Why a Booktrail?
1685: The reimagined story of a real life pirate – Mary Reed
Saltblood
What you need to know before your trail
In a rented room outside Plymouth in 1685, a daughter is born as her half-brother is dying. Her mother makes a decision: Mary will become Mark, and Ma will continue to collect his inheritance money.
Mary’s dual existence as Mark will lead to a role as a footman in a grand house, serving a French mistress; to the navy, learning who to trust and how to navigate by the stars; and to the army and the battlegrounds of Flanders, finding love among the bloodshed and the mud. But none of this will stop Mary yearning for the sea.
Drawn back to the water, Mary must reinvent herself yet again, for a woman aboard a ship is a dangerous thing. This time Mary will become something more dangerous than a woman.
She will become a pirate.
Locations
Reset- England - Cornwall
- A: Plymouth
- B: Plymouth - harbour (France)
- West Indies - Jamaica
- C: Negril Point
- D: Spanish Town
- E: Cathedral of St. Jago de la Vega
- F: Charlestown
- Netherlands
- G: Rotterdam
- Bahamas
- H: Nassau
Travel Guide
From Plymouth to Jamaica
Mary Read (died April 1721), was an English pirate about whom there is actually very little known for real. She and Anne Bonny were among the few female pirates during the “Golden Age of Piracy”.
Read was likely born in England and began dressing as a boy at a young age. At first, this was encouraged by her mother so that they could receive inheritance money. She continued as a teenager in order to join the British military.
She moved to the West Indies around 1715 after her husband’s death.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: Saltblood
Destination/location: Plymouth, Jamaica, Bahamas, Netherlands Author/guide: Francesca de Tores Departure Time: 1685
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