Anne Bonney
Sure, Anne Bonney has popped up as a side character in a few movies before, but why hasn’t she taken center stage? Her story has all the delicious ingredients that make for a good adventure story: action, drama, romance, and even a tight bond between her and another infamous woman who chose to make her living on the high seas. Born in Ireland but brought to South Carolina as a child, legend has it that a man tried to rape her, but the teenaged Anne beat him so badly he had to be hospitalized. When her father tried to marry her off to a local man, she married a sailor instead and journeyed with him to the Bahamas. When that husband became an informant for the governor, Anne started regretting the marriage and took up with the pirate John “Calico Jack” Rackham. Soon, she found a friend in Mary Read, another female pirate who disguised herself as a man. However, the British Navy came upon Mary and Anne’s ship when the entire crew, except for the two women, were too drunk to resist. While everyone else was executed, Mary and Anne escaped by claiming they were pregnant. Mary died in prison nevertheless, while Anne Bonny’s father is said to have ransomed her and brought her back to South Carolina, where she remarried and had eight children. Her having become a pirate and been the only crew member to tell the tale surely speaks to the fabled luck of the Irish.
Advertisement
