Speaker 1: This episode features stories about sex work that may be
Speaker 1: a bit too grown up for some of our younger listeners.
Speaker 1: Discretion is advised. The larger boats floating in the harbor
Speaker 1: had upper decks and more rooms to accommodate the clientele.
Speaker 1: Each boat was painted in bright shades of yellow, red, green,
Speaker 1: and blue. Equally vibrant silk flags danced in the wind.
Speaker 1: Prisms of every color adorned the rose tinted glass lantern
Speaker 1: shades aboard, two string fiddles played while women dressed in
Speaker 1: embroidered robes sang. The sing sing girlies, as many called them,
Speaker 1: sang of love and war and beckoned the men to
Speaker 1: join them in the early evening light. Some said these
Speaker 1: boats were the most beautiful in all the world. Merchant, military,
Speaker 1: and even pirate ships pulled into the harbor, drawn by
Speaker 1: women and their songs. Men who worked in the factories
Speaker 1: along the harbor often lined up to board the small boats.
Speaker 1: Diplomats and other high ranking of a shoals sought out
Speaker 1: the larger and more expensive ones. While some called them
Speaker 1: flower boats, others refer to them simply as pleasure boats
Speaker 1: or more bluntly floating brothels. Parents who cannot afford to feed.
Speaker 1: Their families sometimes sold their daughters to the boat owners,
Speaker 1: who promised to feed and clothe them and give them
Speaker 1: a place to sleep. The girls, who could be as
Speaker 1: young as thirteen, began work around five or six in
Speaker 1: the evening, continuing until the early morning hours. The more
Speaker 1: prominent boats catering to the affluent men, served food and drink.
Speaker 1: Their owners provided enough girls to fulfill every man's desire,
Speaker 1: from a dinner companion and discussion partner, to singing and
Speaker 1: dancing and sex. If the girls didn't contract syphilis, for
Speaker 1: which there was no cure, they hoped to attract a
Speaker 1: wealthy man who might keep her as his mistress. Otherwise,
Speaker 1: once they grew older, the brothel owners discarded them, leaving
Speaker 1: them with little money. In a world where men dominated
Speaker 1: the workforce, Canton flower boats served only Chinese men, Western men,
Speaker 1: and of or foreigners were sent to the lower class
Speaker 1: brothels at Wampoa, often run by the poorest families. These
Speaker 1: women shared similar stories with others around the world. Without
Speaker 1: equal rights and pay, women had little opportunity if they
Speaker 1: were born into poverty or a lower class. For the
Speaker 1: poorest women in Canton, they could work sixteen hour days
Speaker 1: and factories for pay that wouldn't be enough for food
Speaker 1: or rent, or they could find work in a brothel.
Speaker 1: During the Golden Age of pirates, research suggests that one
Speaker 1: in five women living in ports and harbor towns were
Speaker 1: sex workers. Both pirates and sailors alike frequently emptied their
Speaker 1: pockets to spend time with them. Others were said to
Speaker 1: pay five hundred pieces of eight just to see them naked.
Speaker 1: A woman's ability to earn a living relied heavily on
Speaker 1: her youth and her looks. As they aged, any chance
Speaker 1: of a better future grew dimmer by the year. But
Speaker 1: in China, one sing sing girl set her sights on
Speaker 1: a better future, and as will soon discover, her light
Speaker 1: shone brighter than all the lance earns in the harbor.
Speaker 1: I'm Aaron Manky and welcome two pirates. In seventy eight,
Speaker 1: Jingshi's family needed to supplement their income, which meant forcing
Speaker 1: their thirteen year old daughter to become a sex worker
Speaker 1: on a Cantonese flower boat. Within a few years, her
Speaker 1: beauty had made her highly popular with the more elite customers,
Speaker 1: and by eighteen o one she had worked her way
Speaker 1: up to Madam Although no longer one of the regular girls,
Speaker 1: Chinghi still kept an eye out for a better opportunity,
Speaker 1: and in eighteen o one, that opportunity sailed into harbor
Speaker 1: flying a pirate flag. Jang yees fleet of ships each
Speaker 1: flew a red flag, making them stand out among other
Speaker 1: pirate ships. While black flags were the common calling card
Speaker 1: for pirates, red flags were worse. In pirates and maritime lingo.
Speaker 1: Red flags meant that the captain and crew would not
Speaker 1: negotiate nor offer mercy or pity to targeted ships. Jang
Speaker 1: Ye's fleet was sizeable, over two hundred ships in fact,
Speaker 1: although his power extended well beyond that. He commanded upwards
Speaker 1: of forty thousand men across six hundred ships, and while
Speaker 1: he controlled the red fleets, he entrusted other pirate captains
Speaker 1: with the white, green, yellow, blue, and black fleets. Jang
Speaker 1: Yee had not only built a formidable armada, but he
Speaker 1: also had created and ruled an entire pirate confederacy. The
Speaker 1: colored flags also announced to his captains that ships flying
Speaker 1: certain colors belonged to the confederation and should not be attacked. Instead,
Speaker 1: his fleet sought out merchant ships for their silk, gold
Speaker 1: spices and other cargo. The pirates also ran a protection racket.
Speaker 1: Any village that didn't pay protection money found itself targeted
Speaker 1: for a raid. Pirating had been the only life jang
Speaker 1: Yi knew. His father had been a pirate, as well
Speaker 1: as the men before him. Most of his fleet consisted
Speaker 1: of large cargo ships otherwise called junk. Each eighty footship
Speaker 1: was capable of carrying approximately eight hundred pounds of cargo
Speaker 1: and housed about forty cannons. Jang Ye had become one of,
Speaker 1: if not the most powerful pirate to sail the South
Speaker 1: China Sea. Then he was about to meet the one
Speaker 1: person who would take the pirate confederacy to an even
Speaker 1: higher level. It said that when jang Yi visited the
Speaker 1: flower boat, Ching Shi worked on her beauty and spirit
Speaker 1: captivated him, But it was her reputation as a shrewd
Speaker 1: businesswoman that might have intrigued him the most. Word of
Speaker 1: her financial prowess had traveled far and wide, as did
Speaker 1: her giles in wielding power over influential men. The pirate
Speaker 1: king was so enchanted with ching Shi that he proposed
Speaker 1: to her. Right then she would accept, she told him,
Speaker 1: but only if he gave her fifty percent of his
Speaker 1: finances and partial control over his entire fleet. It was
Speaker 1: a bold move, and one Jang Yee might have walked
Speaker 1: away from fact in legend blur here and historians have
Speaker 1: debated over two different outcomes. One is that he ordered
Speaker 1: his men to kidnap her, and the other is that
Speaker 1: he agreed to her terms. Either way, the outcome remained
Speaker 1: the same. Ching she got what she asked for. If
Speaker 1: Jang thought his new bride had spirit, though he wouldn't
Speaker 1: be disappointed. She worked alongside him growing his empire. She
Speaker 1: instituted codes acts of loyalty were revered above all else
Speaker 1: and highly rewarded. If her husband went to see she
Speaker 1: went with him. She learned everything he knew about steering
Speaker 1: a ship and managing a crew. When it came to
Speaker 1: women aboard the ship, Chinghi didn't subscribe to many pirate
Speaker 1: and sailor superstitions that women were bad luck. However, she
Speaker 1: did implement a code of conduct that she expected the
Speaker 1: men to follow whenever they had attractive female hostages on board.
Speaker 1: Men were castrated or hanged for committing sexual assault. Chances
Speaker 1: are that Ching she survived horrors in her own time
Speaker 1: working on the flower boats, which would explain her insistence
Speaker 1: for punishing crew who committed violence against women on board.
Speaker 1: Other rules were broader and assured complete compliance among crew.
Speaker 1: Any crew member who refused to follow an order faced
Speaker 1: immediate execution. Bounties had to be shared. Anyone hiding treasure
Speaker 1: for themselves risked losing an appendage. Rule breakers were flogged,
Speaker 1: kept in irons, chastised, or even quartered, depending on the
Speaker 1: severity of the transgression. But while her rules and codes
Speaker 1: were strictly enforced, she made other kinder changes as well.
Speaker 1: Changes that one over not only Jane Yie and his crew,
Speaker 1: but many others as well. As I said before, while
Speaker 1: rule breakers suffered her wrath, ching Chi made sure to
Speaker 1: treat and reward the most loyal men exceptionally well, setting
Speaker 1: an example for all the others. Before long, she grew
Speaker 1: her husband's confederacy to over eight hundred ships and nearly
Speaker 1: sixty thousand pirates. Many of those men had come from
Speaker 1: Vietnam hoping for a better life. Soon the pirate couple
Speaker 1: had created the largest and the most formidable pirate fleets
Speaker 1: in the world. However, not all was well. You see,
Speaker 1: the couple had failed to conceive an heir to their
Speaker 1: pirate kingdom together, though they found a solution. A twenty
Speaker 1: year old captain aboard one of the Red Fleet ships
Speaker 1: had proved himself worthy and loyal. Chung Po denounced his
Speaker 1: own family and joined jiang Yees, making him second in command.
Speaker 1: The adoption raised questions among the crew. Chung Po was
Speaker 1: a full grown man, after all, not a child Ching.
Speaker 1: She was clever, though, and the move proved more of
Speaker 1: a strategy than anything remotely maternal. Without a male heir,
Speaker 1: jing Ye couldn't pass along his power and wealth should
Speaker 1: he die, and as a woman, that would leave her
Speaker 1: in a tenuous position. But threats to their dynasty came
Speaker 1: from outside forces as well. Governments from around the globe
Speaker 1: set out to destabilize their fleet. Portugal, England, even armies
Speaker 1: in China saw the ever growing pirate confederacies rising power
Speaker 1: and vowed to break it. Despite government attempts, though the
Speaker 1: Can Federacy continued to remain untouched until one day in
Speaker 1: eighteen o seven. That's when Jing Ye went on a
Speaker 1: hunting trip off the coast of Vietnam and left his
Speaker 1: wife and newly adopted son in charge. It said that
Speaker 1: a terrible storm swept him off the deck and out
Speaker 1: to sea. Suddenly, Ching Shi was a widow. Now normally,
Speaker 1: male heirs took over and the widow was expected to
Speaker 1: retire from the public eye, but ching She had planned
Speaker 1: well and she was far from retirement. Jing Ye had
Speaker 1: a living nephew, you see, and a few male cousins
Speaker 1: who all made it clear that they wanted to control
Speaker 1: the Red Fleet. Other members within their confederacy also vide
Speaker 1: for power. All challenged Chung Po's place, but Chinghi had
Speaker 1: no intentions of handing the fleet over, either to relatives
Speaker 1: or traitorous upstarts. Her lieutenants and Chung Po supported her
Speaker 1: bid for power, securing five of the six fleets. But
Speaker 1: to solidify the Red Fleet's allegiance, she needed a different
Speaker 1: relationship with the new patriarch and former second in man,
Speaker 1: Chong Po. The best way to do that, she decided,
Speaker 1: was to marry him. Within a couple of weeks after
Speaker 1: her husband's death, the two were wed. Their union asserted
Speaker 1: the couple's combined power within the confederacy and one loyalty
Speaker 1: from her dead husband's relatives. Ching Shi had the captains
Speaker 1: who had sought to overthrow them captured to demonstrate what
Speaker 1: happened to traders or anyone who might attempt another coup,
Speaker 1: she had the men publicly executed. To keep tight control,
Speaker 1: she created a new rule. All business transactions had to
Speaker 1: be approved through her. This tactic kept her in charge
Speaker 1: of all the finances and therefore kept the ultimate power
Speaker 1: in her hands alone. The fleets continued to grow and thrive,
Speaker 1: and by eighteen o eight, the Red Fleet attempted to
Speaker 1: dominate the provincial salt trade. According to the legend, the
Speaker 1: Red Fleet knew of every ship that sailed in the
Speaker 1: South China Sea. Ships passing through that escaped attack could
Speaker 1: count their blessings, but no ship passed without paying attacks.
Speaker 1: Every move, every attack went through chain. She She insisted
Speaker 1: that all bounties were inspected. The fleet's bookkeeper, who reported
Speaker 1: directly to her, entered every item into the ledger. The
Speaker 1: fleet's island fortress made launching attacks easy. The assault on
Speaker 1: passing ships continued, even on Chinese government vessels. Eventually, the
Speaker 1: government controlled just four of their original fleet of two
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy ships, and all those ships carrying salt
Speaker 1: paid the fleet taxes in order to transport their cargo,
Speaker 1: but salt wouldn't be the only resource. Text The Red
Speaker 1: Fleet charged fishing vessels anywhere from fifty to five hundred
Speaker 1: Spanish silver dollars for every trip they made. China might
Speaker 1: have had an emperor, but ching She ruled the South
Speaker 1: China Sea, and her power continued to soar. To all
Speaker 1: who came across them, the Red Fleet seemed unstoppable. Before long,
Speaker 1: the pirates had set up tag offices in major ports
Speaker 1: cities run by agents. Ching Shi kept on friendly terms.
Speaker 1: As a brilliant strategist, she coordinated every attack, going over
Speaker 1: the smallest of details to ensure success. Aside from merchant vessels,
Speaker 1: garrisons became her favorite target. Her men would simply overpower
Speaker 1: the military base and take what they needed whenever they wanted.
Speaker 1: In September of eighteen o nine, Chingshi's men captured an
Speaker 1: East India Company employee. Later, after his release in December,
Speaker 1: he would report that the pirate queen commanded over eighty
Speaker 1: thousand men. Chinghi and the Red Fleet made trade and
Speaker 1: safe passage for merchant ships nearly impossible. China's emperor could
Speaker 1: no longer ignore such a threat. Mostly though, the idea
Speaker 1: that a woman with so much power was out there
Speaker 1: just infuriated him. The land, see people, and resources should
Speaker 1: belong to him. At first, he offered amnesty to the pirates,
Speaker 1: hoping to break their loyalty to Ching Shi. While that
Speaker 1: might have made a dent, the offer alone wouldn't be enough.
Speaker 1: The Emperor discovered that the pirates had severely strained relations
Speaker 1: between China and other countries. Officials in Canton entered into
Speaker 1: international negotiations, finally accepting help from the British and the
Speaker 1: Portuguese in September of eighteen o nine. They asked the
Speaker 1: British to rescue a few ships coming from Siam carrying
Speaker 1: valuable tribute, and the British agreed. On September fifteenth, the
Speaker 1: Mercury set sail with twenty cannons and fifty volunteers. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: the Chinese government signed a lease for Portuguese man of
Speaker 1: warships to sail with the Cantonese navy. When it finally happened,
Speaker 1: the attack on the Red Fleet was brutal and swift.
Speaker 1: Although the pirates had beaten the Portuguese back twice before
Speaker 1: this time, they arrived with ships and weapons far superior
Speaker 1: to the Red Fleet. Unable to respond with the same force.
Speaker 1: Chingshi understood her time of reign had come to an
Speaker 1: end as she watched the Portuguese destroy one of her
Speaker 1: ships after the other. Chingshi had no choice but to
Speaker 1: accept the Emperor's offer of amnesty, of course, under one
Speaker 1: condition that they meet to negotiate the terms. Cantonese officials agreed.
Speaker 1: Those along the banks had to be stunned by the site.
Speaker 1: Two hundred and sixty of Ching Chi's vessels, with fourteen
Speaker 1: thousand of her men aboard, sailed into the Pearl River.
Speaker 1: After docking, Chung Po and a handful of his lieutenants
Speaker 1: were sent on shore to begin the negotiations. Things didn't
Speaker 1: start off well, though. They rejected the Governor's general request
Speaker 1: that the fleet turn in all their ships and that
Speaker 1: all the men aboard live on shore for weeks. The
Speaker 1: negotiations continued before eventually just stalling. Finally, unarmed and unaccompanied,
Speaker 1: Ching Shi visited the Governor General's office herself. While most
Speaker 1: pirates might be lucky to talk their way out of
Speaker 1: a noose, ching she negotiated well, getting most of the
Speaker 1: things she wanted. In the end, Cheung Po kept eighty
Speaker 1: ships in his command in addition, he and a good
Speaker 1: portion of his men were granted positions in the Chinese navy.
Speaker 1: Ching Shi and her men were also given everything that
Speaker 1: they alluded, making many of them exceptionally wealthy, and it
Speaker 1: seemed that smoother waters were ahead. Over time, Chung Po
Speaker 1: was named captain of the Qing dynasty's Guangdong Navy. Then,
Speaker 1: as for Ching sh, she gave birth to a son
Speaker 1: in eighteen thirteen, and eventually even had a daughter. Though
Speaker 1: she was no longer a powerful pirate queen, her new
Speaker 1: life seemed to be going rather well. However, in eighteen
Speaker 1: twenty two, Chung Po was lost at sea. She had
Speaker 1: lost both of her husband's the same way. Once again
Speaker 1: a widow, Chinghi opted to move on with her life.
Speaker 1: She relocated to Macau with her young family and opened
Speaker 1: a gambling house with her immense wealth. Eventually she even
Speaker 1: opened a brothel, ending her journey where she had started well,
Speaker 1: except that she had done it all on her own terms,
Speaker 1: and although she had aged, that spirit that Jing Yi
Speaker 1: had first noticed on the flower boats many years before
Speaker 1: was clearly still there. Having done what she had set
Speaker 1: out to do and changing history to boot, Chinghi lived
Speaker 1: out the rest of her days in luxury. Although her
Speaker 1: husband's had been famous and formidable pirates, their achievements paled
Speaker 1: in comparison to hers. In eighteen forty four, at the
Speaker 1: age of sixty nine, ching, she passed away in her sleep, wealthy, comfortable,
Speaker 1: and very much at peace. We've all heard a superstition
Speaker 1: or two in our time. Walking under a ladder or
Speaker 1: breaking a mirror are considered bad luck. Throwing salt over
Speaker 1: your shoulder wards off evil, perhaps even the devil himself.
Speaker 1: And when it comes to bad luck on ships, there's
Speaker 1: no shortage of superstitions, from navy to merchants to pirates.
Speaker 1: A single misstep could endanger the ship and all who
Speaker 1: sailed upon it. We've probably all seen the movies where
Speaker 1: sailors encounter sirens, mythical femme fatals whose song lured men
Speaker 1: to their death by crashing the ship on jagged rocks.
Speaker 1: Killing and albatross was also bad luck for the crew
Speaker 1: and of course for the bird. And although it wasn't universal,
Speaker 1: a voyage that started on a Friday was likely to
Speaker 1: be doomed. Red skies in the morning meant a dangerous
Speaker 1: day awaited the sailors whistling challenged the wind and conjured storms.
Speaker 1: No one dared say the word drowned or goodbye for
Speaker 1: fear of bringing bad luck, and oddly enough, bananas on
Speaker 1: a ship were also considered bad, although there's no explanation
Speaker 1: as to why that I can find. To ward off
Speaker 1: evil sailors had patron saints like St. Nicholas and Saint Elmo,
Speaker 1: Mermaids could either be helpful or harbingers of bad luck,
Speaker 1: and black cats, while bad luck on land were often
Speaker 1: considered good luck on ships, the cats hunted rodents, and
Speaker 1: rodents ruined grain on ships and spread disease. So it's
Speaker 1: easy to understand how this superstition has some truth to it.
Speaker 1: But not one superstition seemed as pervasive or universal as
Speaker 1: women aboard ships as symbol of bad luck. But we
Speaker 1: already know women pirates who did rather well, Ching Schi
Speaker 1: and Bonnie Mary read for starters, and while Jing Yee
Speaker 1: and Captain Jack Calico felt at ease with women aboard,
Speaker 1: pirates like Blackbeard strictly forbade them. It's not clear if
Speaker 1: he prohibited women because of superstition or because they were
Speaker 1: a distraction, or maybe just both. Women sometimes disguise themselves
Speaker 1: as men to gain passage on ships, and of course
Speaker 1: women traveled on ships as passengers. Since travel by sea
Speaker 1: helped to establish colonies in the New Lands, it's probably
Speaker 1: safe to say that enough ships carrying women did not
Speaker 1: end in disaster. There are even reports of sailors throwing
Speaker 1: women overboard in a misguided attempt to save the ship
Speaker 1: or themselves, and this leaves us to wonder if the
Speaker 1: act was based on superstition or if they looked at
Speaker 1: women as cargo and extra weight. So where did the
Speaker 1: superstition come from? Well, it might just date back as
Speaker 1: far as thirteen seventy nine. Thomas Walsingham, a fourteenth century priest,
Speaker 1: wrote that a baron once kidnapped sixty women from a convent.
Speaker 1: Once he and his men had the frightened women aboard
Speaker 1: their ship, they set sail from Southampton, England, to Brittany, France.
Speaker 1: According to the story, it was December and a winter
Speaker 1: storm blew in from the west. With the ship in
Speaker 1: danger of sinking, the men began tossing cargo overboard, potentially
Speaker 1: to lighten the ship's load, and when their predicament didn't change,
Speaker 1: they tossed the women overboard as well. Sadly, the ship
Speaker 1: sank anyway, and the baron drowned as well. Wherever the
Speaker 1: myth truly came from, And regardless of who believed in it,
Speaker 1: superstition alone made women like ching She the exception rather
Speaker 1: than the rule. It's a very modern idea to imagine
Speaker 1: piracy as purely a man's world. I hope today's exploration
Speaker 1: of ching Che's thrill life and accomplishments helped you see
Speaker 1: how wrong that assumption is. But we're not done just yet.
Speaker 1: We've got one last tale of ladies on the high
Speaker 1: Sea and our cargo hold, And if you stick around
Speaker 1: through this brief sponsor break, my crewmates Alie Steed will
Speaker 1: tell you all about it. There are always first in history,
Speaker 1: first men on the moon, the first European ships to
Speaker 1: arrive in the Americas, and New England's first and only
Speaker 1: female pirate. Rachel Schmidt was born in seventeen sixty on
Speaker 1: a farm in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Her parents were farmers by
Speaker 1: trade and Protestants by religion. Though she spent her childhood
Speaker 1: among the barns in the fields, she loved the sea.
Speaker 1: At sixteen, she left home to make a new life
Speaker 1: by the waterfront. Her love of the water also led
Speaker 1: her to another kind of love, a fisherman named George Wall.
Speaker 1: Rachel's family disapproved of George, but despite her parents of
Speaker 1: jack actions, she married him and the two went off
Speaker 1: to live near Boston. Like many young couples, they struggled
Speaker 1: to support themselves. George continued to work as a fisherman
Speaker 1: and Rachel found employment as a maid to a family
Speaker 1: on prosperous Beacon Hill. Fisherman didn't make a lot of
Speaker 1: money from long, backbreaking and sometimes deadly work. Brutal storms
Speaker 1: capsized boats, and boat owners looking to save some money
Speaker 1: didn't always keep fishing vessels in the best condition, And
Speaker 1: of course, there were the pirates. The couple's life was
Speaker 1: about to change, though. One night, George returned home with
Speaker 1: five other sailors and their woman companions. They had a
Speaker 1: great idea and they couldn't wait to tell her about it.
Speaker 1: They could all be making a lot more money as pirates.
Speaker 1: The group convinced Rachel to leave a maid's life on
Speaker 1: land behind for a life of adventure at sea. But
Speaker 1: to make their plan work, they would need a ship.
Speaker 1: Buying one was completely out of the question, so the
Speaker 1: group stole a small ship named the Essex and headed
Speaker 1: offshore to the coast of New Hampshire. The ship's size
Speaker 1: could hardly be considered a threat to other boats, so
Speaker 1: the crew had to get creative. No stranger to what
Speaker 1: bad weather could do two ships, the fisherman came up
Speaker 1: with a plan. The crew set to work on the ship,
Speaker 1: making it a pier storm battered, though it remained totally seaworthy.
Speaker 1: The next phase required them to wait for storms. After
Speaker 1: the worst of a storm had passed, they strategically placed
Speaker 1: the ship offshore and set the trap, using Rachel as bait.
Speaker 1: While the rest of the crew waited below deck, Rachel
Speaker 1: called frantically for help, flagging down any passing ships. She
Speaker 1: played the damsel in distress flawlessly. Upon seeing a young
Speaker 1: and very pretty woman stranded on a broken down vessel,
Speaker 1: sailors were more than likely to come to her aid.
Speaker 1: She kept the attention focused on her while the unsuspecting
Speaker 1: sailors pulled alongside the Essex. Once the ship up and
Speaker 1: the sailors boarded, George and the crew emerged, taking the
Speaker 1: rescuer's crew by surprise. The scheme usually went according to plan,
Speaker 1: and the groups robbed dozens of ships, breaking in six
Speaker 1: thousand dollars it's about a hundred and fourteen thousand today.
Speaker 1: In the process, they killed twenty four sailors, and it
Speaker 1: didn't take long for the locals to start spreading word
Speaker 1: about a band of pirates luring in ships with a
Speaker 1: beautiful woman. All good things must come to pass, and
Speaker 1: the crew aboard the Essex became victims themselves when George
Speaker 1: made a navigational error. They were out at sea when
Speaker 1: a storm hit and the miscalculation caused the Essex to capsize.
Speaker 1: Rachel and the others swam to safety, but George drowned
Speaker 1: without a ship. The crew disbanded, each going their separate ways.
Speaker 1: Rather than go home to her family, Rachel stayed in
Speaker 1: Boston and returned to working as a maid. While everyone
Speaker 1: knew of her escapades aboard the Essex, no one paid
Speaker 1: her much attention until she began her side hustle of
Speaker 1: stealing from ships stocked at the harbor. She even boldly
Speaker 1: robbed people of influence like a patriot friend of John Adams.
Speaker 1: Even multiple arrests for theft and larceny didn't persuade her
Speaker 1: to give up her life of crime. In fact, she
Speaker 1: returned to a life of piracy once more, well as
Speaker 1: a highway robber, which is pretty much like a pirate.
Speaker 1: Just on Land. On March eighteenth of seventeen nine, Rachel
Speaker 1: reportedly attacked and robbed seventeen year old Margaret Bender. Rachel
Speaker 1: was arrested and went to trial on August. She admitted
Speaker 1: to her crimes of piracy and theft, but denied assaulting
Speaker 1: Margaret Bender. The jury came back with a guilty verdict.
Speaker 1: Governor John Hancock signed her order of execution. Twenty eight
Speaker 1: year old Rachel was hanged in Boston Common on October eighth,
Speaker 1: seventeen eighty nine. Aside from being England's first and last
Speaker 1: woman pirate, her death earned her another place in history,
Speaker 1: The last woman to be executed in Boston. Pirates was
Speaker 1: executive produced by Aaron Manky and narrated by Aaron Manky
Speaker 1: and Alexandra Steid. Writing for this season was provided by
Speaker 1: Michelle Mudo, with research by Alexandra Steid and Sam Alberty.
Speaker 1: Production assistance was provided by Josh Than, Jesse Funk, Alex Williams,
Speaker 1: and Matt Frederick. To learn more about this and other
Speaker 1: shows from Grimm and Mild and I Heart Radio. Visit
Speaker 1: grim and Mild dot com.