Women in piracy

Many famous female pirates, such as Anne Bonny (disappeared after 28 November 1720) and Mary Read (died April 1721), accordingly dressed and acted as men.

The earliest legendary female pirate is perhaps Atalanta of Greek mythology, who according to legend joined the Argonauts in the years before the Trojan War.

[14] Scandinavian folklore and mythology, though the tales themselves are unverified, includes numerous female warriors (shield-maidens) who command ships and fleets.

[98] Illustrations in a Dutch 1725 edition of the book depict female pirates as unpleasant and bare-chested, trampling on figures representing justice and commerce.

[99] Some works, such as Fanny Campbell, the Female Pirate Captain (1844), included great adventures but also ended with the central woman finding a man and settling down, perhaps an attempt to not conflict too much with traditional notions of femininty.

[102] An early work in this tradition is F. Tennyson Jesse's Moonraker (1927), wherein the pirate captain Lovel is revealed to be a woman with strong ideals on female liberty.

Although Swann is included in some stereotypical scenes and begins as the Governor's daughter and a damsel in distress, she is turned into a courageous pirate and heroine over the course of the film series.