As long as there be pirates, thar be female pirates, arrr.
In the Articles of Agreement that pirates swore an oath to uphold often included a ban on women aboard their ships. After all, “women be weak, feckless, hysterical beings who distracted men n' brought bad luck to ships, calling forth supernatural winds that sank vessels n' drowned men.”
Fer a wench to succeed in her new persona, she had to do more than don a disguise. She be needin' to adopt the mannerisms common to men: fightin', carousin', swearin', walkin', n' dressin' as the men did.
Gettin' aboard a ship disguised, as a man wasn’t that difficult in the Age of Sail. A sailor’s clothes easily disguised a wench’s shape. Mariners be wearin' their hair long, tied in a pigtail and tarred. Petticoat-breeches and the baggy shirt worn under a jacket easily hid her curves, especially if she bound her breasts. Sailors rarely removed their clothes n' the only time a doctor insisted they undress be to treat their wounds.
Takin' care of bodily functions be more a challengin' problem, except'n not an impossible one. Some affixed a tube inside their breeches to appear to urinate as a man when them be goin' to the head. Many sailors contracted venereal diseases, they wouldn’t be thinkin' anything strange about a sailor bleedin'. It be common complaint. As fer having her period, thar be a good chance she ceased menstruatin' from the poor food n' strenuous exercise of workin' aboard a wooden ship. Since she didn’t shave, men just reckin' she hadn’t gone through puberty yet.
Furlin' n' unfurlin' sails, labored the pumps n' capstan, rowin' boats, n' a myriad of other tasks requirin' hard labor wouldn’t be a problem fer most workin'-class wench of the seventeen n' eighteenth centuries. Even as women living ashore they labored long hours n' did physically demandin' chores. If she be strong n' able, a woman be capable of doing sailors’ work.
It took a remarkable wench to assume a male persona n' carry it off successfully. Why would any woman be choosin' to do so? Because she seeked to earn her way in life without prostitutin' herself n' to keep her wages instead of having to relinquish them to her husband o' father. She could learn a trade forbidden to women. As a man, she had rights, unlike a woman who had few if any rights under the law. As long as men believed her to be one of them, they be treatin' her as a man. As soon as her true identity be discovered, she was no longer taken seriously n' had to return home to mind her place.
While an untold number of accounts of male pirates n' warriors exist, the same isn’t true of women who donned male attire n' changed their names. Many pirates were illiterate as were the majority of the lower classes.
Not much be known about women pirates throughout history. Some disguised their sex. Others did not. Some achieved notoriety in their lifetimes. Most disappeared without anyone bein' the wiser.
This here article be based on: Women and the Jolly Roger by Cindy Vallar
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