Tag / pirate queen

by badsquiddogames

Researching Anne Bonny and Mary Read

A vaguely contemporary drawing from A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates by Charles Johnson 1724
Mary Read. Many artists like to show them showing some boob as a “ha! you have been defeated by a woman!” which nobody probably did, but it gives them an excuse to draw boobs I guess!

I’ve decided to duel-research these ladies due to their crossed paths and similarities. It makes sense to! When it comes to designing, they’re going to end up similar gear…. BUT DIFFERENT! But most differences will be stylistic to make each one unique, don’t worry, they won’t be clones. When I get to the research of clothing of that era it will be applicable to both of them, but we can make them still very much their own peoples. It’s partly why I’m working on them in tandem – to make sure there are plenty of differences while maintaining a coherent deadly duo.

Meet Andy and… Mark! Both ladies were born illegitimate amid similar scandals and, therefore, disguised as young boys by their remaining parent in an attempt to cover up who they were. Mary was born in England, and Anne in Ireland; their paths didn’t cross until later, but we shall get to that soon.

Mary Read

Many of Mary’s skills that would later be very handy in piracy were developed when she joined the British Army as a man, starting on a man-o-war then moving to a foot regiment, and then mounted. It was here she met her husband to be, and they moved back to the Netherlands to marry and open an inn. This peacetime didn’t last long, as the fellow died and she rejoined the army.

It seems that Mary “fell in” to the pirate life, after a ship she was on got overtaken, and she was forced the join. She spoke with disdain about pirates, but had little choice. There were certainly not posters of pirates on her bedroom wall as a child.

Oh, who is this, THE Calico Jack and a particularly femme and alluring pirate called Andy?

Anne Bonny

Anne is very much written as the “bad girl” of the tale, in contrast to Mary’s “good girl” image of being dragged into the situation, which may have been exaggerated for a good story, but we all love a good story!

Anne Bonny by Anushka Holding via Wikimedia Commons.

Once it was discovered that she was indeed the daughter of the maid and not just an apprentice boy to her father, they fled to Carolina, where Anne met James Bonny. A sailor, James possibly fitted her vision of wild adventure and they eloped to New Providence, the Pirate Capital, to seek employment.

The marriage probably being a bit of a let down, Anne got a bit bored of ol’ Snitching Bonny (he’d taken up work aiding the capture of pirates), met this incredibly colourful and exciting pirate called…wait for it… Calico Jack, and ran off with him! “Oh who is this new crewmate, Mark Read? I feel we have some sort of connection, but what could it be?”

What is this, a crossover episode?

Anne and Mary from the TV Series “Our Flag Means Death” played by Minnie Driver and Rachel House.

Of the 2000-3000 pirates in the Caribbean at the time, only two are known to be women, and they ended up on the same ship! It didn’t take long for them to figure each other out, and according to some sources, a lot more than that. If you get my… drift. Again, it makes the story more interesting, and I, for one, stan our Bisexual British Buccaneers. I was actually reading about homosexuality at sea but that’s a whole other tangent. Pirates seemed a lot more chill about such things was the main takeaway though.

Together, and with the fancy Calico Jack and the rest of the crew (including Mary’s new husband) went and embarked on all things piratey. An article published in the Boston Gazette referred to them as “Enemies to the Crown of Great Britain”. They crammed much adventure into a time period that could have been as short as a year, but probably the most exciting year of their lives!

Pleading the what now?

Eventually, this piracy did catch up with them (just as those DVD adverts from the 2000s warned), and after a final fight, they were arrested, with most of the crew found guilty of various acts and sentenced to death.

Anne Bonny allegedly said to her husband as her final words, “If you had fought like a man, you need not have been hang’d like a dog.” Nawww. This was in reference to him being drunk and a bit useless at the time they were captured.

Anne Bonny played by Clara Paget in the TV show “Black Sails”

Before they could get to the gallows, both Mary and Anne “pleaded the belly”, meaning they were pregnant and could not be executed until they had given birth. This bought them some time but Mary died of a fever in prison and Anne……? We don’t know what happened to Anne. Perhaps she also died in prison, or something else far more exciting, like rescued, escaped and carried on pirating til her old age!

There are some great contemporary accounts of how these women looked and behaved, but I will save those for the next article…. “Designing Mary Read and Anne Bonny”.

As always, I’ve condensed this to avoid making it a book—there’s so much I could write! Researching these two has been interesting as there are a lack of sources, but from digging around, I managed to find some credible sources and largely stuck to those rather than the more anecdotal tales, such as Anne Bonny stabbing a servant girl as a teen. With every one of these, sorting the legend from the history is a fun detective activity!

by badsquiddogames

Poll Results for Mini #13

The results are in…..

634 votes this time, which is less than last time BUT only for one figure, whereas the last was for two, so this is a good number!

Congratulations, Mary Read!

It was very head to head for a while with Matilda, who was also close in the last round, so she would be a good nomination for the next round as she is clearly popular.

Mary Read has 78 votes, which is reassuring, as, from the next mini onwards (not Mary) we’ll need 60 pre sales before she can be sculpted. A vote isn’t a pledge to buy, but it SHOULD be a good indicator of popularity.

Ann Bonny and Mary Read convicted of Piracy Novr. 28th. 1720 at a Court of Vice Admiralty held at St. Jago de la Vega in a Island of Jamaica.: a copper engraving. From Defoe, Daniel; Johnson, Charles (1724) A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates

Yaarrrrrr

From my perspective, Mary winning is ace! I’ll already be researching Anne Bonny and their tales and so interlinked, it means I won’t have to stray too much. I’ll probably do my research on the two as a bit of a pair (though of course they have unique stories) and then of course Olga and her flaming pigeons.

Thank you everybody for nominating and voting. By the time it’s mini #14 we’ll be doing things a bit differently but I’ll keep you updated on all that.

Time to get my pirate on!

Cheers

Annie

by badsquiddogames

Designing Ching Shih [AKA Sek Yeung]

This project has been a blighter for “things I thought wouldn’t take long but it’s 4am and I’m crying in confusion at the difference between necklines”. Slight exaggeration, no tears, and only 2pm. I thought Ching Shih would be an easy one based on the fact there appeared to be a really clear woodcut of her waist upwards that I could use.

As always, the more I dug, the murkier everything got! These two images are featured in maybe 99% of articles, book illustrations and form the basis of many art pieces of her. Neither is Ching Shih! The second one MAY be, but certainly not contemporary or based on fact. It’s a classic case of something being imitated until nobody knows where it originated.

So, damn. That was my “easy start” obliterated!

Neither of these are Ching Shih!


Before I talk about the design process though… who was she? She lived from 1775-1844 which was the Qing Dynasty in China. Her original name was Sek Yeung, all future names translate to mean widow of her husband – Zheng Yi. I have found different spellings of all throughout this which I think are just variants but please inform me if I’ve gone wrong somewhere. I’ll use Ching Shih for the article as that is how she is commonly known here.

Zheng was the commander of the Red Flags – a band of pirates. His fleet was around 300 ships, which Ching Shih inherited after his death. She took over immediately and over a relatively short period of time, through immense leadership, turned this fleet into around 70,000 crew and 2000 ships, said to be the largest ever. And why isn’t she a household name? Right?

This also is not Ching Shi!

She implemented a notorious code of conduct that gave women more protection, though, of course, they were still all pirates, so it would hardly be considered revolutionary today, but it was at the time. With the aim to make her crews behave better, rules with harsh punishments for how prisoners and female crew mates would be treated were introduced. In her earlier years, Ching Shih had been a sex worker, so you could see how her past experience had made her slightly more defensive of the women brought aboard than a standard male captain, having been in similar positions herself.

The fleet was so large and havoc causing that it attracted the attention of the Chinese Navy, who upon failing drastically to catch or destroy the Red Flag Fleet, eventually agreed to a treaty where she was pardoned, retired, and secured a pretty decent chunk of cash to retire and set up a gambling den for a chilled out and comfy retirement.

What the heck might she have looked like then?

I figured it out! Maybe! As always, there’s the balancing act between 100% accuracy and a cool model, and as always, I reckon I nailed it! So the hat to begin, many show her in a Qingdai guanmao aka Mandarin hat, which is a bit too official and solider like, especially for such a renegade. I did ponder the wide-brimmed straw hat which was commonly used at sea but decided, in the end, it might obscure too much of her face and therefore recognisability. Especially when I discovered that fairly elaborate buns are a hairstyle of choice for many boatwomen in a bit more of a formal setting, I figured that would look cool, and be realistic, as being a pirate queen and all, she would want to look a bit fancy. I’ve gone for a few strands down because of the wind and sea.

In her hands are a sack of coins and a dao, Chinese one-handed sabre. I am a fan of the “en guarde!” pose more than just standing there holding a sword. You just caught her looting your treasures and she won’t go down without a fight!

I am uncertain about the scabbard as to which way it would hang so need to figure that out before it’s sculpted, any ideas?

The clothes are quite simple. A silk tunic, which people can paint designs onto if they like, and some wide-legged fishing trousers. Many portray her wearing wudang socks with the trousers tucked in, but sailors seem to have these open trousers, which I guess dry off a lot quicker.

It seems like I didn’t do much research to get to these but it took such a long time, mostly on what NOT to do, so the result from all that is something simple, yet with a lot behind it. Oh yes, the belt! The belt is a solid status symbol, so that will be all jeweled to show she’s a leader. There isn’t any jewelry because again, she’s at sea.

As always my sketches are not as cool as what the sculptor will come up with, but soon you’ll be able have to trained your eyes to autocorrect to what Alan will make in 3D.

This means that all six of the first Community miniatures are now designed and being sculpted, so we can soon make a start on the next three – I am excited as to who you will choose!