Women Who Ruled the Seas

Chris Bradford

m e o n W Who Ruled the

Chris Bradford

There were female pirates too – all through history and around the world.

One of them even commanded the largest fleet ever! From politicians and queens to soldiers and nobility, meet the women who ruled the seas!

Women Who Ruledd the Seas

Pirates were men – right?

Wrong!

Monique Steele

F8 – 110 WPM

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Contents Marauders’ map. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Chapter 1 Ahoy there! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Timeline of female pirates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Chapter 2 Artemisia I of Caria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 The pirate code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Chapter 3 Sayyida al Hurra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Chapter 4 Grace O’Malley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Chapter 5 Anne Bonny and Mary Read . . . . . . . . 50 Bonny and Read’s ship – William . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Chapter 6 Zheng Yi Sao . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Zheng Yi Sao’s Red Flag Fleet . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Even more female pirates! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

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Pirate lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Funny pirates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 About the author. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 About the illustrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Book chat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

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Marauders’ map

South Carolina Jamaica and the Bahamas THE CARIBBEAN SEA Anne Bonny Mary Read

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Grace O’Malley Ireland Italy Morocco

Turkey Greece Artemisia I

SOUTH CHINA SEA

Zheng Yi Sao Sayyida Al Hurra 3

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Chapter 1 Ahoy there!

Ahoy there, me hearties! My name is Pearl.

I’m not called that because I’m precious, but because I’m hard, and you can find me me at at ssea. ea My great-great was the fearsome ggrandmother randm pirate pirat Saltwater Sally.

You You haven’t heard of her?

Well, Well, I’m not surprised.

You You see, se most people think that pirates pirate were all men. And that’s simply simpl not true! There have been been lots of women pirates all through throu history and around world. You just might not tthe he w have h ave heard of them. Now, if you’ll y ou be willing to join my ccrew, rew I’ll take you on a voyage meet these forgotten female tto om pirates.

So jump on board p ir and let’s cast off!

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What is a pirate exactly?

Good question, ye landlubber! A pirate is someone who attacks and robs ships.

By the way, if you sometimes don’t understand what I’m saying, there’s a Pirate Lingo page at the back of this book you’re holding.

I know, that’s not very nice. In fact, it’s criminal! And I’m not here to defend their actions, but I do want to balance the scales and tell the untold tales of female pirates.

To be honest with you, many of their actions were terrible. I’ll explain why each of them became sea raiders. This way you can learn more about these women left out of history and you can understand their reasons for becoming pirates.

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