The Dread Trio – Part 3/3: Read’s Gender Crisis (ca. 1690 – 1721 AD)
The details of Mary Read’s life are disputed from the very beginning: some say she was born in Devonshire, others claim it was London; some reports explain that she was the daughter of a sea captain’s widow, while still others accuse her of being an illegitimate child, since the rightful father had been at sea too long for Mary to have been his own. Either way, one thing is clear: Mary spent nearly all of her childhood as a boy.
According to history, Mary’s brother died when he was quite young, and in order for Mary’s mother to continue receiving financial help from her mother-in-law, she needed to disguise Mary as the young boy – that way, Mary and her mother could receive the deceased son’s inheritance. Mary’s grandmother was apparently fooled, which allowed Mary’s mother to support herself and her child well into Mary’s teen years. However, the money eventually ran out, forcing Mary to find work to help support the two of them.
Disguised as a boy, Mary was hired as a footboy to a French family. She worked there for awhile, until her longing for adventure brought her to a British Man-o-War, where she was employed for some time. Eventually, she fell in love with a fellow sailor, and – although details are scant – allegedly revealed herself as a woman to him, which naturally resulted in a marriage. The newlyweds then left the military, opening their own inn called The Three Horseshoes (or The Three Trade Horses, depending on who’s telling the story).
For the first time, Mary lived her life as a woman… but this was to be short-lived, as her husband died of fever within a few years. She tried to join the military again, dressed once more as a man, but found that something was lacking. Thus, Mary Read quit the military, boarded a ship headed for the West Indies, and subsequently found herself on board a vessel being attacked by pirates. Indeed, it was Calico Jack Rackham and Anne Bonny.
Faced with the choice of either joining Rackham’s crew or being run through with a sword, Mary chose self-preservation – although she kept her true gender a secret. Before long, Anne Bonny had taken a liking to the new young man and often followed him around the ship, trying to engage him in conversation. As the story goes, Bonny walked in on the young man one day as he was undressing, fully intending to engage him in something other than conversation… and was shocked to find herself faced with another woman.
Although the two women tried to hide Read’s identity from the rest of the ship, Rackham soon became jealous that his lover was spending so much time with the ‘new guy’, and demanded to know what was going on. It was simple enough to explain: Mary bore her breasts to him, and the matter was settled. Before long, the rest of the crew discovered that there were two women aboard – but since they’d been pulling their weight and always fought just as hard as any man on the ship, they were allowed to stay. There are even rumors that Mary fell in love with one of the pirates on Rackham’s ship, and intended to marry him.
One version of the story explains that although Mary was in love, another rather large and burly pirate aboard the ship – who wasn’t yet aware that Mary was a woman – challenged Mary’s lover to a duel, for some reason or another. Fearing for her lover’s life, Mary challenged the burly pirate to a duel of her own, and demanded that it be settled immediately. According to the Pirate Code, the combatants had to be rowed ashore to settle their score. Each of them was given a pistol and a cutlass, and both fired their pistols immediately and missed. As they began the swordfight, Mary’s ability to move quickly worked to her advantage against the stronger man.
As they fought, Mary was able to study the larger pirate’s attacks, avoiding his lunges and simply waiting for him to make a mistake. During one of his lunges, the pirate stumbled a bit, and Mary took her chance. In that moment, she ripped open her shirt – exposing her breasts to the unbelieving gaze of the pirate – and was able to swing her cutlass around and nearly decapitate him as he gaped at her chest, realizing he’d been dueling with a woman. Whether this account is true or not is another matter entirely, however it certainly reveals that Mary’s femininity was no hindrance to her participation in pirate life.
While Calico Jack and his crew had plenty of success for a period of about three months, they began to spend more and more time “celebrating” their victories – namely, drinking and lounging about the ship. When the ship was eventually captured in October 1720, the only crew members who resisted against the British Navy were Mary and Anne – the rest of the crew cowered below deck in a drunken stupor.
Although Mary was sentenced to hang for her crimes, as was her fellow female pirate Anne Bonny, both the women received stays of execution due to being pregnant. Unfortunately for Mary, her time in prison was far worse than expected. She contracted a foreign illness and died of fever in early 1721, before she was able to give birth. According to some accounts, Mary was able to give a final statement to the court before being placed in prison when they asked her why a woman would ever turn to piracy. Instead of giving a statement that could have possibly earned her pardon, she explained:
“As to hanging, it is no great hardship. For were it not for that, every cowardly fellow would turn pirate and so unfit the seas, that men of courage must starve.”
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