The Pirettes Of Ocracoke
Prologue:
Ocracoke Island is a small spit of land on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, just below Cape Hatteras. Even today, it is an isolated place, accessible only by ferry, either from the mainland or from nearby Hatteras Island. When hurricanes come in fall, or nor’easters in winter, ferry service is suspended and those among the fewer than 1,000 residents who chose not to evacuate must ride the storm out, something not without risk, since the island is basically a sand dune, most of it only a few feet above sea level.
To the east and south lie the Atlantic Ocean, whose waves crash upon the beaches. To the west and north lies Pamlico Sound, a shallow expense almost 30 miles across with the mainland on the other side, mostly swamp and thick oak and pine forests.
Today, the main industry on the island is tourism, especially in summer. But, in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, that was not the case. Back then, the main industry was piracy. Ocracoke was the home base of many famous pirates, including Edward Teach, known as Blackbeard and Calico Jack Rackham. The many bays and inlets of Pamlico Sound provided cover for pirate vessels from which they could spring out to attack ships headed for Charleston, South Carolina or to Virginia, seizing cargoes and taking hostages who could be ransomed.
The other attractive feature of Ocracoke for these buccaneers was the nature of government in the colony of North Carolina. It was generally a lawless place, troublesome to its more orderly neighbors, Virginia and South Carolina. Some of its Governors were reputed to tolerate piracy in exchange for a cut of the proceeds (the best known of these was Charles Eden, though his guilt is disputed by some). We will meet one of these-Governor Windar- fourth son of an English Lord, robbed of his inheritance by the laws of primogeniture and forced to make his way in a cruel world as best he could.
Women were not absent from the roll of pirates-the best known of them were Anne Bonney, who hailed from Cork, Ireland, and Mary Read. They typically dressed as men and were part of a mostly male crew. However, recent research by feminist scholars has uncovered a heretofore unknown crew of all female pirates (or pirettes, as Eulalia, in her infinite brilliance, termed them).
Their captain, born Sally Lodge, to the prominent Boston merchant family of that name, was known by all as the Dark Princess. Much about her story is unclear. She was reputed to have attended Harvard dressed as a boy, studying mathematics, which might explain her reputation for superb navigation skills and her financial acumen. No less skilled in navigation was the First Mate, a Scottish lass by the name of Eulalia Cross, orphaned at an early age and left to fend for herself on the streets of Edinburgh, she nonetheless had a natural talent for strategy and quick thinking in dicey situations.
The rest of the crew of 40 or so was a polyglot mix of women fleeing difficult situations or looking for fortune and adventure. There was a young Irish lass, Tash, known as the Celtic Virgin, hailing from the very same town as Anne Bonney. There was a runaway indentured servant from New York, Barbara Moore, a couple of escaped slaves from a Virginia tobacco plantation, Esther and Clara, and a Cherokee princess named Prihaya, looking to avenge the theft of land from her people by white colonists. There were whores from the streets of London, like Felicia Susanna Graves, called FSG by her crewmates. There was Tricia, a barmaid from the Dark Princess’s own native city of Boston, whom she had recruited whilst in a tavern there. There was Dorothy, a simple Yorkshire lass, who had danced in the pubs of Liverpool to entertain that sailors, before absconding to sea with one of them, before ending up a pirate. It was indeed a Motley Crüe.
Of all the pirates on Ocracoke, they were the most feared. No ship was too large or too fast for them to plunder and no passenger or crew member was too important to be taken hostage. Women hostages would be brought to the Dark Princess’s cabin and forced to please her, for she was a notorious lesbian. Male hostages would often be used as playthings by those crew members who were not unalterably opposed to the idea of consorting with the XY set. Some of these poor men were reputed to have died of exhaustion, their corpses thrown overboard with beatific smiles on their faces. But eventually, most of the hostages’ families and associates paid ransom, knowing that if they did not, the hostages would be made to walk the plank into the shark-infested Gulf Stream waters.
I now present to you, fresh from the Smithsonian archives, the story of “The Pirettes of Ocracoke”.
