Born in England in 1682, little else is known about the life of Jack Rackham before 1718. He began his career as bosun to another pirate, Charles Vane , on his ship the Ranger . However, shortly after Vane refused to seize a French ship, the crew deposed him, abandoned him on a desert island, and put Rackham in his place. Despite this, the pirate career would be short, since in 1719 he accepted the Royal pardon of Woodes Rogers , Governor of the Bahamas. Rackham's life so far may be rather dull, lacking that classic pirate romantic adventure, but Rackham, like all famous pirates, had his quirks. First of all, he was known by the nickname Calico for his habit of wearing underwear made of this material. Secondly, because of his flag, although simple, he has become the international symbol of pirates, on a black background two cross swords under a skull facing forward. And, thirdly, Rackham is known to be the only pirate who had two women among his crew.
After availing himself of the royal pardon, Rackham dedicated himself to a quiet life in New Providence, until he met Anne Bonny . This girl, the daughter of an Irish lawyer and the maid of his wife, grew up in South Carolina, where her father, after losing everything on his native island, had managed to recover financially and give his daughter a life away from the poverty. Despite her background, Anne was always hot-headed and hot-tempered, and she yearned for the freedom attributed to pirates, so at sixteen she ran away to marry a sailor, James Bonny , who abandoned her as soon as she learned that her father had disowned her. It was then that she crossed paths with Rackham, and she fell in love with him. Convincing the pirate to return to his life of misdeeds, they assembled a crew and seized a ship. Over the next year, the crew of Calico and Bonny made good catches and made a name for themselves in piracy. It was during this time that, from among the captured ships, a boy joined the crew and immediately struck up a friendship with Anne. Jealous, Jack asked for an explanation of what was happening, and it was then that the young man's identity was revealed to him... it was a woman, whose name was Mary Read .
Calico
Before joining the Calico crew, Mary Read went through all kinds of situations. Much of her childhood was spent disguised as her stepbrother, whose paternal grandparents she and her mother depended on. After their death, and without stopping dressing as a boy, at the age of thirteen he became a servant of a French lady, but that did not last long. Later, she joined a warship, but quickly got tired and joined as a soldier in Flanders where she fell in love and married another soldier... already as a woman. They laid down their arms and took over a tavern in Breda, but luck remained elusive with Mary:her husband died soon after and she had to close the tavern. As a man again, he reenlisted in the infantry and after stumbling around decided to take the trip to the Indies, during which his ship would be captured by Calico.
Mary Read and Anne Bonny
The peculiar trio of pirates that formed Calico, Bonny and Read had some success, something that caught the attention of the colonial authorities who undertook the race to hunt them down. Finally, in October 1720, after a fight in which only Anne and Mary stood up, Rackham's entire crew was captured and hanged, except for the two women who claimed to be pregnant. After that, Mary Read died in prison in 1721 from a fever, while Anne lost track of her -she seems to have returned to her wealthy father who forgave her for her misdeeds-her . Before dying, the last words that Jack heard were those of his lover, also a pirate, Anne Bonny, who was allowed to see the prisoner just before the execution...
Sorry to see you like this, Jack. But if you had fought like a man, now you wouldn't have to be hanged like a dog.
He may not have been the most feared pirate, nor the bravest, even, as his own lover thought, he was a complete coward, but he knew how to become one of the best known for his well-known flag, his peculiar way of dressing and for having the honor of having among the crew the two best-known female pirates in history, Anne Bonny and Mary Read.
Collaboration of Francesc Marí Company