Today we will meet Calico Jack (born John) Rackham, Anne Bonny’s lover then husband (assuming she actually divorced James Bonny which is uncertain). Jack was born around 1682 in England. Little is known of his early life. He first shows up as the Quartermaster on Charles Vane’s brigantine Ranger operating out of the Pirates Republic of Nassau in 1718. The ship found a French man of war that was twice its size off New York City. Vane ordered a retreat but Rackham stepped up and advocated for taking the ship. It would provide great riches and they’d have a ship twice as big as Ranger. Despite an overwhelming vote in…

Mary Read(e) (we’ll use Read) was the other known female Caribbean pirate. She was born in England in 1685. Her mother married a sailor and had a son. But the sailor disappeared at sea and Mary’s mother had an extramarital affair and ended up pregnant. She hid in the country where her son died and Mary was born. Being in tough financial straits, the mother dressed Mary as a boy and claimed that he was the deceased son so she could get support from the sailor’s mother. It worked. When Mary was a teenager, she got work on a ship, still dressed as a boy. Then she joined the British…