After the post last week about Pirate Sue (another suggested title was Sue the Equalizer) I had a look around for an article about what happened to her. So far I haven’t been able to find out what her punishment was, but I did find some other articles about women pirates in the same area around the same time. Maybe it is the same woman…
The Daily News 23 Sep 1929 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article79215381
Just in case you didn’t read the post the other day, the woman we have named Pirate Sue was a woman pirate who was caught in 1936 after terrorizing the Bias Bay area, and identified as Miss Sue Nakawura, a previously respectable teacher from Japan.
This article is about a young bobbed-haired pirate woman armed with two guns in 1929. I am not going to assume it is the same woman though, I was very happy to find out there was more than one woman pirate* plying the seas of Bias Bay!
Here is a link to another longer article about the 1929 attack on the Deli Maru where the woman pirate is described as ‘pleasant looking’ and about 20 years of age.
I was surprised and pleased to find that an article exactly the same as the one in my original post was included in the ‘Pages for Girls and Boys’ section of one newspaper. I wonder how many young girls read it and then secretly dreamed of a life of piracy?
Clearly pirates were something of a problem at that time, this article below details the lengths the British were going to in order to take care of the Pirate Queen. I wonder if they were referring to Miss Nakawura?
The woman pirate they were after had some pretty questionable tactics though. Once she had targeted a vessel she would conceal some of her men amongst the passengers. When all was quiet they would give a signal, kill the radio operator, and overpower the officers. If any passengers resisted they would also be killed. Once the pirates were done pillaging they would ruin the motors and leave the ship to drift uncontrollably. Not very nice were they?
The British had put a price on her head, and that of her crew, of 200 pounds for any of them dead or alive.
The involvement of Charles Corkran (below) in the search for the ‘pirate queen’ sounds a little like revenge doesn’t it. Eighteen months earlier he and Mrs. Pawley, a woman described as a ‘young British bride’ (although not his), were kidnapped by bandits and held for ransom before being rescued by Japanese troops.
I am disappointed that I haven’t been able to find out the fate of Miss Sue Nakawura yet, but I will keep on looking!
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*Have a look at this article about Lai Choi San from 1943, described by a man recently returned from China as a rich, trouser-wearing, 47-year-old with two husbands and a preference for kidnapping. Best not to mess with her or she sent you home in pieces!
Sunday Times 25 Mar 1934 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58716768
OMG – that part of Asia must have been like the maritime equivalent of the wild, wild west! I am amazed by the fact that /women/ chose piracy as a career path though. I’m kind of putting 2 and 2 together from one of your earlier posts [soldier boys who were girls] to wonder whether the difference in climate may have played a part in these pirate queens being recognized as female. In the heat they would not have been able to hide their gender so maybe the desire for a more adventurous life is where east met west?
I wonder if female pirates were more acceptable than female soldiers? The fact that a woman could tag along with a male pirate and gain respect for her abilities (bloodthirstiness?) would have made it a bit easier. The only way a woman could tag along with soldiers was as a camp follower, that’s not really going to gain you respect in battle!
It also seems that the women pirates were happy as women, they just wanted to be pirates as well. The women soldiers seemed to prefer life as a man. Even though they are similar I think it is two completely different situations. I would have preferred to be a pirate queen than a soldier though!
Arrr, me hearties!!
lmao – I’m too much of a wimp for either! Besides, I can’t swim…well, not very well at any rate. Sadly surfing and footie have never been my strengths!
Surfing is definitely not for me either, sharks live out there! My fear of sharks would probably make me a pretty good pirate though, there is NO WAY I would ever let my ship go down!
ROFL – I’d have to take my own personal shark cage and shark repellent every time I stepped on board!
Now I I think about it, the pirate life is not for me!
lol – you me both. There’s a lot to be said for mountains 😀
Like some parts of the African Coast now it seems Piracy on the China Seas was almost a family business at one time. There didn’t seem to be an Oriental equivalent to Anne Bonney before now though. Human life is very cheap to some people.
ps, Did someone once ask Anne Bonney ” Where are your Buccaneers” to which she replied ” One the side of me Buccan head.”
OK you can groan now.
*groans* 😛
The woman pirate who led the attack on the Deli Maru was captured and turned out to be a man — a former member of the Hong Kong Special Police