Rackham was executed in November, but Read and Bonny both claimed to be pregnant during their trials and received delayed sentences.

She later quit this and moved into Flanders where she carried arms in a regiment of foot as a cadet and served bravely but could not receive a commission because promotion in those days was mostly by purchase.

When they married, she used their military commission and gifts from intrigued brethren in arms to acquire an inn named "De drie hoefijzers" ("The Three Horseshoes") near Breda Castle in the Netherlands.

Upon her husband's early death, Read resumed male dress and military service in the Netherlands.

In 1720 she joined pirate John "Calico Jack" Rackham and his companion, Anne Bonny, who both believed her to be a man.

[7][8] Scholars are uncertain how female pirates like Read and Bonny concealed their sex in a male-dominated environment.

[9] Some scholars, however, have theorized that the wearing of breeches by female pirates may have been either a method of hiding their identity or simply as practical clothing that solidified their working place on board the ship among the other seamen.

To abate the jealousy of her lover, Rackham, who suspected romantic involvement between the two, Bonny told him that Read was a woman.

[9] A victim of the pirates, Dorothy Thomas, left a description of Read and Bonny: They "wore men's jackets, and long trousers, and handkerchiefs tied about their heads: and ... each of them had a machete and pistol in their hands and they cursed and swore at the men to murder her [Dorothy Thomas]."

[14] Rackham and his crew were arrested and brought to trial in what is now Spanish Town, Jamaica, where they were sentenced to hang for acts of piracy, as were Read and Bonny.