Anne Bonny (1697-1782) was a famous Irish pirate from County Cork. A veritable symbol of Irish piracy, there are many legends about it. She’s mainly described as a woman dressed as a man, capable of the worst kind of violence! A colorful portrait who has made a name for herself in a predominantly male environment!
Anne Bonny wasn’t always called that. Born as “Anne Cormac” in Cork city around 1697, she was the illegitimate daughter of William Cormac, a solicitor, and his maid Mary.
To escape the scandal, Anne’s father decided to leave Ireland with his daughter for Charleston, South Carolina. There, he bought a large plantation and raised his daughter the hard way, like a boy. With her short hair and masculine clothes, she turns out to be a real tomboy, hot-headed and rebellious.
According to legend, she even committed her first act of violence at the age of 13, savagely stabbing a plantation servant.
Once she came of age, Anne began frequenting taverns, drinking more than she should, and consorting with the worst people in the area. Quite agile with a sword, she enjoys many a duel, and is even said to have undressed her sword master, button after button, with the tip of her blade!
In 1718, Anne met James Bonny, a pirate she had met in a tavern. The two decide to head for the Bahamas, to New Providence, the undisputed stronghold of pirates. Anne marries James, but soon discovers that her husband is an unambitious informer, secretly working for Governor Woodes Rogers (on the British side). The latter denounced sailors suspected of smuggling or piracy.
Disgusted, Anne leaves her husband to take up with Chidley Bayard, the richest man in the Bahamas. This was followed by a third encounter with Pierre Bousquet, another pirate with whom she embarked to attack French merchant ships.
A true virtuoso of stagecraft, she steals a ship, patches it up with her crew, smears the ship and the sailors on board with turtle blood, and sets off to approach the merchant ships, bloody axe in hand. The scene is so horrifying that the merchant ships surrender without a fight!
Although her fortune seems to be smiling, Anne Bonny is ordered to stop her activities by Governor Rogers. The latter promised him a royal pardon in exchange for an end to his assaults on merchant ships.
She refused, and fled to the Bahamas with Pierre and Calico Jack Rackham, who also refused to submit.
From now on, Anne Bonny decides to change her identity, calling herself Adam Bonny. She hides her feminine nature from her crew, and continues to have a love affair with Pierre and Rackam.
But that’s without counting his decisive meeting with Mary Read, (another female pirate who also disguised herself as a man, calling herself Willy Read). The 2 women hit it off, then began a love affair (at the time, homosexuality was commonplace on board a pirate ship).
This relationship will change Anne forever, and create countless tensions aboard their ship “Revenge”. Rackam, deeply jealous, goes so far as to threaten Mary Read!
The Revenge sailed the seas for several years, fleeing the British forces in charge of capturing it.
It wasn’t until October 21, 1720 that Anne and Mary Read were captured, after more than 2 hours of intense fighting, in which the 2 young women shamelessly killed and slaughtered enemy soldiers.
At their trial, both managed to avoid being hanged on the pretext of pregnancy. A decoy, of course! They are both imprisoned. Mary Read died of yellow fever a few days later, and Anne Bonny was finally released…
No one knows what happened to her.
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