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Mary Read(e)
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…
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Ahoy and Welcome to the after story of Anne Bonny
Welcome to the Sailing Against The Tide website and blog. I am the author, Carol Busby. I have long been fascinated with sailing ships and, by extension, pirates. There were two main women pirates that we know of in the Caribbean – Anne Bonny and Mary Read(e). THE BACK STORY Anne father, an Irish attorney named William McCormac, had an affair with his housekeeper, Mary Brennan. Anne was the result, born in County Cork about 1697. But McCormac preferred Mary to his wife and so left her and went to London where he often dressed Anne in boy’s clothes and called her Andy. When his wife discovered that he was…