday when they returned, they were shocked to find the water level had risen. The pit was filled with seawater to the 33-foot level! They started bailing with buckets. Day and night they worked with no change in water level. They brought in a pump, but it promptly broke under the task. They finally gave up.
They didn’t know at the time, but no amount of pumping could lower the water. The flooding was from a booby trap! There was a side tunnel connected with an underwater opening off the coast of the island.
In 1805, a second shaft was dug 14 feet away from the first. Then they dug sideways, at the level of where the imagined treasure lay at about 100 feet. As they got within two feet of the original shaft, water broke through. Water and debris quickly filled the second shaft to the same level as the first. The workers were lucky to get out alive!
