Ancient History Blog

The Dread Trio – Part 1/3: The Calico Pirate Captain (1682-1720 AD)

By: The Scribe on Monday, October 15, 2007

Jack Rackham – otherwise known as Calico Jack because of his preference for calico garments – was one of the more famous English pirates of the 18th century. However, he wasn’t necessarily remembered for all the things he did himself, but instead gained notoriety for who he was associated with: Calico Jack was responsible for employing two of the world’s most famous and notorious female pirates in his own crew, Anne Bonny and Mary Read.

Before he was captain of his own ship, Rackham was quartermaster on the ship of English pirate Charles Vane. Vane was infamous for his disrespect of the pirate code and for his cruelty, and so when the opportunity to dispose of him as captain presented itself – his crew took it. After failing to engage a French warship they encountered in the Caribbean, the crew mutinied in disgust at his cowardice, leaving him adrift on a small sloop in the middle of the ocean. Rackham was voted in as the new captain almost immediately, and proceeded to plunder several vessels that very day.

It was during a stop at a port’s tavern that Rackham met and began to court a young woman named Anne Bonny, who readily accepted his affections. Unfortunately for the two of them, Anne was already married, and her husband refused to let her go… and instead of sticking around to see the results of James Bonny’s court order against Rackham and Anne, the two of them eloped. However, women were still considered bad luck aboard a ship at this point – not to mention that they were in danger of abuse from the other men – and so Anne was disguised as a man in order to ensure the crew would take no notice of her.

While raiding a merchant vessel in the West Indies, Calico Jack came across a sailor on the vessel who had escaped slaughter like the rest of the crew. He gave the man an option: to either be run through with a cutlass, or join his crew. Naturally, the latter option was preferable, and the man joined the crew on Rackham’s ship.

Shortly thereafter, Rackham noticed that Anne and the new crew member were spending a good deal of time together. With his jealousy ignited, Rackham confronted the young man… who admitted that he was actually a woman in disguise. Realizing the benefit for Anne in keeping another woman around, Mary Read was allowed to remain on the ship, and it wasn’t long before Rackham revealed to his crew that there were, in fact, two women aboard… news which, oddly enough, was received rather well.

Rackham and his crew continued to attack and plunder ships with the women’s help, but in October 1720, a British governor learned of the pirate captain’s theft of an anchored ship in the Nassau harbor. Two large ships were sent after him, and they managed to catch up with Calico Jack at a moment of extremely poor timing – Rackham’s crew was in the hold, recovering from a rather severe round of drinking. They took cover below deck, but were eventually taken prisoner.

Rackham and his crew were taken to Jamaica, which was under British occupation at the time, and sentenced to death by hanging on November 16, 1720. After his hanging, his body was placed inside an iron cage and hung from a gibbet on a small island that could be seen from Jamaica’s Port Royal.

But what of Bonny and Read? After witnessing Rackham’s death, a report was given that she said she “was sorry to see him there, but if he had fought like a man, he need not have been hanged like a dog.” The fate of the women was somewhat different…

Want to read more?

Tomorrow: The story of Anne Bonny