Charlotte de Berry was born in England, in 1636. Growing up, she met a sailor, fell in love and married him. However, he was soon deployed by the Royal Navy and, unable to bear being apart from him, Charlotte disguised herself as a man and joined him, posing as his brother.

After fighting in some large battles with her husband, Charlotte de Berry’s true identity was then discovered by one of the ship’s officers. He kept this revelation to himself, however, as he secretly desired Charlotte for himself.

To get rid of her husband, the officer falsely accused him of attempting to start a mutiny, a crime for which he was flogged around the whole fleet. This punishment killed Charlotte de Berry’s husband.

After her husband’s untimely demise Charlotte rejected the officer’s approaches, killing him instead. She then went into entertainment, performing in coastal bars and taverns until a captain kidnapped her, forced her into marriage and then took her to Africa.

Somehow Charlotte convinced the crew to mutiny. After killing the captain in a duel she then took command of the ship and further convinced the crew to become pirates. Charlotte de Berry is then believed to have continued to dress as a man, perhaps as an attempt to to legitimise her captaincy. She also developed a reputation as a cruel and vicious adversary.

The facts of her death are uncertain but it is believed that she later married a wealthy Spaniard who had joined her crew of pirates. When their ship was sunk in a ferocious storm the crew escaped in rafts. After several days their food ran out so they chose ‘lots’ to decide who should die first in order to feed the others.

Unfortunately for Charlotte, her husband was the first to die, just before they were rescued by a passing merchant vessel. Straight after their rescue the merchant ship was attacked by pirates. Charlotte fought off the attackers then dived overboard to join her dead husband.

Loi Chai-san was a much more modern pirate than the others discussed here so far. Known as the ‘Queen of the Macao Pirates’, she preyed on shipping in the waters around Hong Kong in the 1920s.

She made her fortune both from stealing cargo and also from the proceeds of kidnap.

Loi Chai-San commanded a small group of 12 armed junks which she had acquired from another pirate by the name of Honcho Lo. Apparently, Loi Chai-San never spoke to her men directly. Instead, she spoke to them through two maids who were constantly by her side.

Chai-San always saw kidnap as a profitable venture and took captives whenever possible. She would inform the relatives and set a ransom. If this ransom was not paid within her timescale then she would send another, along with a finger or an ear from her captive. If this didn’t encourage a prompt payment then the captive would be murdered.

Loi Chai-San disappeared from history and no-one is quite sure what became of her. One story suggests that she was imprisoned for the rest of her life in 1939, after being captured by the Coast Guard. Another tale claims that she died during the China/Japan war after attacking a torpedo squadron.

It is believed that Rachel Wall was the first female American pirate. She was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1760.

She ran away from home and her strict Presbyterian parents at an early age and joined up with, and married, George Wall who had previously privateered during the Revolution.

The pair travelled to Boston before George disappeared for a time, leaving Rachel to scratch a living as a servant. When George returned some time later he brought many treasures with him and used them to convince Rachel to join him in a life of piracy.

Their method of piracy was a little different to the norm as they tended to lure vessels towards them instead of outright attacking them. They would position themselves near an island during a storm and pretend to be in trouble. When another vessel came to offer assistance Rachel would cry out for help. After pulling to, the pirates would kill all the sailors and steal all the cargo.

This method proved quite profitable with George and Rachel netting $6000 of booty between 1781 and 1782. They also captured 12 ships and murdered at least 24 sailors.

In September 1782 the Wall’s ship became a genuine victim of the weather when they got caught up in a ferocious storm. Everyone except Rachel was washed overboard - George and all the other sailors were drowned.

Somehow, Rachel survived and managed to sail back to Boston where she once again found employment as a maid. She would appear to have kept herself on the right side of the law for sometime but in 1789 she found herself on trial for a street robbery.

She protested her innocence for that particular crime though for some reason she did admit to her earlier piracy during the trial. Nevertheless, she was found guilty and became the last woman to be hanged in Massachusetts.

(11 votes, average: 3.45 out of 5)

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Lady Mary Killigrew, a friend of Queen Elizabeth I, was no stranger to piracy as it was rumoured that her father and other family members had been involved in stealing ships and cargo for many years.

Mary killigrew’s most famous exploit occurred in 1583 in her native Cornwall. On the first of January a Spanish ship, the Maria, berthed at Arwenack Castle and the officers were entertained by the Killigrew’s.

During the officer’s stay, Lady Killigrew slipped away from them for a while and boarded the Maria. She and her men killed all aboard and stole the cargo and hid the ship.

Upon returning to the dock, the Spanish captain was furious at the disappearance of the Maria but there was little to no proof that Mary Killigrew had been involved in either the disappearance of the vessel or the killing of his men.

A Spanish contingent travelled to London to lobby for justice and an investigation was begun. However, when it was discovered that the judge behind the investigation was Killigrew’s son, the Spanish exerted political pressure on the Queen’s court.

This led to a trial at which Killigrew and two of her cohorts were found guilty and sentenced to death. The other two were executed but Lady Mary Killigrew was pardoned by her friend, Queen Elizabeth I.

(8 votes, average: 2.63 out of 5)

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Mary Reed was born in England in 1685. In order to retain favour with her grandmother she is known to have dressed as her elder brother who was ravaged with disease.

Until her death, Mary Reed’s grandmother supported her and her mother. Ater that time Mary had to work herself in order to support her family. She joined the British army for a time but soon left when she met and married another soldier. Together they ran an inn until his early death forced Mary to look for alternative forms of employment.

Remembering her youth, no doubt, Mary dressed as a man and joined a Dutch merchant vessel that was heading for the Caribbean. On her arrival she met the famous pirate Calico Jack Rackham and joined his crew.

Whilst on board she met another woman in disguise, Anne Bonny, and the two became good friends. After a year of relentless pirating they were captured by Captain jonathan Barnet. With the men drunk or scared in the hold the women were the only ones who put up any resistance.

Unlike Anne Bonny, Mary Reed was sentenced to hang. However, she never made it to the gallows as she died from fever whilst still in prison.

(4 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)

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Anne Bonny, born in the 1690s in Ireland is probably the most famous female pirate to have sailed the Spanish Main. Her reputation was of a ruthless plunderer, a real scourge of the Caribbean seas.

Nicknamed ‘Toothless Annie’, her family moved from Ireland to America when she was a young child. There they became a respectable family, owners of a plantation. Growing up in South Carolina, Anne was fascinated by stories of pirates and buccaneers that she heard in the nearby port of Charleston.

At Charleston she met and later married James Bonny and the two of them moved to Nassau, an island in the Caribbean. Nassau had a reputation for being a pirate’s den. In fact it wasn’t long before Anne met the legendary Calico Jack Rackham. She left her husband for Calico Jack and joined his crew.

At that time seafairers in general were a superstitious group and they did not allow female crew members. Therefore, Anne dressed as a man and engaged in all the activities that the men did, including fighting. After some time her true identity was discovered and several members of the crew expressed their concerns. Anne’s reply was to kill them all.

Anne wasn’t the only female hidden aboard Calico Jack’s ship. Another woman by the name of Mary Reed was on board too. Together with Calico Jack the three of them wreaked havoc throughout the Caribbean for almost a year.

Eventually, in 1720, their ship was captured. Jack and most of the men hid below decks in the hold whilst the women fought to defend the ship. After the battle the crew were tried and sentenced. Somehow, Anne was reprieved from the death sentence. Jack, however, was not so fortunate.

Before Jack’s execution Anne went to see him and famously said “I’m sorry to see you here, Jack, but if you’d have fought like a man you needn’t hang like a dog”.

There are no records of what happened to Anne Bonny after this time. Some say she went back to a simple life and lived in relative peace. Others claim she continued as a pirate of the Caribbean.

(2 votes, average: 3 out of 5)

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