Lai Choi San

This account is, however, not without controversy either; according to Ulrike Klausmann in the book Women Pirates and the Politics of the Jolly Roger (2017), some other sources indicate that Lai Choi San was captured and sentenced to life in prison by the international coast guard in 1939.

[1] Lilius supposedly met Lai Choi San, perhaps at a brothel, and claimed to have accompanied her on expeditions in the vicinity of Macao in the late 1920s.

Her fees were very high, bordering on extortion, and if her clients did not pay she kidnapped them and put them under torture until one of their relatives delivered the sum.

Her crew are referred to as ladrones (pirates, robbers) by the Portuguese and, according to Lilius, were "all fearsome fellows, muscular bare-chested men who wore wide-brimmed hats and tied red kerchiefs around their necks and heads.

"[3] In Missee Lee, Arthur Ransome's young adult novel set in the South China Sea waters, the title role is taken by a character who shares many of Lai Choi San's distinguishing characteristics.

[4] Lai Choi San was also the model for the Dragon Lady, one of the main villains which appeared in the comic, radio and television series Terry and the Pirates.