Arrgh, Women Pirates!

Anney and Samantha delve into stories of some of history's most fearsome women of the seas. Dramatic poetry reading included.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and I'm going to
stuff I've never told you production of I Heart Radio.
Are maybees? Yeah, I said the G h anny and
are you glad I began that way? So Samantha and

(00:26):
I have a beef. I think it's R just a
h R because my initials are h R. And also
it makes that joke rated R work, so your G
H and R doesn't work ruin joke. Everyone's like, well,
today is not the day for this one. But I've

(00:48):
clearly lost it. But yes, I did put it in there,
sow there. But if you've been listening to some of
our recent episodes, I think you know we've been a
little over excited about all the bad astor you have
some of the most notorious women in history, whether they're
change makers, soldiers, spies, assassins, or just altogether badass women,

(01:10):
and we've decided we need to expand that to women
pirates of history. Yes, so I do have a question
for you Annie, oh pirate related questions, Yes, because pirates
have been pretty romanticized in general. Do you have or
either a fond memory of a pirate character or the
one that you love or have watched recently, You're welcome.

(01:34):
Oh no, this is actually kind of embarrassing, but I
suppose I'll admit it. So I was in high school
and when Pirates of the Caribbean came out, and this
was the height of my emo face, which as many
of you might know, involved Guyliner of course and Johnny
Depp or very epic Guideliner in that movie. So I

(01:59):
was a big fan of that and I really didn't
like Will Turner Orlando Bloom's character. But the reason this
is so unbay obviously for reasons now in our what's
going on with him modernly, but also at the time,
I was in drama and I got in really big
trouble once. I can't remember why, but I had to
write this essay about my favorite actor, and I wrote
about him, and I'm embarrassed to this day. It's just

(02:21):
because I had a crushed on him. Well, to be fair,
you're not the only one. Johnny Depp took the hearts
of many, especially like my generation when we saw him
and What's Eating Gilbrook Grape Big Thing, Try Baby was
one of my favorite movies. So no shame, no shame
in that. But yes, of course there's a lot of
things asterix to his name today, but we will imagine
that every time I think of Pirates. Unfortunately, this has

(02:43):
everything to do with the fact that I was a
daycare center worker. Is the stupid Veggie Tales, the veggie
the Pirates song, I'm the pirate that doesn't do anything.
I am a pirate, didn't do anything. Oh everybody remember,
I'm sorry, don't but you know I've seen still images

(03:03):
of veggie tails and I remember Pirates. Yes. So I
worked at a church, local church that had a daycare,
and of course this was one of the favorites of
the children, and I really wanted I hated it after
the fact, like there are moments of like, oh that's cute,
and then this is creepy, and then why it just
became a why. But I also love like Peter pan
Hook is probably one of my favorite movies growing up,

(03:24):
and I have memories of that. So yeah, I think like,
even though we don't see them today as much, maybe
I'm wrong because I did fall out of love with
like Pirates of the Caribbean, and we know they have
a very long like sequel thing as well. They have
plenty of parts to it. Is there any recent pirvate
movies out. Um, I think there's been any recent I

(03:45):
know Margot Robbie's gonna be the next Pirate of the Caribbean. Um,
so it's still going okay. Oh yeah. And obviously, as
we're talking about this, listeners, you're probably picking up on
there aren't many female privates in our entertainment. But I
know I never saw it, but it was another Peter
Pan adaptation, and Bruney Mara was a pirate and that

(04:06):
well I told you about the Gina Davis movie with
Matthew Modine. It was from Stranger Things. Yeah, yeah, he
was the father figure and Stranger Things the first season.
That's Matthew Modine. He must not have made any impression
on me. I really. I think he's coming back for
the newest season because he was such an epic bad guy.

(04:28):
Oh yeah, okay, to get back to it, he was
a big eighties nineties guys. Well, but I remember cut
the Throat Island specifically because she was the main character
as the pirate, and we didn't see too many And
apparently some of the women that we are going to
talk about did have their own movies, but we just
I don't think it had the claim that it could

(04:49):
have right didn't become the cultural touch your own. I
bet that some of these we're going to talk about
it going to be HBO series or something soon, and
they should be. They should be. Okay, So before we
get into specific women, let's talk about history of the
pirating world. Of brief history, very brief. Yes, yes, the

(05:11):
pirating world is much like most of our historical episodes,
and that in a lot of ways, it's very romanticized,
and so we have a lot of tales that are
splashed with legends and facts. So our info is a
bag of like a grab bag of that's what is
said to have happened, um, And it's really hard to
verify those things because there's a part, like when we

(05:33):
were talking about with spies and assassins, there's the legend
is a key part of it. You want to build
this reputation as a pirate, and when we're talking about
women in history, even less unfortunately has been recorded. But
the legends and tales do go on, and we would
be remiss if we didn't share those with you, share
all that we know about them or the small things

(05:53):
we know about them. Yeah. Yeah, So let's do a definition,
because we love definitions of piracy, which, according to the
Guinness World Records is the act of attempting to board
a ship with intent to commit theft or any other crimes,
with the apparent intentions to use force to achieve that end.
Very nice little definition. Also, yeah, well, I had a

(06:15):
specific thing because I wanted to know about the early
histories and the likelihood of pirates existed when like the
beginning of the existence of boats. The first recorded pirates,
according to the Guinness World Book of Records, date back
to the fourteenth century BC, and according to the Egyptian records,
it was when the Lucon pirates raided Cyprus in the
Eastern Mediterranean. Of course, some of the most notable tales

(06:38):
come from the period of the Golden Age of piracy.
Would make sense. The Golden Age was dated to be
around the seventeen and early eighteenth centuries. There were thousands
of pirates roaming the seas at that time, and some
of the most famous pirates of all time, including black
Beard and the Captain William Kidd, were roaming the seas
during this period as well. But we're not talking about them,

(07:01):
of course, not. We are talking about the famed women
of the Sea, and the list was bigger than I thought,
so we decided to pick a handful and dig a
bit deeper in their individual stories. So let's get started.
So let's start with Saieda al Hara. Her name translated
to lady who was free and independent. I like that.

(07:22):
Saida was born in five and was a part of
a prominent Muslim family. After fleeing Morocco when Christian invaders
fernand and Isabella conquered her land, she allied herself to
Turkish pirate Barbarossa of Algiers, and she was a very
savvy leader. Improved herself as her husband's vice governor of Tetuan.
After her husband's death um and he was the governor

(07:44):
of Tetuan, she was accepted by the community as the ruler.
She also accepted a marriage proposal by the sultan of
the Moroccan Wattison dynasty and became queen, but it was
said she would not travel to him to be married,
so he had to make his way to her. I
like that too. I believe she did this as a
sign of refusal to give up governing Tetuan. Of course,

(08:08):
this leads up to her being the last pirate Queen.
Her desire for vengeance pushed her to connect with pirate
Barbarossa about jeers Yes, which helped her to acquire a
lot of booty as a pirate herself. But it wasn't
just that she pillaged and plundered, but that she was
well respected as Queen of the Mediterranean and helped organize

(08:29):
and negotiate the release of Christian captives and Spanish and
Portuguese captives. And though she was pretty successful both on
the sea and ruling the Techwan, she was overthrown by
her own son in law in two Not much is
known about her after that time, but some say she
accepted her defeat and retired to chef Shawan until her death.

(08:51):
Right and next we have another queen for our famous pirate,
Queen Tetua of Olivia, who was one of the earliest
recorded women pirates ever. She became Queen region in b
C after the death of her husband agron as Air,
still being an infant, and she continued her rule following
her husband's expansion policy for their kingdom, and to do
this she used her forces to use piracy to dominate

(09:13):
Ilaria's enemies and caused quiet astir from the Roman Empire.
She was known for her fierce stance against any and
all ships, and ordered her crews to treat all ships
as enemy ships so they were not kind. And under
her reign, her pirates dominated the Adriatic Sea, quote terrorizing
the trade route of Greece and Italy. She was able
to attain quite a bit of wealth as well as power. Eventually,

(09:37):
the Romans had to intervene as many tradesmen and voyagers
complaint of the continued siege and said ambassadors for a
diplomatic meeting. This didn't end so well that some of
the ambassadors were killed and several were imprisoned, which ended
up starting a war between Roman Ilaria that lasted from
to nine BC to seven BC. Queen Tetua was eventually

(09:58):
forced to surrender. Of course, again, not much is known
after her surrender, but it is said that she lifts
several decades out. But there's another version of which it
states that she threw herself off the cliffs of Raison
present day Montenegro rather than surrender to the Romans. I
like that version. It just seems really like tragic Roman tragedy, right, tragedy.

(10:21):
It's like a Roman tragedy. Made to happen. Man, come on,
come on, well we have some more very exciting, possibly tragic.
But first we're gonna falls to a quick break for
word from her sponsored and we're back, Thank you sponsor.

(10:50):
And next we're talking about a pirate queen or perhaps chieftain,
but this time from Ireland. Grace O'Malley or I'm going
to attempt Gaelic name here Grona ni moya. I hope
I got something close to what it is. She was
born in County Mayo around elected Chieftain du Dara O'Malley

(11:13):
of Umhall Kingdom. She had grown up on the sea
as her family was a seafaring family. When she was
told she couldn't join her father on his expeditions due
to her long hair, that it would get caught up
in the ropes or something on the ship, she cut
it off and demanded to be allowed to join, and
she was allowed. She eventually married to Donald O'Flaherty, the

(11:36):
heir of another chieftain, and they had three children together.
When her husband was murdered by a rival clan, she
took over her husband's ships and his land, and with
the loyalty of some of her husband's men, she took
to the sea and began her pirating career. Just imagining
that conversation with your parents, like what do you do? Oh,

(11:57):
I'm a pirate? Yeah, I bet. She was a fierce
pirate and was not hesitant in getting revenge and vengeance
against her enemies. That also sounds like a common theme
throughout these stories. Uh, And even immediately after giving birth
to her son, Tibbot, she rallied her crew to fight
against their enemies. Though she had many run ins and

(12:20):
closed calls, including being captured and imprisoned, she always returned
back to the pirate world and even met with Queen
Elizabeth the First who they were at the same age.
The Queen even released her back to quote maintenance by
Land and Sea and allowed her to continue in in
her piracy and released her son who had been captured.

(12:40):
She was also named O'Malley, the Chieftain of Mayo. She
died in the same year as Queen Elizabeth, and her
legacy is still told. Obviously we're talking about it right
now and talk about um. And then we wanted to
move on to Rachel Wall, who isn't American and not
so much royalty, but she was one of the few
female rids from America, and she was born Rachel Schmidt

(13:03):
to her Presbyterian parents in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in seventeen sixty
and she eventually moved to the waterfront around the age
of sixteen because she had fallen in love with the sea. Obviously,
she eventually married a fisherman named George Wall and they
moved and settled down in Boston. But at one point
George leaves her, which she decides that she becomes a
maid to you know, live on her own and take

(13:26):
care of herself. But then he returns and quote entices
her to a life of a bad company. As she wrote,
the couple began their pirating life in seventeen eighty one
when they stole the vessel Essex off the New Hampshire coast.
They disguised the ship to look like it had been
damaged and would wait for passing ships, and when these
ships would come up to rescue them, they would storm
the other ships and rob it. Overall, they are said

(13:48):
to have robbed at least twelve ships and possibly killed
twenty four sailors, so they were pretty fierce. However, that
following year, George drowned in a storm, and Rachel returned
to Boston. There kind of continued her a little bad ways,
I guess, to rob doc ship as well, as she
would get repeatedly arrested for theft. Um. Eventually she was

(14:10):
arrested for highway robbery after stelling a woman's bonnet, and
she was soon tried and convicted of her crimes and
eventually hanged at the age of twenty nine. Also, no,
she was the last woman to be hanged in Boston. Wow. Yeah,
she stole a woman's bonnet. That's how they daught her. Yep.
I mean it's all very tragic and just not what

(14:31):
I was expecting. Um okay, let's be van to one
of the best nicknamed pirates back from the dead Red Excellent, Yes,
I love it excellent. Also known as jacqut Do Lying
Dudly was born in the seventeenth century, a daughter of
a Frenchman and Haitian woman. Her mother died in childbirth

(14:52):
and her father was murdered, which left her to care
for her brother, who was said to have some type
of brain damage and need in extra care. At a
young age, she began her adventure and pirating. She earned
her nickname because it is said that she had to
fake her death to escape the government in the sixteen sixties,
at which time she pretended to be a man for

(15:14):
several years. She came back after the heat died down,
and that's how she got this, this wonderful nick name
back from the dead red of course, red being a
reference to her very noticeable hair color. At twenty six,
she and her crew took over a Caribbean island, naming
it the Free Boodher Republic, and it is here she

(15:36):
would meet her end. While defending the island, she was
involved in a shootout that ended her life. This is
one of those um entries who some argue that she
may just be a legend and actually doesn't exist. But
there are those who argue she had a child who
also became a pirate and a fear swordsman. You know,
mysteries history. As I like to say, Yes, the story

(15:59):
is great, the nicknames wonderful. I love the nickname so much.
That's pretty much why she said here. Yes, we do
have a few more for you listeners, but first we
have one more Kirk greg for word from our sponsor.

(16:26):
An back thank you sponsored, and we're back with our
next pirate Ching She and a quick shout out to
listener Kelly, who brought her to our attention and sent
us a copy of the poem written about her, which
foc We're gonna do a little read for you. So
Chin She was originally know with Sha Zingu, who married
a notorious Chinese pirate Zingi or Chinghai. His fleet called

(16:47):
the Red Fleet, made up of three hundred ships and
head up to possibly forty thou men. Now she Ching
She was a prostitute in a bronthel in Canton, where
she met E and married him in eighteen o one.
After the death of her husband Chin she means by
the way, widow of Ching, so there you go, took
control of the fleet with the help of her husband's
adopted son, Chang Pau, and they continued their rain of power,

(17:08):
growing the fleet, they say, to possibly eighteen thousand vessels
and up to eighty thou crew members. To say the least.
She was a fierce leader who was feared by the British,
the Portuguese and the Ching dynasty, and her crew was
kept under her control. She definitely made sure that they
followed her laws and rules. One of her rules including

(17:28):
death by decapitation, for the rape of female prisoners, or
ears being chopped off if you were caught deserting, So
don't do those. Apparently she had a pretty intensive list
of things to follow, and they sure did. And she
was so powerful she became a huge problem for the
Chinese government as in fact, in order to stop her,
they enlisted the help of the British and Portuguese navies

(17:50):
to capture her. Of course, she, being very savvy negotiator,
was able to wrangle an agreement which she could surrender,
but would only kneel in reference to being married. So
has when you surrender you're supposed to neel in front
of them, whatever whatnot. She decided, I'm not going to
kneel for this. I'll kneel out of respect because you're
gonna marry me to my companion, who was the adopted

(18:10):
son of her dead husband, ching Pal. So she then
was able to get a pretty good deal and retire
with all of her loot and a full pardon. So
she did really good. So she died at the age
of sixty nine in our sleep. But because she was
the reason we wanted to talk about all these pirate
women and adventures we wanted to do a dramatic reading

(18:33):
of a poem that was actually the reference from our listener, Kelly,
thank you, which is the Fragrant Maiden is China's Most Wanted,
which was written in eighteen by Ki Ming Chang. So
if they ever hear this, I'm so sorry if we
butchered it, do our best. So Fragrant Maiden is China's
most wanted, This country's least wanted girls and ghost gods.

(18:56):
I wasn't born. I can't embald out of my mother.
I allowed her breast into boats of China, my country,
my sore, my loyal leash. You aren't the first to
say you want me on my back at the brothel.
I was born most wanted, China's best whore. When the
midwife I sirened, I lamped my bones, and the boys
moth to me said, woman, I've got to have you.

(19:17):
Have you like a river. I have no memory of
being named. I flood anonymous, I rinse canton like my
rice bulb that I am. I bark into a tree.
You can't a country wants to be like a man
wants his mother. A mouth to eat out of, bullet
hold of breast sprays a meadow with milk, grows heads
of cabbage. Clients, brothel mothers, beat me with brooms, with

(19:37):
me with my own braid. I built a sea song.
I sacked my body to steal it back. Listen to
my masked moan as it makes a wind to marry.
I sail home to you. China, here the short shark
with teeth and eat you out to see. I stroked
my sword, I finger comb your beach clean. I split
like the sea. I'm room enough for every man to
drown inside me twice China, say you want me, I'll

(20:00):
come with a fleet to follow you. Oh, oh, yes,
I'm coming. I'm coming. I'm coming for you. So good,
so good. And I really hope we did that justice
because it was a beautiful poem. Yes, and reading it's
a little more difficult. Yes, it's been a long time
since I've dipped into the world of poetry, and I
might be a bit rusty, but yeah, it's an excellent,

(20:24):
excellent poem. We did want to include some honorable mentions
for and Bonnie and Mary read. Any of you who
are familiar with the world of women and pirates, you're
probably like, why didn't they talk about them. It's because
Bridget and I did an episode a while back on
women who dressed as men to get what they wanted,
and we talked about them, and to this day, Ridget

(20:47):
and I asked like, who should play them in in
an HBO adaption And I still will randomly get tweets
about who and Testa Thompson is almost always one of them.
So yes, you can check out that episode for more.
But certainly they had fascinating histories. Also, Sadie the Goat,
who was an American pirate in the nineteenth century. Sadie

(21:07):
Ferrell got her nickname for her infamous style of mocking
people in the streets of New York City by squarely
headbutting them in the stomach like a goat. She and
her crew pillaged up and down the Hudson and Harlem rivers, right,
And just to go back to and Bonnie and Mary
read although you've go back to listen, Yeah, they're both
part of the Calico Jack's crew and they were known

(21:30):
for their impressive fighting skills, out doing some of their
milk counterparts. So they're pretty good. And they also were
not hanged when the rest of the crew were because
they were able to say that they were pregnant, and
so they were able to kind of escape that fate,
although Mary read I do believe ended up dying in
prison nonetheless, but yees, so there you go, extra honorable mentions.

(21:51):
We always got to write we can never stop. Yes,
Thanks so much to Kelly for sending us that problem.
I've been putting this on our radar. It was a
fun one to dig into. And as always, listeners, we
love getting suggestions from you. If you have any idea
of the topics we should cover, or any pirates we missed,

(22:12):
please send them our way our emails, Stuff Media mom
Stuff at iHeart media dot com. You can also find
us on Twitter at mom Stuff podcast or on Instagram
and Stuff I've Never Told You. Thanks. It's always to
a super producer, Christina, Thank you, and thanks to you
for listening Stuff I've Never Told You the production of
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