Mrs. Ching

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Black beard, Morgan, and Captain Kidd doth make the seaman shiver.

But it takes a femme fatal such as Mary Read, Anne Bonny to force the seaman to beseech the good lord their souls to deliver.

Who springs to mind when you utter the word pirate? What picture springs to mind? Is it a peg-legged, scruffy rascal with a parrot on his shoulder and a patch over his eye?

One thing that doesn't generally come to mind is a woman and most especially not in the role of captain. If a woman doesn't spring to mind in the role of captain then how about the admiral of a fleet of pirates; and not just any fleet of pirates but the largest fleet of pirates ever assembled. Mrs. Ching Yin Saou also known as Mrs. Ching Shin was that phenomenal woman.

Mrs. Saou a former "love seller" from Canton was the wife of Chen I, a pirate of some standing. They were married from 1801 - 1807 when Chin I died. Together they had built a fleet composed of fifty thousand pirates that dominated the sea to the south of China.

After her husbands death Mrs. Saou took over command of the fleet by securing the help of her husband's relatives and seducing her husband's adopted son and placing him in charge of the most powerful of her various fleets. Mrs. Saou and Chang Pao were later married and together with him running the day to day operation of the fleet and her acting as commander and chief of the fleets, came up with a code of conduct that brooked no disobedience.

Ching Shih and her husband successfully defended themselves against the government for three years by defeating all of the fleets sent against them and by raiding ships and villages along the south China coast and killing the men and carrying the women and children away.

Together Mrs. Shih and her first husband Cheng I had built a fleet composed of fifty thousand pirates at its height. With her second husband she fought off government forces bent on destroying the pirate fleets for three years. Every empire must fall and all things, good or bad, must come to an end. When the Chinese government asked Portugal and Britain for help, Mrs. Shih saw her empire coming to an end. The Chinese government made her an offer for amnesty. Mrs. Shuh took it but on her terms. After nine years as a pirate, three of which she acted as commander and chief, Mrs. Shih brokered a deal of amnesty for her fleet that would have made a cigar smoking politican proud.

The pirates kept their plunder and those that choose to would join the army. Her husband kept twenty junks and was bestowed a rank in the army. Of all of the fleet that surrendered over seventeen thousand pirates, only a handful had any type of punitive action perpetrated against them. Of the ones that were punished, only about one hundred and twenty six were executed.

After their retirement from their life at sea, Ching Shuh and her husband moved to Canton and then moved to Fukien where she had a boy child. After her husband's death in 1822, Ching Shuh moved back to Canton were she died in 1844 at the age of sixty-nine.

Ching Shuh was indeed a phenomenal woman to have accomplished so much in so short a period of time. However she had an advantage over her Western contemporaries. It wasn't unusual for a strong woman in the orient to carve out her own destiny and secure her place in legends. In the West it was practically unheard of for a member of what was considered the lesser gender to want, let alone have the ability, to distinguish themselves in martial matters. Women were for decoration, social advancement, and having babies.

There was only one problem with this scenario - somebody forgot to tell the ladies.

Though it was unusual for women to ship out as seaman and even rarer for them to ply the bloody trade of piracy, it was known to happen. Two instances were Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Shipmates and pirates in the truest sense of the word these women shipped together fought together and stood trial together.
 
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