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1720: Meet the real-life female pirates of the Caribbean
Bonny and Read
What you need to know before your trail
Two extraordinary women are on the run – from their pasts, from the British Navy and the threat of execution, and from the destiny that fate has written for them.
Plantation owner’s daughter, runaway wife, pirate – Anne Bonny has forged her own story in a man’s world. But when she is involved in the capture of a British merchant ship, she is amazed to find another woman amongst the crew, with a history as unconventional as her own. Dressed as a boy from childhood, Mary Read has been a soldier, a sailor, a widow – but never a woman in charge of her own destiny.
As their exhilarating, tumultuous exploits find fame, the ballad of Bonny and Read is sung from shore to shore – but when you swim against the tide of history, freedom is a dangerous thing…
Locations
Reset- America/ USA - SC
- A: Charleston harbour
- Caribbean - Bahamas
- B: New Providence
- C: Nassau 0 Queen's Staircase
- D: Nassau harbour
Travel Guide
Female Pirates of the Carribean
Mary Read and Anne Bonny are two famous female pirates are among the few women known to have been convicted of piracy at the height of the “Golden Age of Piracy”.
They both began dressing as a boy at a young age. In 1720 Read met Jack Rackham 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.
Read and Bonny claimed to be pregnant and received delayed sentences. Read died of a fever in April 1721. Bonny’s fate is unknown.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: Bonny and Read
Destination/Location: Caribbean, New Providence Author: Julie Walker Departure: 1720
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