- Welcome to Ruining History. Today we're gonna talk a
a lot and learn a little about Anne Bonny, a pirate. - 18 cameras looking at me
and I have an eyepatch on, so let's do it. (exciting orchestral music) - I didn't actually have a
pirate hat that fit my head. Normally I'd dress up with you guys, but I don't think any of them fit. - Shocker Big head. - I do have this wonderful
earring that I'll put on. - Ooh.
- Ooh. Accessorize. - Is that elegant? Do I look intimidating? - Ooh.
- You do! - Alright, without further ado. (cheerful music) Anne Bonny was born Anne
Cormac in Cork, Ireland around the year 1698 to William Cormac and Mary Brennan, his maid. This was not welcome news
to William Cormac's wife, who was not Mary Brennan. After his wife's very
understandable departure, William and Mary lived together and
raised their daughter together. To avoid scandal, however,
the story goes that William dressed Anne as a boy,
telling neighbors and clients that she belonged to one of his relatives, and that he was training
the boy to be a clerk. I don't know why you'd dress
your daughter up as a boy. - But what was the point of changing-- - That's what I don't understand. - I'm confused.
- Yeah I don't get that. - I don't know why if you're
saying, already you're lying about, "Oh yeah,
it's my relative's kid." Why it can't just be a girl. - Maybe she was like Arya Stark. I don't know. - Weird. - [Shane] It wasn't long
before the truth came out. Now there aren't many details
about this whole affair, other than that William's
business suffered, and the three of them packed their bags and headed for South
Carolina, the Palmetto State. Or I guess the state where
you go when everybody in your little Irish town finds out
you've got a scandal baby. - I can't take you seriously
with the earring, I'm sorry. (laughs) - It's not going anywhere. This is my identity now. - It's cute though, it's cute
- Yeah. - In the next season of Unsolved, I'll have this every
time we go ghost hunting. - I think I'm gonna get used to it though. - I'm gonna go ahead and ditch
this when it comes back-- (laughing) - It's prolly for the best. - You don't like this little tiny hat? - It's hard for me to see. (laughs) - Jumping ahead a bit
now, in the year 1711, William and Anne lost
Mary to typhoid fever. Anne was only 13 at the time, and the death of her mother
seemingly hit her very hard. In the following years, she
became known for her quote: Take, for instance, this anecdote relayed by author Frank Stockton, quote: - Sometimes you gotta stab people then. - Yeah, what?
- I don't know (laughs) - So, - "Some impertinence," that
just sounds like the lady annoyed here and she was like,
"Well I'll tell you what." - I mean it depends
what she did, you know. - She brought lime wedges
instead of lemon wedges. - And that's unacceptable, it's not acceptable
- That's not acceptable. - Whatever the true depths of here temper, it was enough for her father to try to calm her down by finding
her a good husband. Obviously that didn't work. In 1718, to her father's
dismay, Anne eloped with a penniless sailor named John Bonny. - How do you think he pitched
her to perspective husbands? "My daughter, she's
beautiful, she's great. "She only stabbed one person." (laughs) - She went with the penniless. - He ain't got no cash
- I love that description. He ain't got nothing. - He got nothing. - That's ride or die. - And she put a ring on it. I respect her. - There are guys that
are like, I don't know if they have anything to
offer, but they're cute. You know? - You ain't gotta say nothing. - It's okay, ruin my life. - Just look at me.
- Ruin my life, please. - Just look at me.
- Thank you. - Especially if he's out
there, I don't know what sailors do, but he's probly
like pulling ropes and stuff. - He prolly got a back.
- Mmm. - Oh he's got a back alright - He's like one of those Hemsworth boys. - Yeah he probly looks like a Hemsworth. - Not the short one.
- Not the little mini one. - The two tall ones.
- The two ones, yeah. - Big, big ones. - The good ones, not the ones
that they made by accident. - That's horrible. (laughs) - Her father disowned her,
and the newlyweds set sail for New Providence in the Bahamas. This was not a honeymoon, however. The happy couple were headed
right into a pirate hotspot. Can you imagine just gettin hitched and then your husband tells you, "We're goin to a pirate hotspot." - She was prolly like, "Hell
yeah let's go, squally squoop." - What'd you say? - It's like, "Squally squoop." - This is actually happening, right? I'm not just loopy? (laughs) - This was right around the tail end of the Golden Age of Piracy,
which lasted from roughly 1650 to 1720, when the
world was introduced to such notable rogues as
Blackbeard and Captain Kidd. - Captain Kidd, was he
a five year old boy? - Captain Kidd was not Frankie Muniz (laughs) There's two Ds on that. His name was Kidd. - Does anybody here actually
know who Captain Kidd is? - Captain Kidd is a famous pirate. - I have heard of him.
- Oh, what about Davy Jones? Is he a famous pirate? - Yeah I think he is
- Is he real? Or is he fictional?
- He's real? - I think Davy Jones is real. He's not a squid man, or an octopus man. - They never are, am I right? - The Caribbean, in particular was especially popular for pirates. It was a common trade route, and the ships traversing it would often be stocked with gold, silver,
and tobacco, hell yeah. Just kidding, don't smoke, come on. And the many islands in the
region made it easier for pirates to camp out or play
hide & seek when being pursued. - Pitch. Business proposition. Let's start a hotel resort
thing, where you are a pirate-- - Like Westworld but with pirates. - Oh.
- Yes. - So it's like Carnival
Cruise, but with pirates. - It's like Carnival Cruise but cleaner. (laughs) - [Selorm] Literally - Got you big cruise. Now, to be clear, Anne's new
husband was not a pirate. Quite the opposite in fact. John Bonny was working
for Governor Woods Rogers, a guy who was named Woods, weird. He was on the warpath to rid the Bahamas of its pirate infestation. To put it in perspective,
at the beginning of the Golden Age of Piracy,
around the year 1670, the Royal Navy was represented by
two ships in the Caribbean. By 1718, that number has increased to 124. It was a bonified pirate crackdown. In the governor's employ,
John Bonny was essentially a professional snitch, collecting
bounties on pirates' heads. Wow, we're all so impressed John Bonny. - Get that cash however
you need to get that cash. - Also, it's like pirates are
raping, they're pillaging, they're doing all sorts
of burning, it's like... As cool as pirates are in
theory, they kinda suck. - Yeah, they're kinda not
great for the community. - Nah. - [Shane] But while John
was out snitching, Anne was spending her hours at the local
saloons, getting acquainted with the kind of people her
husband was actively pursuing. Quote: Burn. - It sounds like she had a
Luke Skywalker and then met some Han Solos, and she was
like, "Well, hello there." - Very good comparison. - I don't blame her, I mean, he's not taking her on any adventures. - Yeah it sounds like he's just leaving her at the saloon all day. - Is there something to be said about the bad boy complex, perhaps? - Oh for sure. - Yeah, I mean pirates
are bad boys, they probly wear eyeliner, another
way to piss off my dad. - Yeah. It was at one of these
saloons that Anne would meet Captain Jack Rackem, aka Calico Jack. - That's a name, that's a name.
- That's a name. - He's probly got a cute little calico cat that he takes with him-- - Nope, that's, nope. Noted for his colorful attire, Jack was considered quote: - There we go. - Mama yes - Bad boy with a pretty face
- She is upgrading, She upgraded! - I'm just imagining the
romance novel cover already - Yes! - Standing on a rock and the
ocean is crashing around them. - He's got the technicolor dreamcoat on. - Yeah! - [Shane] It seems he
took a shine to Anne, because shortly after
meeting her, Jack reportedly offered to pay John Bonny
to divorce the young lady. John refused, obviously,
but he basically just screwed himself out of
a nice payout because Jack and Anne just packed their
bags and left him forever. So, Anne was a pirate now. She's a pirate. It's pirate time! You feel bad for John Bonny? - He was penniless, he
was trying to work hard for his woman, and she just left him. - Clearly it wasn't about the money, because he'd been offered
money and he refused, so there was some genuine love there. - That's great, but he shoulda known what he signed up for when he married her. - You're surprised she didn't stab him? - If she wanted to get
out of the marriage, she could've just, and been
done with the carving knife. - That's true. Maybe she had a little
soft spot for him, too. - Pretty nice of her not to stab him. - [Shane] You might wonder, what's the actual appeal
of being a pirate? What's in it for me? Parrots? Booty? Ocean friends? Well, the reality of the
lifestyle is a bit more grim. Maritime historian David Cordingly writes that if accounts from the era
are to be believed, quote: They were very thorough. The thought of mosquitoes
never occurred to me. - Yeah. - But that bums me out. - I like to read about
pirates, I like to watch them, I would never wanna be one
or hang around a pirate. I think I would last maybe 10 seconds before I was stabbed in the heart. - Oh yeah, for sure. There is no argument about that. They'd probably grab my
head and put it in a cannon. - Did they really put people in cannons? - I don't think so. - They'd have to put Shane
feet first cause they couldn't fit that big ol' noggin in,
you know what I'm sayin? (laughs) - He has a plus-sized
head, it's not his fault. - [Shane] Other historians argue that life as a pirate was
considerably less thrilling. Write Karen Abbot argues
that in between raids, they were likely faced with a
considerable amount of downtime, and they probably Even so, it seems to have
been an appealing gig for a certain slice of the population. Colin Woodard, author of
The Republic of Pirates, notes that at the time, about
half of England's population was desperately poor, leading many to seek employment on
naval or merchant ships. Once on board, the men were often subjected to brutal discipline. Essayist Samuel Johnson said that living aboard a ship was much like, quote: You can understand then, why someone with seafaring experience might wander down the dock and take
up with a pirate crew. Woodard points out that many pirates were much more egalitarian,
voting their captains in and out and splitting
their loot more generously. According to Woodard, a
pirate captain might take a share and a half or two shares for each ordinary seaman's share,
whereas on a merchant vessel, or a regular privateering vessel, the captain could take
14 or 15 shares to one. The life of a pirate, however corrupt, essentially offered fairer
pay and a sense of democracy at a time when people were
living under a monarchy. - There was no such thing as mutiny, cause you could just vote... - Yeah
- You vote people off. - It was like democracy. - Hmm, very nice. - Did they murder and steal? Sure, but they did it as a family, right? They split it up. - It's kinda sweet - I think if I was born in this time, I'd just walk into the sea. (laughs) - You'd just give up? - I'd just opt out. Well it's either I could be
decent and have a terrible life, or I could be an asshole
and have a decent life. - I'd be a pirate, but I
would just be secretly nice. - Before you stab someone be like, "I'm really sorry about this." - "I'm really sorry! "I'll come to your funeral." - [Shane] Piracy seems to have
been a natural fit for Anne. After a brief pit stop in Cuba to give birth to Calico Jack's child-- - Did she leave it there? - I think she left the child in Cuba. It does not say what
she did with the child. - A pirate ship is no
place for a child, so - Oh, that is true.
- I can't blame her. - At the same time, maybe raise your child and don't be a pirate. After a brief pit stop in Cuba to give birth to Calico
Jack's child, sure, Anne and Jack stole a ship from John "Catch Him if You
Can" Ham in August of 1720. - John "Catch Him if You Can" Ham? - Jon Hamm? - Not the star of Mad Men. - I'm gonna picture Jon Hamm. - These names though! - I think everyone has to have
a pirate name for themselves. - Let's go around, give
our fiercest pirate name. - Starbird Sara - Barnacles Buckshaw - He's really getting
into character, I love it. - Captain That Bitch. - Yeah - Simone the Siren Slayer - I'll be Bloodhead. Bloodhead is good. Imagine me just blood,
just blood on my face. - What if you were Big Noggin Ned? - Long Limbs Larry. - Seashell Shane. - Seashell Shane? - Say his name wrong and
it'll be your last words. - Alright, I'll take that. - We could do this for hours. - [Shane] The ship was a
sloop called The William. She had six guns and she was fast. When I say she, I'm referring to the ship, even though it's called the William, cause that, it's just
ocean law or something. I don't know. For Anne to be on a pirate crew, for a woman to be a pirate
at all, was quite rare. It turns out pirates were
a superstitious bunch. For instance, bananas, redheads, and haircuts were all considered bad luck. And if you cracked an egg aboard a ship, the shell had to be broken into
small bits for fear (laughs) of attracting witches. - Can you imagine being on
a pirate ship, some guy's sitting down, sitting
there with an eggshell, breakin it into small pieces,
"What are ya doin, Larry?" - "Break up that egg, we
don't want witches here." "Many have fallen for the
old siren song of a witch." - Oh that's good, you're
really getting into this. - You're doing really well at this. - Also that earring is really-- - [Joyce] I'm lovin it, - Thank you. - Still think it looks quite dumb. But, you know. - [Shane] But the one most
pertaining to Anne was the pirate superstition that having
a woman aboard was bad luck. Their kooky pirate logic
being that if the men aboard were distracted by a woman,
it would anger the sea. - I love the notion like if
a big storm hits and waves are crashing on the boat,
they look over at Anne like, "See? Thanks a lot! Thanks a lot Anne!" - [Shane] It's actually
said that Blackbeard put a lot of stock into this
superstition, and that if one of his pirates captured
a woman, the unlucky lady was ordered to be killed
and thrown into the sea, promptly followed by the
crewman who brought her aboard. It seems that Anne found an effective way to circumvent these old
superstitions though. One account says that when a
crewmate raised an objection to her presence on the boat, she responded by stabbing him in the heart
and throwing him into the sea. The crew seemed to be
cool with her after that. - That's our girl!
- Oh my god! - Back to stabbin. - She was like, "Bot, bot." - [Shane] Regardless of
her crew's acceptance of her womanhood, Anne chose
to disguise herself as a man, specifically when
plundering and pillaging. Why? I don't know. Maybe to appear more menacing to her foes. Maybe to mask her identity if her crimes ever caught up with her. Female pirates clearly were rare, but not in this social circle. Even before commandeering The William, another woman joined their crew. This woman's name: Mary Read. She would carve out her own reputation. There's actually been
speculation that Anne and Mary were romantically involved,
but details are scant. Whether it's true or not,
their potential kinship isn't hard to fathom. Much like Anne, Mary had led
a difficult and winding life. But unlike Anne, Mary
chose to keep her gender a secret to most, masquerading as a man not just in battle, but around the clock. - Whether they were
romantically involved or not, they probably were close
because they're like, "Oh these fuckin dudes don't shower." - They don't shower. - [Sara] "They leave
their hooks everywhere." - They don't like bananas. - They don't eat bananas. Who doesn't eat bananas? - They crack eggshells and
leave that shit on the floor. - They were so concerned about witches. Once out to sea, Anne quickly proved both treacherous and clever. Upon encountering a French vessel, she dismembered a mannequin,
slathered it in red paint, and stood imposingly over it with an ax. The merchant ship immediately surrendered, and a legendary pirate was born. - Why do they have a mannequin,
to display their clothes? - There are no women on the thing, so... - I was bout to say, sounds
like an orgy type of thing. - [Shane] In the following
months, Anne Bonny, Mary Read, Calico Jack,
and the crew of The William would reveal to the world
their knack for marauding. In the span of a month,
they'd capture nine ships and amass a decent pile of loot,
including 50 rolls of tobacco. Hell yeah, smoking's bad. The crew likely pulled off
these raids with style. Author Collin Woodard points out that, As brutal as some pirates were, many of them would simply cultivate quote: In an effort to scare the
hell out of their victims. Blackbeard, Woodard
points out, had a, quote: And would tie lit fuses to his
beard when entering battle, resulting in a, quote: - Now that is cool as shit. - That's creative. - That's how I wanna come
into work every single day. (laughs) - That's a Beyonce entrance right there. - That's a Beyonce entrance.
- Yeah. - That's the coolest thing I've probably ever heard in my entire life. - It's pretty badass, it's a lot of work. - It is. - Like imagine him sittin like, "I gotta get my fuses ready." - "Oh, these are always such a pain." - "Gonna make me look so scary though." - Click, click, "Alright, I'm ready." - [Shane] The crew of The
William was a little less dramatic, but were known to
brandish pistols and machetes, and Anne Bonny and Mary
Read didn't take a back seat when it was time to turn
up the intimidation. One of their victims,
Thomas Dillon, testified that he'd seen Anne
and Mary dressed as men wearing handkerchiefs on their heads, and that they, quote: So, they swore a lot. - Kind of hard to follow fuses
coming out of your beard. - Gimme that fuckin tobacco. (laughs) Is that scary? - No - I feel like Blackbeard was probably the all-star when it came to theatrics. - I feel like they were all theater kids who couldn't make it, and they're like, "Well I guess we'll become pirates now, "but that doesn't mean we
can't not be creative, guys!" - [Shane] Anne's career as
pirate queen of the high seas was relatively short. And beyond the tallies
of their captured ships, we don't actually have
many accounts of her brief reign of terror, but if
tales are to be believed, we do have an inkling of
how here pillaging spree came to an end, and it is spectacular. (intense music) After earning a pretty
respectable reputation for their plundering around the Caribbean, The William and its crew
started to pick up some heat. It wasn't long before they earned the ire of Governor Woods Rogers,
who was still eager to rid the region of pirate scum. And it was Rogers who
would task one of his men, Captain Johnathan Barnett,
with tracking down The William and her pesky crew. - I feel like this
brings on a lot of jobs. You got the snitch, pirate snitch, you got pirates, and then
you got pirate hunters. - So this is a thriving
industry, you're saying. - The economy is booming. - [Shane] Barnett would succeed
in the last months of 1720, coming upon The William
near Negril Point, Jamaica. The pirate hunter ordered
the crew to surrender, and Calico Jack responded in kind with shot from his ship's swivel gun. Realizing his crew was outnumbered, this was shaping up to be the last stand for Calico Jack and the
crew of The William. Considering the high stakes,
it's very unfortunate that the majority of Calico Jack's
men were too drunk to fight. And not just tipsy, most
were described as being blackout drunk, tucked
away in the ship's hold. (laughs) - No! - Classic pirate. - Just to be a pirate
and having a good night with your pals, drinking some rum. You slip out of consciousness and then you wake up in prison somewhere. - Or you're just dead. - [Shane] It looked like it was up to Anne and Mary to fend off the attackers. Quote: Even when Jack called for
his crew to surrender, the two pirate women continued to fight. Mary Read allegedly shouted
down into the ship's hold: And when their calls to
action were unheeded, Anne and Mary, quote: According to Stockton. Clearly a little upset
with their co-pirates. - They're fighting and those
motherfuckers are asleep. - Yeah, completely fair. - But in the midst of
fighting other people, they're like, "Lemme kill my
own people cause I'm so mad." - Sometimes you gotta
inspire the rest of the crew. - It's like when your Mom's trying to get you out of bed to go to school. - Wait, what?
- What? - Your mom just kicked
open the door and said, "If there's a man among ye..." (laughs) - "Get up or I'll shoot ya." - [Shane] Though they fought
tooth and nail without the help of their crew, Anne and
Mary were eventually arrested. They were brought to trial
in Spanishtown, Jamaica. The male members of the
crew were quickly convicted and sentenced to hang for their crimes. But before his hanging,
it's said that Anne shared some parting words with
Calico Jack, telling him: - Oh snap!
- Oh shit. - Woo!
- That is my girl! That's my girl.
- Dang! She was like, "I'm really sorry
that you're about to hang, "but I think it's funny how
when we were sposed to fight, "you weren't there ready to fight." - Exactly! - "When I was trying to help you." She was really coming for him! - "You was weak, and I fought, "that's why your ass is crash." - I've never wanted a
tattoo before this moment. - So when a guy's playing me,
I'mma send him that quote. Cause if he would've fought like a man, he wouldn't get hanged like
a motherfuckin dog, wow. - It's good. - Wow, I just went to church
for five seconds, I'm sorry. - [Shane] The trial of Anne
and Mary soon followed, and they would plead not guilty. But the women were found
guilty and sentenced to death. However, before the execution
could be carried out, it was discovered that
they were both pregnant, resulting in both of them
receiving a stay of execution. - You think the pregnancy
situation was contrived, like this was a contingency plan? - Oh, always.
- That's weird that they were both Pregnant. - At the same time, that's three-way talk. - I don't know if it
was planned so much as there's probably a million percent chance that they were just getting
busy out on the ocean. - I wanna believe they planned it, cause I think women plan everything. - [Shane] Mary's luck would
soon run out anyway, as she died of a fever while in
prison in the year 1721. Anne, on the other hand,
was allegedly later released from prison, possibly because
of her father's standing. By one account, she moved back to Charleston, South
Carolina and remarried. She'd give birth to eight more children and pass away in the year
1782, around the age of 84, an unusually quiet death for a pirate. - She went through all
that, and then she was like, "Um, but wait, my daddy's rich, so." - Then she gets out, has eight children, in addition to the one I guess-- - The two!
- The two. - Oh shit, you're right. - She had 10 kids. 10 kids. - That's a full life. - And lived to 84, which is probably-- - 84, like 3,000 back then. - Yeah, I would guess that life expectancy of a lady at that point
might've been, what? 50?
- 40? - She probly started eating fruit. - She is the true icon. Not only did she lie,
cheat, steal, and kill, she had a happy ending. - [Shane] And that's
the story of Anne Bonny. A cool lady, as far as I'm concerned. I mean, sure, a criminal, whatever. Oh you've never stabbed a guy in the heart and pushed
him into the ocean? Grow up. That's been Ruining History. Thanks for learning with us. (dramatic music)
