Mary Reed and Anne Bonney were formidable pirates who held the entire merchant fleet of the Caribbean and Bahamas in terror in the early eighteenth century. These girls became friends in battle and pirated together for several years. Pirate life was not a hindrance to family happiness - during their lives the girls had 13 children, three of them during their pirate "career". How did they manage to be pirates at all, in an era when it was necessary to fight in hand-to-hand combat and where the stereotype "a woman on a ship - to bad luck" reigned? But, let's get to the point.

Mary Reid is an English girl who has been portrayed as a boy since childhood. She was the illegitimate daughter of a rich family from a poor mother. Her mother passed her off as a boy in the hope of getting some financial support from the family of her child's father.

As a teenager, Mary Reed moved to Flanders, France and joined the army. She pretended to be a boy named Willie. In one officer Mary fell madly in love, and he fumbled from her, suspecting "coworker" in non-traditional orientation. Then Mary opened up to her lover and they played a wedding.

The couple went into business, opened a tavern. But when her husband died unexpectedly, Mary went back into the army. Now as a sailor on a Dutch ship. Mary pretended to be a man in the crew, otherwise she would hardly have been taken on board. She was valued - her army experience made itself felt in all the skirmishes.

The ship was hijacked by English pirates and it turned her biography upside down. Mary was the only passenger who desperately fought off the pirates with weapons in her hands. The pirates invited her to join the crew. That's where she met her partner, Anne Bonney.

Irish Ann Bonnie is the exact opposite of Mary. She is the daughter of a wealthy lawyer who moved to the United States and made his fortune on sugar cane plantations.

Ann's mother died early, and she was still a teenager became responsible for the household on the plantations. At the same time grew up beautiful, but, in a masculine way, strong. She was nicknamed "Tiger Ann" because of the fights she participated in and won over the street boys.

In general, the daughter grew up adventurous and, at 16, secretly from her father married a simple sailor James Bonney. Sailor, by the way, as it turned out later, married not for love, and hoped to get Ann's wealth. Himself nothing but the family name, the girl did not bestow. Ann's father was strongly opposed to the marriage and said that he would not give this family a penny.

The couple sailed to the Bahamas, in New Providence, which was considered a haven for all local pirates. Here Ann quickly dumps her sailor (we'll come back to him - James will still play his sinister role in her life). Ann falls in love with the local rich man Bayard. The girl led an idle lifestyle here, the rich man provided well for her. At this time Ann became interested in fencing and took lessons from a local master.

Then she met a real pirate, Jack Rackham, in a tavern. They started dating, and Jack took a liking to Ann's violent temper. Together they hijacked ships. In their hands, sometimes, turned out to be a huge fortune. But all the money they made was spent in taverns or on luxury goods.

She met Jack in secret from the crew. To the pirates she was "Sailor Andreas" and always wore men's clothes. The crew suspected nothing, as "Andreas" was perfectly proficient in all kinds of weapons and was no stranger to men's work.

The high-pitched voice was something the team was used to. The only thing that was the subject of jokes was that "Andreas" always went out to take a leak, instead of doing it, like everyone else, overboard. But a couple of duel victories and the jokers were quickly silenced.

Bayard took the girl to social events, balls, but not for long. Ann could not stand prim aristocrats, beat up several of them, and knocked out the teeth of the governor's relative. Bayard got fed up with social scandals and stopped seeing the violent girl.

Here we come to the story of the meeting of Mary Reed and Anne Bonny. As you remember, pirates captured the ship where Mary was and the girl joined the crew.

Mary also pretended to be a man, but Anne quickly figured her out. The girls became friends despite the age difference - Mary was 16 years older than Anne. But the friendship caused Captain Jack's frenzied jealousy when he saw his girlfriend spending twenty-four hours a day with a handsome military man. Ann carefully let her lover in on the secret, and the three of them began living together.

When Ann became pregnant, she had to tell the sailors the truth. But the pirates were understanding, as her authority was unquestionable.

Ann's first child died - alas, child mortality in those years was normal. And she has already, without hiding her sex, changed into a woman's dress. As such, she led the boarding party.

The pirates terrified all sailors, hurting trade. Eventually, the governor of Jamaica hired the military. The pirate ship was captured, and the entire crew was sentenced to capital punishment. The entire crew was sentenced to capital punishment. Only Mary and Ann survived, as they were both pregnant.

One of the people who gave information on Ann and accused her of piracy was her first husband. The same sailor, James Bonney, who was pursuing a career as an official. Technically, they were still married. But that didn't stop James from insisting on executing his wife because he feared her revenge.

Mary and Anne were imprisoned, and decided to decide their fate later. And here the fates of the friends were diametrically opposed. Mary fell ill in prison and died. She was 36 years old.

Ann was bought out by her father. He brought her home and she married a local planter. She was only 19 years old! Can you imagine, all the adventures described above fell on the shoulders of a very young girl!

But from her story Ann made the right conclusions. In marriage, she lived a happy life, she had 10 more children. She passed away quietly and peacefully at the age of 80.