Women Pirates: Eight Stories of Adventure

by Myra Weatherly

Recounts the life stories of eight notorious women pirates, including Grace O'Malley, Anne Bonny, and Cheng I Sao

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Pirates

112 pages, Library Binding

First published December 1, 1997

Reviews

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a YA book covering the history of eight female pirates, from a Danish princess shrouded in myth to a Chinese warlord who commanded six fleets of pirate ships. My favorite was Fanny Campbell, a revolutionary-era pirate who set off in disguise to rescue her fiance from a Caribbean prison. They later capture a British ship with Fanny's former suitor on board! I can't believe they never made a movie out of this. Oh wait...

[JaNel]

Why doesn’t Disney make a princess movie of some of these women 🤔😂

My favorite chapter is Grace O’Malley. That would’ve been a lot of fun to see her interview with Queen Elizabeth. They must have recognized that they had a lot in common. So interesting that Queen Elizabeth believed Grace O’Malley over her own governor of Ireland.

The chapters on Mary Read and Ann Bonny, especially, are very interesting.
P. 69. And Bonnie and Mary read and one other sailor are the only ones who don’t hide when they’re boarded by British sailors. They’re so disgusted with the cowardice of the other men that Mary Read starts shooting at her former shipmates, and during the trial, Ann Bonny said to Captain Calico Jack, her partner and lover for years, “ that she was sorry to see him there, but if he had fought like a man, he need not have been hanged like a dog.” Seems to me she should’ve told him to fight like a woman.