Female Pirates

[Nell]

Ahoy me fellow pirates!
Since I began playing POTC I was amazed at how little knowledge there was regarding female pirates! I dare say some folk didn’t even know they existed at all!
Well rest assure not only did they exist they are among some of the most ruthless and successful pirates ever to grace the pages of Pirate Lore!

That being said I thought it would be fun to start a thread dedicated to those wild and crazy wenches!

My favorite was Ching Shih a.k.a Cheng I Sao - 1775 – 1844

Here’s a snipet taken from several sources:

She was beautiful and tough and operated along the coast of South China.
At the height of her power, she commanded 17,000 men and several hundred vessels known as the "Red Flag Fleet". That made her the leader of one of the biggest navies in the world at the time. Chinese officials tried many tactics to bring the Red Flag Fleet to justice, but every expedition to eradicate the pirates failed. Even the navies of Portugal and Britain could not defeat Ching. In desperation, a general amnesty was offered to all pirates in 1810 and Ching Shih decided to take advantage of it. She retired with all of her fortune and ran a gambling house before dying in 1844 at the age of 69. Some historians say that she was the "best pirate who ever lived."

Now is that an awesome story or what??

Please share your stories of any female pirates you know of!

Happy plundering!

[SteamweaverJ]

One of my girls is named for Gráinne Ní Mháille / Grace O'Malley, an infamous Irish pirate "queen", and i know of at least one guildmate who is named for another famed pirating woman ... here's one web site devoted to some lovely ladies of pirate legend.


http://www.deadmentellnotales.com/on...omenlist.shtml

[Robin Yerloot]

I have a girl named Jeanne De Clisson, who was nicknamed the "Lioness of Brittany" due to her ruthless attacks against the French after a rival of her husbands (and the King of France allowed) made sure of his execution.

[JM Ohara]

I was able last week, to name a pirate Gunpowder Gertie.


"A poor woman, Gertrude Stubbs dressed as a man so that she could work aboard as a coalman on the steamships traveling along the inland rivers of Whitby, an east coast port town in Britain. After an injury blinded her in one eye, the doctor discovered she was a woman and she was immediately fired from her job.

In revenge, she stole a police patrol boat, customized it into a fast-moving, reinforced gunboat which she named the Witch. Hoisting her Jolly Roger, she attacked paddleboats up and down the river using this boat, and was nicknamed Gunpowder Gertie.

One of her crew eventually betrayed her for a reward and clemency, and in a final battle with the law, he was killed along with most of her crew. Gertie was imprisoned and died of pneumonia. The location of her booty was never discovered."


Unfortunately it seems she is probably not an actual historical pirate. (From the same site...)


"The truth is, Gertie only exists as a figment of my overactive imagination. I made her up to explain a treasure hunt for some schoolchildren I was working with and in order to make her more credible, added a lot of the local history I've grown to love. We used her to take a tour of the area learning local history (true stuff as well ) and then dug up one of her treasures at the beach before we told them the truth. It was when the parents believed it (guess what, we had a lady pirate on Kootenay Lake in 1898 and everyone just forgot!), that it seemed too good not to have a little fun with it. A local paper, The Kootenay Review, ran the story as an April Fool's joke along with the explanation of how she'd been "lost" to history. It was amazing how many people fell for it hook, line and sinker! Best joke I've ever played and to my knowledge nobody got hurt (ok, disappointed, maybe)-end of story- I thought. Then, a few years later, Gertie turned up on her own, somehow, the story got sent to the CBC -not me, honest- and was used in a segment of Bob Johnson's program, This Day in History and they thought it was a true story. And that's how I ended up becoming an historical storyteller. I have much more of her life written out, and several adventures that I can tell, as well as the original legend, and have told her story as far as the Yukon International Storytelling Festival and England. She's taken on a life of her own. The Tyrant Queen has floated down Baker St. in the local parade, I have a treasure chest with treasure, there was a traveling exhibit of "artifacts and fiction". There's even a mockumentary of her life available on video. It's been lots of fun and ten years later, I still run into people who think she was real. And now, in a twisted way, she is real local history. When my father built my treasure chest when I was 5, I don't think he imagined I'd still be playing with it when I turned 40!

Carolyn McTaggart"


I knew this before I named my pirate Gunpowder Gertie, but that's ok. See, Gertrude was my Grandma's name, and her nickname was Gertie. So I thought I would have a little fun and run with a not really historical pirate who shared her first name.

[Dolnor]

Here is a link to a series of videos telling the tale of Gráinne Ní Mháille. This was presented at an Irish Hospitality House in San Diego. Very good tale if you watch all the videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-V9xn...eature=related


TQQdles™,

Dolnor Numbwit
aka Beth Darkfury
Eternal Test Newbie

[Nell]

I love the story of “Gunpowder Gertie!”
Fictional or not, it's a great piece of story telling!

I also enjoyed the clip on Grace – what a gal!

Thank you both for sharing!

[Sarah]

Here are my gals (it's a long read....)

Sarah's Pirates