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10 Most Famous Female Pirates in History

Piracy is a field that was stereotyped as male-dominated. While that is the norm in most cases, we however have women who have dipped their toes in these uncharted waters. These fearless women though often overshadowed by their male counterparts, equally have set their mark in the piracy world. Most of these women thrived in the Golden Age of Piracy which was the period between the 1650s and the 1730s, when maritime piracy was a significant factor in the histories of the North Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

In this article, we feature the stories of the 10 most famous female pirates in history who lived life on the edge with their daring pursuits onshore. Read more to live vicariously through these women who had the audacity to take on the waves that came at them and restructure the stereotypical societal norm about piracy. 

1. Anne Bonny 

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Anne Bonny was an Irish pirate operating in the Caribbean, and one of the few female pirates in recorded history. Around 1718 she married sailor James Bonny, assumed his last name, and moved with him to Nassau in the Bahamas, a sanctuary for pirates. It was there that she met Calico Jack Rackham and became his pirate partner and lover. 

Bonny was captured alongside Rackham and Mary Read in October 1720. All three were sentenced to death, but Bonny and Read had their executions stayed because both of them were pregnant. While Read died in jail in April 1721, Bonny’s fate is unknown.

2. Mary Read 

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Mary Read was an English pirate. She and Anne Bonny were two famous female pirates from the 18th century and among the few women known to have been convicted of piracy at the height of the Golden Age of Piracy.

Mary who was nicknamed Mark Read began dressing as a boy at a young age.  In 1720, she met Jack Rackham an English pirate captain and joined his crew, dressing as a man alongside Anne Bonny. Her time as a pirate was successful but short-lived, as she, Bonny and Rackham were arrested in November 1720 and sentenced. Read died of a fever while in jail in April 1721.

3. Zheng Yi Sao

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Zheng Yi Sao also known as Ching Shih, was a Chinese pirate leader active in the South China Sea from 1801 to 1810. Zheng has been described as not only history’s most successful female pirate but one of the most successful pirates in history. She married a pirate named Zheng Yi in 1801. After the death of her husband in 1807, she took control of his pirate confederation. 

Her ships entered into conflict with several major powers, such as the East India Company, the Portuguese Empire, and Qing China. In 1810, Zheng Yi Sao negotiated a surrender to the Qing authorities. At the time of her surrender, she personally commanded 24 ships and over 1,400 pirates. She died in 1844, having lived a relatively peaceful and prosperous life since the end of her career in piracy. 

4. Mary Critchett

Mary Critchett was an English pirate and convict. She is best known for being one of only four confirmed female pirates from the Golden Age of Piracy, and the only one executed. Her story is told that when she and five other prisoners were transported from England to Virginia in late 1728, to work off their sentences, they escaped and overpowered the two men who were guarding them on the sailboat. 

Critchett held the two prisoners in the ship’s hold, sitting on the hatch to prevent their escape. They released the pair a few days later over Critchett’s objections, who feared the two would alert the authorities. The pirates sailed into Chesapeake Bay but before they could raid any other ships, they were captured by HMS Shoreham under Captain Long. They were all returned to Virginia where they were tried in August 1729 and convicted of piracy and sentenced to hang.

5. Jeanne de Clisson

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Jeanne de Clisson was a French former noblewoman who became a privateer to avenge her husband after he was executed for treason by French King Philip VI. She crossed the English Channel targeting French ships and often slaughtering their crew. It was her practice to leave at least one sailor alive to carry her message of vengeance. 

The French eventually managed to engage her fleet and sink her flagship. Jeanne and Olivier were finally rescued and taken to Morlaix by Montfort supporters. Jeanne continued her piracy in the channel for another 13 years.

6. Anne Dieu-le-Veut 

Anne Dieu-le-Veut was a French pirate. Alongside Jacquotte Delahaye, she was one of the very few female buccaneers. Buccaneers were a kind of privateers or free sailors particularly to the Caribbean Sea during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Anne Dieu-Le-Veut is known as a pirate, supposedly accompanying her husband Laurens de Graaf on his acts of piracy. Usually, it was considered bad luck to have a woman on board a ship, but Anne was instead regarded as a good luck charm. The couple were captured by Spain and kept as hostages for three years.

7. Rachel Wall

Rachel Wall was an American female pirate and may also have been the first American-born woman to become a pirate. Wall and her husband George moved to Boston, where he took a job on a fishing schooner. When George came back, he brought with him five sailors and their lovers and persuaded Wall to join them. In one week, the party had spent all their money and the schooner set sail again, upon which George suggested they all become pirates. 

Wall and her crew worked in the Isle of Shoals, just off the New Hampshire coast. After storms, Wall would stand on the deck and scream for help. When passers-by came to give aid, they were killed and all their goods stolen. The crew was successful in capturing 12 boats, stealing $6,000 cash, an indeterminate amount of valuables, and killing 24 sailors, all between 1781 and 1782. She was eventually caught sneaking into a boat to rob people of their belongings. Her death marked the last occasion a woman was hanged in Massachusetts. 

8. Charlotte de Berry

Charlotte de Berry was a female pirate captain. In her mid-to-late teens, she fell in love with a sailor and, against her parents’ will, married him. Disguised as a man, she followed him onboard his ship and fought alongside him. While de Berry worked on the docks, a captain of a merchant ship saw her and kidnapped her. He forced de Berry to marry him and took her away on his trip to Africa. 

To escape her new husband who was a brutal rapist and tyrant, de Berry gained the respect of the crew and persuaded them to mutiny. In revenge, she decapitated him and became captain of the ship. After years of pirating, she fell in love with a planter’s son from Grenada and married him. However, they were ship-wrecked and after days of hunger, they turned to cannibalism, where her husband was chosen by lot to be their meal.  Charlotte jumped overboard in order to join her dead husband.

9. Sayyida al-Hurra

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Sayyida al-Hurra was a Moroccan privateer leader during the early 16th century. She became the wife of the Wattasid Sultan Ahmad ibn Muhammad. Al Hurra learned much whilst assisting her husband in his business affairs. She was a de facto vice-governor, with her husband entrusting the reins of power to her each time he made a trip outside the city. When he died in 1515, the population, who had become accustomed to seeing her exercise power, accepted her as a governor of Tétouan.  

In her wish to avenge herself on the Christian enemy, she also turned to piracy. She made contact with the legendary Ottoman admiral Hayrettin Barbarossa of Algiers. Piracy provided a quick income. She became well respected by Christians as a queen who had power over the Mediterranean Sea, and over the release of Portuguese and Spanish captives.

10. Jacquotte Delahaye

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Jacquotte Delahaye was a purported pirate of legend in the Caribbean Sea. She has been depicted as operating alongside Anne Dieu-le-Veut as one of the very few 17th-century female pirates.  

She led a gang of hundreds of pirates, and with their help took over Tortuga, a small Caribbean island off the northwest coast of Hispaniola, in the year 1656. Several years later, she died in a shoot-out while defending it.

In conclusion, while some of these stories are horrific in nature and to the victims of these women pirates, they also portray some sense of courage exhibited by these women who bravely stood up for themselves and made their mark in the world of piracy. They defied societal norms and navigated the dangerous world of piracy, leaving their mark on history as captivating figures. Their stories continue to be told far and wide and passed on from one generation to the next.  Read more about 10 Renowned Pirates in History.