"They fight like wild cats, and in a bloody battle on the deck of a merchant taken on board, they are not inferior to the most desperate bandits. They are as ruthless as the rest of the filibusters, plowing the waters under a black flag with a skull and crossbones. And although many of them are young and beautiful, they are all real fiends, daughters of the devil, ”describes the old chronicle of female pirates who could be found among members of the free brotherhood during its heyday. At the same time, the glory of some of them was so loud that their names caused no less horror than, for example, or.

Anne Bonnie can rightly be considered the most famous of the pirates. This tall, red-haired Irishwoman with a voluptuous mouth and a magnificent figure had such great power among the Caribbean corsairs that she deservedly held the unofficial title of "queen of filibusters." Although, she had another, much less flattering nickname: "The Devil in a Skirt." Judging by the testimonies of contemporaries, both corresponded to reality.

Stretching for miles, the Spanish galleons of the annual "Golden Fleet" slowly moved towards the Windward Strait between Cuba and Hispaniola. Closed the squadron "Santa Maria", largely behind the main ships. When the sails of a pirate brigantine appeared on the horizon on August 18, 1719, this did not cause alarm on the Santa Maria.

But thanks to the advantage in the course of the brigantine, she was able to quickly catch up with the slow "Santa Maria" with the clear intention of attacking her. The captain considered this to be real madness: a pirate ship with a dozen and a half guns had nothing to hope for against 64 guns and three hundred galleon sailors. But soon he will be convinced of his mistake. Following in the wake, where she was out of reach of the Spanish guns, the brigantine boldly approached, and the pirates who had laid down the shrouds and yardarms opened such well-aimed fire from muskets that in a matter of minutes the deck of the Santa Maria was completely littered with the wounded and killed.

When the bow of the brigantine came close to the galleon, boarding cats tightly lassoed its side, and pirates poured onto the deck with blood-chilling cries. “Leave no witnesses! Blow their heads off!" - the red-haired fury in a man's scarlet calico shirt and wide linen trousers was tearing loudest of all. With a short cutlass in her right hand and a hatchet in her left, she was one of the first to cut into the ranks of the Spaniards, leaving a bloody corridor behind her.

“Their onslaught was so swift that we did not even have time to reload our muskets. A hand-to-hand fight ensued. Soon our sailors, led by the first mate, were forced to retreat to the stern. Then this beast grabbed a bomb, set fire to the fuse and threw a deadly projectile into the middle of the crowded people. A deafening explosion tore many to pieces. The survivors surrendered, - wrote one of the few eyewitnesses who managed to survive during the bloody "exploits" of Anne Bonny. “We were all driven to the nose. Their leader pointed with the end of her bloody saber at the young lieutenant, who fought bravely with the pirates, and, laughing, said:
“None of you will be spared. But I want to give you a choice. I'll take you to my cabin for the night.

If I'm satisfied, I'll let you go. If not, I'll cut off my head. Decide." I do not know how the case ended, because I did not wait for the pirates to deal with us, and jumped overboard. I spent two days at sea holding on to a piece of wood. And when I was ready to give my soul to God, I was picked up by a ship passing by.

Biography of Anne Bonnie

The biography of the ruthless pirate Anne Bonnie is unusual. Anne was born in the Irish County of Cork on March 3, 1700 in the family of a successful lawyer. When the girl was 5 years old, he went overseas to South Carolina, where he became the owner of a large plantation. Ann's childhood was spent in a rich colonial mansion with a large number of servants. The father of the soul doted on his beloved daughter and did not spare money to give her a good education.

But under the outward good manners beautiful girl hid a violent temperament that caused a lot of trouble to parents. For example, she shocked the local community by riding naked to the waist. And once, in a fit of anger, she stabbed her servant with a knife. The case could not be brought to court only thanks to the influence of the father and his legal sophistication, which helped to hush up the terrible story. After that, the lawyer decided to quickly marry off his daughter, in the hope that this would be able to calm her down.

Marriage

However, Ann and here gave a surprise. Although she had quite a few admirers who would gladly marry the daughter of a wealthy planter, the 16-year-old girl secretly married and ran away with the English sailor James Bonnie. Nowy, her family life turned out to be short lived. The husband, who did not satisfy the ardent Ann, was dismissed, having received a very tangible hit on the head with a teapot at parting from his wife.

His place was immediately taken by the handsome daredevil John Rackham, who was known throughout the east coast of America as a pirate nicknamed Calico Jack. According to Ann herself, "he took me because, without hesitation, he boldly went on board." The wedding ceremony was performed not in a church, but on the deck of a pirate brigantine. Instead of an exchange wedding rings the newlyweds kissed the blade of the saber, swearing eternal love to each other.

Pirate Queen

Looking ahead, it should be noted that Ann did not remain faithful for long. Because new husband also could not satisfy her violent temperament, she (by the way, with his knowledge) began to make lovers for herself. Later, during the mass execution of arrested pirates in Jamaica, Anne Bonny, who was secretly present at the same time, sadly said: “It's a pity for the poor fellows. A lot of them weren't bad at all in my bed."

However, the disappointment that befell her on the marital bed could not prevent the young woman from becoming right hand Calico Jack. She quickly comprehended the wisdom of the maritime profession and, along with everyone else, kept watch in " crow's nest» at the top of the mast.

Even on her father's plantation, Ann learned to shoot well. Having become a pirate, she was able to bring her skill to perfection. On every occasion, and sometimes without it, she challenged the men to a duel and invariably emerged victorious. In particular, Anne's duel brought great fame, when the duelists fought at dawn after a sleepless night spent drinking in a tavern, and the filibuster queen was able to put a bullet right in the forehead of the enemy.

In addition to the pistol, the red-haired beast also masterfully owned cold weapons, starting with a boarding saber and ending with a shark harpoon. However, Ann Bonnie earned the special respect of the pirates for her fearlessness in battle and the talent of a military leader that she discovered in her. It was she, in particular, who came up with the idea of ​​a surprise attack on a multi-gun Spanish galleon. In total, Calico Jack and his wife accounted for more than a dozen plundered ships in the Caribbean. However, this was not even the most striking.

In the parental home, Ann defiantly did not want to obey the generally accepted rules of behavior. Becoming a pirate, she was able to achieve strict discipline among the members of the free fraternity. Anne Bonny demanded that all pirates take an oath of allegiance and do not violate the established routine. For example, everyone could eat and drink as much as they wanted, but heavy drinking was severely punished.

It cannot be said that strict restrictions were to the liking of ordinary filibusters. But there was no open defiance of the hunters, because everyone knew Anne's temper and her habit of almost reaching for pistols.

Captivity and escape

1720, October - off the coast of Jamaica, a pirate brigantine accidentally stumbled upon a well-armed English warship. After a fierce battle, the surviving filibusters, along with their leaders, were captured. The court sentenced everyone to death. Ann declared that she was pregnant, and she was granted a respite until the birth of the child, instructing her to live with her parents.

But as soon as the red-haired beast was released from prison, she began to make escape plans. Two guards were assigned to her, who were to stay at all the time in the house she rented before leaving Port Royal. However, one morning, the unlucky guards discovered that their ward had disappeared without a trace. The further fate of the filibuster queen Anne Bonnie is unknown ...

But it is known how she responded to Jack's death: "If he had fought like a man, he would not have been hanged like a dog." (Ed. note)

World history of piracy Blagoveshchensky Gleb

Anne Bonney (Anne Bonney, Anne Cormac)

(c. 1697–1782?), Ireland

When the ship of the pirate Jack Rackham was captured in 1720, two women were found on board - Anne Bonny and Mary Read. The court considered them victims at first, but then the witnesses began to testify. It turned out that they were both incredibly lecherous, their monstrous abuse could be the envy of any foul language. When the pirates were preparing to board someone's ship, Anne Bonny and Mary Read changed into men's clothing and grabbed a gun. After the publication of these facts, the verdict of the court changed, and both pirates were sentenced to hang. However, both beasts screamed that they were pregnant; they shouted: “My lord, our wombs ask for us!” The court showed understanding, the execution was postponed. The pirates were taken into custody. From there they managed to escape. However, according to other sources, it follows that only Ann Bonnie was saved, about whom there was no information after that.

These are facts.

At the same time, for several centuries up to the present day, the life stories of these pirates in the presentation of Daniel Defoe turned out to be much more popular. Despite the fact that in these stories only the names of the heroines are actually true, it sometimes happens that fiction attracts much more facts. In order not to torment readers, we give below the story of Ann Bonnie - as she introduced herself to the creator of Robinson Crusoe and Colonel Jack. Although Defoe created a moralizing short story, which later served him in the creation of the novel.

Ann Bonnie

“Pretty Ann was born in a town near Cork, in the Kingdom of Ireland, her father was a lawyer, but Ann was not one of his recognized offspring, which clearly contradicts the old adage that bastards have more luck. Her father was married, and his wife, having given birth, after that fell ill, and so that she could improve her health, she was advised to move to places where the air is better. The place she chose was several miles away from her dwelling, and her husband's mother lived there. Here she remained for some time, and her husband remained at home in order to conduct his business. The servant girl whom she left to look after the house and serve the family, being a beautiful young woman, was courted young man from the same city, a certain Tanner. This Tanner used to take the opportunity, when the family was not at home, to appear to continue his courtship. And somehow, being with a maid, when she was busy with housework, he, not having the fear of God before his eyes, seized the moment and, as soon as she turned her back, dragged three silver spoons into his pocket. The maid soon ran out of spoons, and knowing that no one else had entered the room since they last saw each other, she blamed him for this loss. He very stubbornly denied his guilt, which made her indignant and threatened that she would go for the constable, so that he would take him to the justice of the peace. The threat frightened him out of his wits, for he knew well that he would not stand the search; for this reason, he set out to calm her down, advising her to check the drawers and other places, they say, maybe she will find the loss. At this time, he sneaks into another room where the maid used to sleep, and puts spoons between the sheets, and then secretly leaves by the back door, concluding that she will find them when she goes to bed, and then the next day he can pretend that he did it , only to scare her, and the case can be turned into a joke.

She, as soon as she missed him, stopped her search, judging that he had taken them with him, and went straight to the constable so that he would arrest him. The young man was informed that a constable was looking for him, but he attached little importance to this, not doubting that everything would be all right the next day. Three or four days passed, and he was still told that the constable was looking for him, and this made him go into hiding. Not understanding the meaning of what was happening, he imagined, no more, no less, that the maid intended to appropriate the spoons for her own benefit, and attribute the theft to him.

At this time, it so happened that the hostess, completely recovered from her recent indisposition, returned home with her mother-in-law. And the first thing I heard was the news about the missing spoons, and how this happened. The maid told her that the young man had run away. The same, having received news of the arrival of the hostess and reasoning that he could no longer appear there in his former capacity, until the matter was settled, and she was a good-natured woman, decided to go straight to her and tell the whole story, with this only difference, that he supposedly did it as a joke.

The hostess hardly believed this, but went straight to the maid's room and, turning back the blankets on the bed, to her great surprise, found these three spoons; after which she advised the young man to go home and mind his own business, for he need not worry about it any more.

The hostess could not imagine what all this could mean: she never noticed petty thefts in the maid, and therefore it did not fit in her head that she really intended to steal the spoons; concluding from the whole that since that disappearance the maid had not been in her bed, she immediately became jealous, suspecting that the maid had taken her place beside her husband during her absence, and this was the reason why the spoons were not found earlier.

She immediately recalled to her memory several favorable deeds that her husband performed for the maid, deeds that at that time had gone unnoticed, but now this tormentor, jealousy, settled in her head, which multiplied the evidence of their closeness; another circumstance that aggravated everything else was that her husband knew that she was supposed to arrive home that day, and did not enter into intercourse with her for four months until the last birth, and yet he took the opportunity to leave that morning from the city under some small suggestion. All these facts, taken together, confirmed her in her jealousy.

Since women rarely forgive insults of this kind, she plotted to take out the evil on the maid. To do this, she leaves the spoons where she finds them and orders the maid to put clean sheets on the bed, telling her that she intends to sleep here herself that night, because her mother-in-law will sleep on her bed, and that she (the maid) must spend the night in another parts of the house; the maid, preparing the bed, was surprised to see the spoons, but she had very good reasons why it was not proper for her to say where she found them, therefore she takes them and puts them in her chest, intending to leave them somewhere where they might be found by chance.

The hostess, in order to make everything look as if it was done without intention, lies down that night in the maid's bed, hardly imagining what an adventure will come of it. After she had spent some time in bed thinking about what had happened, for jealousy kept her awake, she heard someone enter the room; at first she thought they were thieves, and was so frightened that she did not even dare to cry out; but when she heard the words: “Mary, are you awake?” she realized that it was the voice of her husband. Then her fear passed, but she did not answer, for he would have recognized her at the first word, and decided to pretend to be asleep - and then come what may.

The husband went to bed and that night played the indefatigable lover; and the pleasure of the wife was spoiled only by the consideration that all this was not intended for her; however, she submitted and bore it like a Christian. Before dawn she slipped out of bed, leaving him asleep, went to her mother-in-law and told her what had happened, unable to forget how he treated her, mistaking her for a maid; the husband also stole out, believing that it was not good for him to be caught in this room. Meanwhile, the hostess, burning with a desire to take revenge on the maid, and not taking into account that she owed that entertainment of the past night and that she was alone good service should have cost another, sent for the constable and accused her of stealing the spoons. The maid's chest was broken open and spoons were found, after which she was taken to the justice of the peace and sentenced to imprisonment.

The husband lingered until twelve o'clock in the afternoon and then came home, pretending that he had just returned to the city. As soon as he heard what had happened to the maid, he became furious with his wife; this added fuel to the fire, the mother opposed her son and took the wife's side, and finally the quarrel flared up with such force that the mother and wife, having taken the horses, immediately returned to the mother's house, and the husband and wife never slept together after that.

The maid spent about six months in prison, all this time waiting for the verdict; but, before the trial took place, she was found to be carrying a child; and when the trial was held, she was released at the will of the witness: the heart of the wife was softened, and since she herself did not believe that the maid was guilty of any theft, except the theft of love, she did not speak out against her. Soon after her acquittal, she resolved to have a daughter.

But what alarmed the husband most of all was that his wife, as it turned out, was also carrying a child, and he, considering it obvious that he had not had intimacy with her since the time of her last birth, in turn became jealous and now justified his conversion. with her, pretending to have suspected her for a long time, and the fact that she is heavy is the proof; she gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl.

The mother fell ill and sent for her son in order to reconcile him with his wife, but he did not want to hear about it; therefore she made a will, transferring all her property through proxies in favor of his wife and two newborns, and died a few days later.

It was a bad turn for him, for he depended on his mother in the strongest way; however, his wife was kinder to him than he deserved, for she paid him an annual allowance from the inheritance received, although they continued to live separately; this went on for five years. At this time, having great affection for the girl, which he had from the maid, he decided to take her to live with him; but since the whole city knew about his daughter, in order to better hide the matter both from the townspeople and from his wife, he dressed her in breeches, like a boy, and passed off as the son of a certain relative, whom he planned to raise and make his clerk.

The wife found out that a baby appeared in his house, whom he loves very much, but since she did not know a single relative of her husband who would have such a son, she instructed her friend to find out better about everything; he, after talking with the child, found out that it was a girl, and revealed that her mother was that maid-servant and that her husband was still in contact with her.

Having received such information, the wife, not wanting her children's money to go to the maintenance of the bastard, stopped paying. The husband, furious, in revenge takes the maid into his house and lives with her openly, to the great indignation of the neighbors; however, he soon discovered the bad consequences of this act, for he began to gradually lose practice, and, realizing that he could no longer live here, he thought about leaving. And, turning his property into pure money, he goes to Cork, and from there with his maid and daughter sails to Carolina.

At first he continued the practice of law in that province, but then he became interested in trade, in which he succeeded much more, for he earned enough from it to buy an extensive plantation. His maid, whom he passed off as his wife, suddenly died, after which the grown daughter, our Pretty Ann, took over the household.

She was of a hot and bold disposition, which is why, when she was brought before the court, things were told about her that presented her in a very unfavorable light - for example, that she once killed an English maid who was cleaning her father's house in a fit of rage; but as I studied the matter, I found that this story is baseless. It is definitely known that she was so strong and quick-tempered that once, when a certain young man wanted to sleep with her against her will, she beat him so much that he went to bed for a long time.

While she lived with her father, she was considered rich heiress why one might think that her father was counting on a good match for her; however, she upset these plans, because without his consent she married a young man who was a sailor and did not have a penny for his soul, which angered her father to such an extent that he put her out the door; whereupon the young man who married her, disappointed in his expectations, embarked with his wife on a ship bound for the Isle of Providence, hoping to enter the service there.

There she made an acquaintance with the pirate Rackham, who, courting her, soon found means to divert her feelings from her husband, so she agreed to run away from him and go with Rackham to the sea, dressed in a man's dress. Having fulfilled this intention and having stayed on his ship for some time, she suffered, when her fullness became noticeable, Rackham landed her on the island of Cuba and there entrusted her to his friends, who took care of her until the time came to give birth. When she recovered and got up again, he sent for her to keep him company.

When a royal decree came out to pardon the pirates, he took advantage of it and surrendered; later, being sent to the private industry, he returned to his old trade, as we have already mentioned in the story of Mary Read. In all his undertakings Pretty Ann kept him company, and when they were about to do some piracy, there was no one who could keep up with her or be more courageous, and especially when they were captured; she and Mary Read, and with them another, as mentioned earlier, were the only ones who dared to defend the deck.

Her father made acquaintance with quite a number of gentlemen, planters from Jamaica, who dealt with him, and enjoyed a good reputation among them; and some of those who visited him in Carolina remembered seeing her in his house; for some reason they treated her favorably, but the fact that she left her husband was an ugly act and turned away from her. On the day that Rackham was executed, he was allowed, as a special favor, to see her; but all she could find to tell him in support and consolation was that she was very sorry to see him here, but if he had fought like a man, he would not have had to be hanged like a dog.