Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbam Here history is most successful and feared pirate
Speaker 1: fleets shared some key attributes. They were well oiled operations
Speaker 1: and enforced strict rules despite the lawlessness of their profession. Crucially,
Speaker 1: a lot of them were helmed by intelligent leaders who
Speaker 1: played politics, exercised diplomacy as needed, and earned the respect
Speaker 1: of their peers. One exceptionally skilled fleet commander terrorized the
Speaker 1: South China Sea in the early nineteenth century. At the
Speaker 1: height of her power, she directed a vast coalition of
Speaker 1: several thousand pirates, the largest pirate crew ever assembled. Then.
Speaker 1: Having made history in spectacular fashion, she retired from piracy
Speaker 1: and lived to a ripe old age. So who was
Speaker 1: this seafaring outlaw. Well. In contemporary English language books and websites,
Speaker 1: she's often called ching Shi, but that wasn't her real name.
Speaker 1: We spoke by email with Diane Murray, a history professor
Speaker 1: her at the University of Notre Dame and authority on
Speaker 1: China's pirate past. She explained that the name ching Chi
Speaker 1: was the invention of an author in the early eighteen
Speaker 1: hundreds who was attempting to translate a Chinese text into English,
Speaker 1: Murray said. The lady pirate in question is most commonly
Speaker 1: referred to in the official Chinese sources simply as Mrs Chang.
Speaker 1: Chang's early life is poorly documented. We do know that
Speaker 1: she worked at a Cantonese brothel before she married a
Speaker 1: man by the name of Change in the year eighteen
Speaker 1: o one or so. She was likely in her twenties
Speaker 1: at the time. Her husband, a notorious pirate, was the
Speaker 1: product of a changing seascape. From seventeen seventy one to
Speaker 1: eighteen o two, Vietnam was embroiled in the Taishan Rebellion,
Speaker 1: a peasant light uprising against the Lay dynasty. Lacking a
Speaker 1: strong naval force, the rebels contracted small time pirates to
Speaker 1: fight and loot on their behalf. In exchange, the plunderers
Speaker 1: received weapons, vessels, and, best of all, safe harbors. Such
Speaker 1: allowances created an environment where organized, large scale piracy could
Speaker 1: flourish even after the rebellion was put down. As of
Speaker 1: eighteen o two, the South China see played host to
Speaker 1: roughly fifty thou pirates. By eighteen o four, the Chang
Speaker 1: husband and wife team had united five numerous fleets into
Speaker 1: one gigantic confederation made up of seventy thousand men and
Speaker 1: four hundred junks, which are large sailing vessels. The coalition
Speaker 1: was broken up into half a dozen semi autonomous squadrons,
Speaker 1: whose leaders were answerable to the Chang's. Each unit bore
Speaker 1: the name of a colored flag. There's a red flag fleet,
Speaker 1: a black flag fleet, and so on. One of the
Speaker 1: sailors in this mighty criminal syndicate was Chang Po, a
Speaker 1: teenager who had been captured by Change. Murray said, after
Speaker 1: recognizing his potential for leadership, Change initiated Chang Po into
Speaker 1: the pirate ranks by means of a homosexual liaison. Soon enough,
Speaker 1: Chang e put the youth in command of his own vessel,
Speaker 1: and even adopted him as his own child. But it
Speaker 1: was Mrs Chang who held the confederation together after change
Speaker 1: abrupt death in November of eighteen o seven. Taking charge
Speaker 1: of the enterprise, she implemented a new code of conduct.
Speaker 1: Under these rules, pirates and her fleets would be executed
Speaker 1: if they stole goods from a communal fund that was
Speaker 1: meant to benefit everyone, or if they raped a captive woman.
Speaker 1: The rules were co authored by Chang Po, who had
Speaker 1: assumed a powerful new role within the outfit. Murray said,
Speaker 1: Mrs Chang realized that she needed a lieutenant to help
Speaker 1: her command the three hundred junks and twenty to forty
Speaker 1: men of what had previously been her husband's red flag fleet.
Speaker 1: Cheang Po took the job, becoming Mrs Cheang's lover and
Speaker 1: later her second spouse. For years, MSUs chengg maintained good
Speaker 1: relationships with the leaders of every fleet in the coalition.
Speaker 1: She ran a tight ship um and oversaw everything for
Speaker 1: monetary transactions to religious ceremonies. On her watch, the pirate
Speaker 1: alliance expanded even further. Of the two hundred and seventy
Speaker 1: government owned ships stationed at Tien Paie, two hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty six fell on or her control. By demanding regular
Speaker 1: patronage from sailing merchants, missus chang sailors profited off of
Speaker 1: Canton's lucrative salt trade. As a matter of fact, the
Speaker 1: Outlaws extracted so much revenue across their domain that missus
Speaker 1: Chang found it necessary to establish a network of land
Speaker 1: based financial offices. Her strategic mind was well suited to warfare.
Speaker 1: Mus Chang's fleets regularly embarrassed to the navies of southern China.
Speaker 1: They grew notries for kidnapping Chinese officials, blockheading rivers, and
Speaker 1: routing just about anyone who opposed their will. But that
Speaker 1: was to change. In eighteen o nine, China's increasingly agitated
Speaker 1: government borrowed well armed vessels from the British East India
Speaker 1: Company and the Portuguese Navy. At the same time, it
Speaker 1: also offered amnesty to pirates who surrendered. Marie explained the
Speaker 1: offer was tempting to the leader of the Black Flag Fleet,
Speaker 1: who then forced a confrontation with the Red Flag Fleet.
Speaker 1: While negotiating with the government, the Black Flag leader turned
Speaker 1: over the captives from that inter squadron battle as a
Speaker 1: gesture of goodwill. Before long, other units were defecting from
Speaker 1: missus Chang's confederation. She could read the writing on the wall.
Speaker 1: Blackbeard and other career pirates who kept plundering until the
Speaker 1: bitter end usually met horrible deaths, whether on the high
Speaker 1: seas or at the gallows. Missus Chang decided to go
Speaker 1: a different route. On April eighth, eighteen ten, after an
Speaker 1: earlier round of peace talks failed, she took a delegation
Speaker 1: of seventeen pirate wives and children to the Governor General's
Speaker 1: office in Canton. Inside Missus Chang Broke heard a favorable
Speaker 1: amnesty deal. Murray said. Cheang Po was allowed to retain
Speaker 1: between twenty to thirty of his vessels for use in
Speaker 1: the salt trade, and received an appointment in the Chinese
Speaker 1: Water Forces. Furthermore, most of the pirates who had served
Speaker 1: under her were granted pardons as well. Cheng Po passed
Speaker 1: away in eighteen twenty two at the age of thirty six.
Speaker 1: He was survived by his wife, who died peacefully in
Speaker 1: eighteen forty four at the age of sixty nine. Today's
Speaker 1: episode was written by barkman Chen and produced by Tyler clayg.
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