The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-05-20
lkansas City Star.l

Long before V e the suffrage was
an issue in England, in a time when
women for the mos, part spent thei,
lives by their own hearthstones. there
f1ourished two women pirates, Brit
ish born. Real buccaneers they were.
who swaggeredF and swore right lust
lily and sailed the Spanish main and
slew folks with broad %cutlasses and
did all the other things that we'll
regulated pirates were in the habit of
doing. Their names We're Mary
Read n Anne Benny. and their rec
ords are still to he read in certain
ancient British court records, though
they seldom are.
Mary was one Of those strange
wome who have gon through life
dressed AS men. She kept her secret
from all except ii very few. Before
she was IS she enlisted rs "a sailor in
the British navy. and Il history of pi-
rates published in London in 1924 by
Captain Charles johnson tells all
about her. She did we'll enough as
a sailor. then enlisted in the army
and went with Il British regiment to
Flanders, where she fought through
a number of campaigns and was dis
tinguished for reckless bravery and
helped keep up the reputation for
profanity which goes with soldiers in
Flanders. She called herself Frank
Read. and apparently no one sus-
pected that she Was Il girl.
But, being Il omar she could not
refrain from falling in love. n fin
ally was married to a fellow soldier
Of whom she had grown very fond.
Then they both left the army. bought
a little mn in Flanders and settled
down to housekeeping. All this
seems A long way from piracy-but
do not be impatient.
Mary's husband died in a year or
two and she went back to her wild,
masculine life. shipping as a sailor
on a Dutch merchantmen bound for
the West Indies. Before the vessel
reached it's destination it was halt
ed by British pirates. who. being in
need of a sailor. took the lusty Mary,
never %suspecting that the recruit to
their crew was "A woman
Mary pirated for a little while with
the boys, and then the ship put in
at New Providence, one of the Ba-
hama islands. and took advantage Of
a general pardon offered to every
British pirate except Captain Kidd
and Captain Avery. They all prom
Used to be good, the crew dsbanded,
and there was Mary out of IA job
again..
Now. the British governor of New
Providence was fitting out Il priv
ateersman at that time to harry
Spanish commerce. Privateering, by
the a was the respectable and le-
gal way Of being a pirate, and was
co%untenanccd because the owner of a
privateer had to divide his spells with
the government. Well. our Mary be-
came a member Of the crew of this
British privateersman. and, inciden-
tally. it was a very tough crew she
joined. One member of it was a pi-
rate named Rackam. Another was
his wife. Anne Bonny,, a buxom
wench, who. like Mary. was disguis-
ed as a man. Anne was the real
tough kiddo," Captain johnson tells
US. while Mary a just an honest
working girl whom cruel fate had
made a pirate quite. against her will.
However. Mary does not seem to
have put up any very violent strug-
gle against cruel fate.
However that the rough and
ready Anne Bonny fell in love with
Mary. who she fancied, was a man.
OF course. Mary had to explain and
then Anne explained and they grew
very chummy. and being women
frequently. so that Rackam. Anne's
husband. grew very Jealous Of the
supposed Frank" and had to be let
In on the secret for fear he would
sneak up on Mary and insert a dirk
between her shoulders.
The bold Rackam couldn't bear the
thought Of being a subordinate and
dividing up the spoils of war with the
government, so he led a mutiny, soon
tossed the officers Of the ship over
board and moved his belongings up
to the cantain'S "a hin.
1t is not known whether he hoist
ed the Jolly Roger at the masthead.
but probably he did. and IL he didn't