English pirate. She was born
illegitimately sometime in the
1680s. Her
mother was raising a
baby boy whose mother had died, and when the
baby boy also
perished, Mary's mother
disguised her
daughter as the boy.
Mary fought in
Flanders disguised as a
man, then drifted to the
Caribbean when the
War of Spanish Succession was over. She joined a
pirate crew and revealed her
sex to a man she had fallen in
love with. They lived
faithfully in a
common law marriage.
They shipped with a
pirate captain called
Calico Jack Rackham, whose lover,
Anne Bonney, was also aboard the
ship disguised as a man. Mary and Anne became good
friends and were the only two crew members who refused to
surrender when their ship was
captured by pirate hunter
Woodes Rogers in 1720. They were knocked unconscious and taken to
trial, where it was revealed that they were both
women and both
pregnant. Since English
law stated that a pregnant woman could not be
hanged, they were both
sentenced to long
prison terms. Mary died in
childbirth in 1721, but Anne
survived and was
ransomed by her father.
Research: GURPS Swashbucklers, Third Edition, by Steffan O'Sullivan, (C) 1999 by Steve Jackson Games, pp. 72-73.