Pirate Girl

"So all you females just put your swords down

I'm not a fool; I'm not amused

You've got no hook hand, no secret island

And pirates never go to the bathroom in twos"

—Ceann, "The Worst Pirate Song"

Pirates. Villains of the seven seas, lovable rogues who rob other pirates, or what have you. Strong or handsome men, with ladies either afraid of or swooning over them...

...And then there's the Pirate Girl, a young girl or woman who clearly has no place in this tough world of men. Except she is either determined to show that she does, is accepted by the roguish male crew without any apparent difficulty or explanation, or is part of an ship with an all female crew. Depending on age, may or may not be a Little Miss Badass; either way, usually an Action Girl. There are two types: one type would be either cute or a Hot Amazon. The much, much more common type is the "bad girl".

Can be Truth in Television—historically, a number of female pirates did plough the seas along with the men, sometimes rising to positions of authority. However, most of them did by disguising themselves as men; Carribean pirates codes often called for the death penalty or marrooning for any pirate who brought a woman onboard. In the modern world, women might have a place on pirate ships (often referred to these days as maritime terrorists) depending on the local culture.

Not to be confused with Pirate Wench, a term that usually refers to a woman who sails with pirates, doing "women's work" for them, perhaps while providing eye candy. The Pirate Girl is a pirate in her own right.

Any little boy found on a pirate ship will half the time be this girl in disguise.

The Pirate Girl often has a Dark and Troubled Past detailing how she ended up in this position; abusive fathers with whom they are in a "Well Done, Son" Guy relationship seems to be a common theme.

A subtrope of Pirate, (Captain Obvious, anyone?).

Examples of Pirate Girl include:

Anime and Manga

  • Revy from Black Lagoon is a modern-day female pirate.
  • The anime Sol Bianca features a pirate ship with an all female crew.
  • Almost every female character from One Piece. From the Straw Hats alone, we have Nami and Nico Robin. Also, Boa Hancock, Vivi (temporarily, anyways), Alvida...
    • It's easier to list the ones who are NOT pirates. Though that's still a lot of people...
    • The one who acts most like a traditional pirate girl is surprisingly Nami. Besides drinking any of the guys under the table, she isn't nice (unless she's trying to scam you), and as the navigator she is completely in control of the ship, bar instructions from Luffy.
      • Rival captain Jewelry Bonney is pretty close to traditional, too.
  • The titular character from Space Pirate Mito is an alien who is over ten thousand years old, but looks like a nine-year-old kid. She also has a Mail Suit that makes her look more like a human adult.
  • Played with in a Rurouni Kenshin fillerarc, where a Pirate Girl named Shura finds self forced to pull a Sweet Polly Oliver so she will have her men's respect. Kenshin, as the good Warrior Therapist he is, helps her out with it.
  • Who could forget Leiji Matsumoto's Queen Emeraldas?
  • Is it not worth mentioning that in the various Tenchi Muyo! continuities, there are more named female space pirate characters than male ones? Not to mention one in the main cast (Ryoko).
    • The spinoff series Tenchi Muyo! GXP also has a space pirate girl in the main cast. Who's also named Ryoko. But not the same Ryoko; she was named after the original, who's roughly 5000 years older and a legend in the space pirate community.
  • Technically, the entire female cast of Vandread.
  • Chacha from Basara
  • Love Flag Girls is a Yuri work focusing on a main character who enrolls on a pirate ship full of girls. Safe to say, the entire crew fits.
  • Seychelles from Axis Powers Hetalia is sometimes drawn/written this way in fan work. In a show with several of the male characters given the pirate treatment, she is notable for being the only female to be cast in this light (that this troper is aware of, anyway, and excluding genderbends).
    • Portugal's female concept art, at the top here, shows this very heavily as well, complete with scars and a sword.
  • Marika Kato from Bodacious Space Pirates. Also Chiaki Kurihara, daughter of the captain of Barbarossa, though it doesn't show.


Comic Books

  • The pirates in Y: The Last Man, as should be obvious from the comic's name.
  • El Cazador's main character becomes a pirate after another the pirate captain Blackjack Tom attacks the ship she's on, killing most of the passengers.
  • Batman foe Cap'n Fear had a buxom first mate named Annie.
  • Cixi joins an all-female pirate crew in her spinoff of Lanfeust, Cixi De Troy.
  • Ann Preston from the House of Mystery.
  • The most recent League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic 1910 features Captain Nemo's daughter Janni who becomes the "Pirate Jenny" of the song.
  • Polly and The Pirates is an indie miniseries entirely focused on this concept.
  • Denise Lafitte, daughter of French pirate Jean Lafitte in Italian comic book Zagor.
  • Red Lucy Keough, an ancestor Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch in the Marvel Universe.
  • Capitana Felina, a piratic version of Catwoman in the Elseworlds story Batman: Leatherwing.
  • Paitence Drew, a Ghost Pirate captain once encountered by the Sub-Mariner (in Marvel Fanfare #43).
  • She Buccaneer.
  • Maura Hawke, captain of the Serpent's Crown in the Marvel Universe. When she was betrayed by her first mate Jebediah Fate, she laid a curse on him and all her mutinous crew resulting in Fate becoming a Flying Dutchman.
  • Singapore Sal, a Golden Age villain later brought back in Femforce.
  • Tess Bannister from the "Pirate Hearts" strip in Penthouse Men's Adventure Comix.
  • Sarawak Sally was the leader of a band of Southeast Asian river pirates in G.I. Joe Special Missions #4.
  • Hepzibah from the Starjammers, a band of Space Pirates in X-Men and other books in the Marvel Universe.
  • Dread Mac Farlane, a French comic about a girl who goes to Neverland and grows up among the Lost Boys (let's not explore exactly how she, y'know, GROWS UP in Neverland), then leaves them to join Captain Hook and his crew in the exciting life of a pirate.
  • The Legion of Super Heroes gave us the Sklarian Raiders; an Amazon Brigade of Space Pirates.
  • Sjörövar-Jenny from Bamse seems to be this, being a young woman in piratical garb who is a skilled cutlass fencer and sailor, but she is merely the daughter of a rather eccentric scholar obsessed with pirates and pirate treasure, and takes after him. (Her name, of course, references the "Pirate Jenny" song from the The Threepenny Opera, as per below).
  • In Wonder Woman, the "Silver Serpent" saga featured an all female cadre of Space Pirates who travel from planet to planet to steal that world's technology, recruit a small group of the females for membership and the remainder of the planet's people for food stock.
  • Scarlet Fever, from the second Lady Rawhide miniseries; a spin-off from Topps Zorro series.
  • Captain Bloodhawke from The Warlord.
  • Sangre, a member of Scar's Raiders in The Ultraverse.
  • The 2000 AD Alternity Winter Special recast Harmony Krieg from Harmony as Anne Bonney.
  • Featured in Rawbone.
  • Red Sonja has served as a pirate in her time.
  • Tomorrow "Tommy" Hardtack of DC's Star Raiders graphic novel is implied to be a space pirate girl. She even sports an eyepatch...
  • Long Jane Silver and her all-female crew in The Spirit.
  • Phondari, the Pirate Queen of Mars, from Dynamite Comics Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris.
  • The mercenaries stow away on a pirate ship with an all-female crew in Skullkickers #13.
  • Superman briefly encountered Barracuda, a female pirate turned magically-empowered superhero, when she and her partner Swordfish were transposed into the 20th Century. He was fascinated to learn that her real name was Abigail Kent, and speculated on the possibility that she was a distant relation of his adopted family.


Film

  • Elizabeth from Pirates of the Caribbean seems to have become a Pirate Girl. To the point that she becomes the Pirate King.
    • Pirates of the Caribbean's character list also includes Anamaria, who is apparently a no - nonsense Lady of War type.
    • The original Disneyland ride itself has a painting in the skeleton caves implying this is what happened to the Redhead.
    • There's also Mistress Cheng, though she's past Pirate Girlhood and is more of a Pirate Lady.
    • In the fourth movie we have Angelica, a Badass Spaniard who is Jack Sparrow's New Old Flame.
  • Maureen O'Hara played this character—notably as "Spitfire" Stephens opposite Errol Flynn in Against All Flags. She also appeared in The Black Swan (with Tyrone Power) and The Spanish Main (with Paul Henreid); she appears as a high-born lady of quality in both, but in the former changes into Pirate Girl garb in the final scene.
  • Has anyone mentioned Captain Morgan Adams, played by Geena Davis in Cutthroat Island? Although, technically, she's a Pirate Hunter.
  • In Muppet Treasure Island, Ellis Ashley Flyte, the wife of Brian Henson (the film's producer and director) gives an uncredited appearance as Big Fat Ugly Bug-Faced Baby-Eating O'Brian (a female ship's crew mate seen only during the Roll Call scene).
  • Jean Peters played a pirate woman called "Anne Providence" in Anne of the Indies (1951); Binnie Barnes played Anne Bonney in The Spanish Main (1945); Hope Emerson played her in Double Crossbones (1951); Sonia Sorell played her in Captain Kidd and the Slave Girl (1954); and Lorna Bennett played her in Pirates (1998).
  • The second Asterix movie included a female pirate for absolutely no reason whatsoever, even making her the Captain's daughter.
  • The 2005 big budget pornographic film Pirates (also known as Pirates XXX) starred Janine Lindemulder as Serena, the viscousvicious first mate of the Big Bad Captain Eric Victor Stagnetti, and Jesse Jane as Jules, her good guy counterpart among the pirate hunters.
  • Pirate Fritton from St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold.
  • Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure has prissy French doll Babette turn on her pirate captor, lock him in the brig, and take over his ship. "Hooray for me! Babette of Gay Paree! Hooray for me! I'm Captain now you see!"
  • In the 2003 Peter Pan, Wendy considers an offer to be a pirate on Hook's ship, though she eventually turns it down.


Literature

  • The Pyrates, a novel that's an Affectionate Parody of most pirate-movie tropes has a pirate queen (itself a common term for this type of character).
  • Belit, the female pirate captain from the Conan story "Queen of the Black Coast."
  • Mary "Jacky" Faber, from the young adult novel, Bloody Jack, and its sequels.
  • Missee Lee, a Chinese woman pirate captain in Missee Lee, part of the Swallows and Amazons series, by Arthur Ransome, although she is a slight subversion in that she never wanted to be a pirate. She is a frustrated Cambridge academic who was forced to become a pirate after her father's death.
    • The "Amazons", Nancy and Peggy Blackett, play the trope more straight, albeit they're technically just kids enacting a pirate fantasy.
  • Charlotte de Berry is a (probably fictional) female pirate captain who stars in Edward Lloyd's History of the Pirates, a "penny dreadful" or "penny blood" - cheap stories with a fairly gory or shocking theme written to entertain the masses.
  • Minerva Sharpe and Nancy Kington are the protagonists of Pirates! by novelist Celia Rees.
  • Art Blastside is a former gentlewoman named Artemesia Fitz-Willoghby Weatherhouse who lost her all memories of her life with her mother, Piratica, in a cannon accident that cost her mother her life. She regained it after 6 years of attending a finishing school and gathered her mother's former crew to set sail again in The Piratica Series, by Tanith Lee.
  • Romsca is a fictional anthropomorphic ferret corsair the book Pearls of Lutra in Brian Jacques's Redwall series.
  • Lazue in the Michael Chrichton novel Pirate Latitudes, due in part to her having been raised as a boy.
  • Appears in all its various forms in Piers Anthony's Bio of a Space Tyrant series: Spirit does the Sweet Polly Oliver cabin boy version for a while, Rue is the straight Little Miss Badass version, and there is also a cross-dressing adult female pirate captain. As per the series title, they are all Space Pirates.
  • A semi-fictionalized account of the real-life pirate Ching Shih is given in Jorge Luis Borges's short story The Widow Ching, Lady Pirate.
  • The eponymous Miya Black, of Miya Black, Pirate Princess.
  • Splashdance Silver by Tansy Rayner Roberts has a pirate Action Girl as its protagonist.
  • Aires from Chronicles of the Emerged World.
  • I, Jedi gives us Captain Tyresi Gurtt, Caet Shrovl, Timmser, and Complete Monster Big Bad Leonia Tavira.
  • Ezri Delmastro and Zamira Drakasha, both from Red Seas under Red Skies, the second book in Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastard Sequence series.
  • Elena Dugan (Lady Galbraith) from The Seas of Fionnghuala.


Live Action Television

  • Mary Rose from Queen of Swords is an ex-pirate.
  • Nebula from Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.
  • Captain Wrack from the Doctor Who serial "Enlightenment".
    • Sort of, she was more like an alien cos-playing a pirate (and a girl). Um... Better Than It Sounds.
    • Amy Pond becomes one briefly (certainly in appearance, and with a reasonable amount of swashbuckling flair) in the Doctor Who episode "Curse of the Black Spot".
    • In the Big Finish audio adventure Doctor Who and the Pirates, the Sixth Doctor attempts to pass off his companion Evelyn Smythe as 'Evil Evelyn, the Pirate Queen'. Evelyn does her best, but the masquerade does not last long.
  • Connie Blackheart from Tales From The Poop Deck.
  • Being a pirate-based Sentai, Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger has... just one, Luka Millfy/Gokai Yellow. The other lady, Ahim de Famille/Gokai Pink isn't as much a Pirate Girl but more of The Ojou. (She is quite happy to call herself a pirate, however.)
  • In Stargate SG-1 there is Vala Maldoran who is a pirate/thief and acts like a child. Then in Stargate Atlantis there is Larrin of the travellers who, while maybe not technically a pirate all the time, sure acts like one in her first appearance.


Magazines

  • Gunpowder Gertie (Gertrude Stubbs) is a Canadian pirate created by storyteller Carolyn McTaggart. The story of Gunpowder Gertie was told as an April fools joke in the local Kootenay area newspaper, the Kootenay Review. So many people believed that it was true that it was later retold as historical fact on the CBC program, This Day in History.


Music

  • Emilie Autumn has always had one pirate captain since the first Asylum tour in 2007. The first was Captain Vecona who was also the Asylum seamstress and left the Bloody Crumpets after the first 2008 tour. The second was Captain Maggot who took over in fall 2008, she appears to be far more popular of a captain owing to her more pirate-y feel including being a drunkard who speaks like a pirate and having a costume that looks more like a pirate. She also is a circus performer in the real world, during the tours she stilt walks and hula-hoops...Mind you EA's shows take place in a Victorian asylum...
  • The S.J. Tucker album Sirens includes three songs called "The Wendy Trilogy". The Wendy Trilogy is a retelling of the Peter and Wendy story, diverting from the original at the point where Captain Hook offers Wendy Darling the chance to become a pirate. In this version, Wendy accepts the offer and starts an adventure of her own.
  • "The Worst Pirate Song," by Irish-American band Ceann, mocks this trope.
  • Tom Smith's Filk "Hey, It's Can(n)on!" pointed out that Hermione Granger's birthday is also "International Talk-Like-a-Pirate Day," which inspires Harry to buy her a ship "and now they're her young stallions, and she's a pirate queen!"
  • Members of metal band Zed Yago had a pirate image, so naturally the singer Jutta Weinhold was the pirate girl of the band.
  • Lindsey Stirling is dressed as a pirate in her video for "Master of Tides".
    • Stirling also considers pirates to be a kind of spiritual totem symbolizing individuality and determination, and visualizes herself as a pirate as a way of motivating herself to overcome obstacles in her life. It's a big enough thing for her that she entitled her autobiography The Only Pirate at the Party.


Newspaper Comics


Tabletop Games

  • Space Pirate Amazon Ninja Catgirls! which is actually titled starting with its naughty-sounding acronym: SPANC: Space Pirate Amazon Ninja Catgirls, a very Fan Service game which is Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
  • The Satyxis of the Iron Kingdoms setting are a whole island-nation of Sexy Monster Pirate Girls, of whom the best known is the Pirate Queen and Cryx warcaster Skarre Ravenmane. The mercenary privateer faction of War Machine has several playable female character models, including the Thamarite pirate captain Fiona the Black.
  • Several of fantasy RPG artist Clyde Caldwell's paintings have been of female pirates.
  • Ed Greenwood has mentioned a number of female pirates in his Forgotten Realms setting material, including Thilana, Azla and Laershala of the Emerald Eyes.
    • Azla fits "Dark and Troubled Past" part. She was a noble and a Cormyrean army officer, but came across a Zhent party bigger than her patrol could handle and ran. In self-exile, she became a pirate, then her high-end training kicked in and soon she was one of the most influential captains on the Pirate Isles, raiding Sembian targets (Cormyr's in a cold war with Sembia). She appeared in The Threat from the Sea.
    • Liriel Baenre was a ship mage on a pirate ship once, but almost accidentally. At first the crew didn't think that a female(!!!) drow(!!) elf(!) on board was a good idea, but they didn't have much choice anyway.
  • BattleTech has had several female Space Pirates such as Morgan Fletcher, Suzy "One-Eye" Morgaine-Ryan and Paula "Lady Death" Trevaine, the latter are rare female Magnificent Bastard.
  • Synthre, a runaway alien princess and member of the Galatic Marauders, a band of Space Pirates in the Champions sourcebook Alien Enemies.
  • 7th Sea contains several. The most famous is probably "Bloody" Bonnie McGee, first mate of the Sea Dogs.
  • Pathfinder has Besmara, the goddess of pirates, strife, and sea monsters.
  • Exalted has the Solar pirate queen Ocean Pearl, plus...well...most likely any female Exalt to get started in the West. Of course, they need to dye their hair red, join the Tya, or be a bit careful because the West throngs with storm mothers who hate all women more beautiful than themselves (i.e. anyone other than a withered old crone who's just had an acid bath) and make their displeasure clear with terrible weather, but since Exalts > Gods/Elementals, this issue can probably be solved by kicking the storm mothers' collective butts until they knock it off, or using Sail Charms to make overcoming the storms far less difficult.


Theater

  • There's a play called Scavenger Hunt (Aargh! Avast Ye!) which concerned a retired Pirate Lady and her daughter, who Sweet Polly Olivered her way on to a ship to search for a MacGuffin her mother and some friends had encountered in the past.
  • We can't forget Ruth, the piratical maid of all work, from Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance.
  • In The Threepenny Opera, Polly (or, in some productions, Jenny) sings "Pirate Jenny," a revenge fantasy about a chamber maid who dreams of being a pirate queen.
  • Loof Merrow of the Sera Myu who was featured in the Kagyua Island musicals. She's a pirate, and a princess, who's been frozen in Ice for the last 5000 years, and is after the Silver Crystal to restore her Kingdom of Artuka which was destroyed by a tidal wave when they asked Princess Serenity to change the earth's orbit so the comet Coatl wouldn't hit it. And she's only out of the ice because the comet and its inhabitants have returned and are Seeking revenge on Sailor Moon .... confused yet?
  • The Pirate Queen is a musical written by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil. It is based on the life and adventures of the 17th century Irish chieftain and pirate Grace O'Malley.
  • Captain Bree and Her Lady Pirates by Bill Francoeur.


Toys


Video Games


Web Comics

Bun-Bun: Little girls can't be pirates! What do you know about robbing and plundering?
Jaya: Well, my dad's an investment banker and my mom's a lawyer ...
Bun-Bun: Welcome aboard, First Mate!

  • Giovanna from Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic.
  • The Elven pirate captain Tah'vraay from Looking for Group.
  • Martello is actually the captain of her ship in Mushroom Go. There's also Palma, who acts more like she's just along for the ride.
  • Homestuck's Vriska Serket may or may not count, being a roughly thirteen-year-old LAR Per, but she's attempting to emulate her ancestor Marquise Mindfang, who was definitely a Pirate Girl.
  • Alex Ze Pirate has TWO of these.
  • Boobs Ahoy!


Web Original

  • "Patched Up Matey" -- the entire crew. This season eye patches be fashionable, yarr!
  • Demonstrated by Shannancy in this catchy Adam the Alien video. The cleavage always wins.
  • Ridiath plays this role in Guts and Sass: An Anti-Epic, where she has been mentored and trained by the pirate crew into not being useless.
  • "The Buccanner Beauty" (commission by Kaja Foglio) - a fairy pirate girl. That's much the same, except with wings and parrots need not apply (except under good sauce).


Western Animation

  • Female members of La Résistance (which tends to call itself 'pirates') in Skyland.
  • On Muppet Babies, the kids pretended to be treasure hunters and encountered a trio of female "pirettes".
  • Kim, the 18 year old niece of Captain Barnibus Crab in Flipper and Lopaka. Kim is quite an enthusiastic apprentice pirate and often seems far better at the actual business of piracy than her uncle.
  • Princess Bula in ReBoot. The largest Bi-nome in the show, and has the other pirates too scared to tell her she's not really a princess.
  • Tula from Pirates of Dark Water.
  • On Rugrats, there was an Imagine Spot (stemming from a game of make-believe) where the babies were pirates. Naturally, Angelica plays the role of the evil pirate captain.

"Prepare to be bored!"


Real Life

  • The infamous Anne Bonny (or Bonney), aka Anne of the Indies. She got her own movie, too, besides getting a guest shot in The Spanish Main.
  • There have in fact been more than a few female pirates of note. All of the following women were at least captains, and all were openly women for at least part of their captaincy:
    • Grace O'Malley
    • Ching Shih (who was closer to a pirate Admiral given the number of ships she commanded)
    • Alvilda, Daughter of the king of Gotland
    • Charlotte de Berry (although some modern historical opinion doubts whether Charlotte actually existed)
    • Rachel Wall
    • Jane de Belleville
    • Elizabeth Trewinnard
  • In a "culture" always apart from main society by definition, the notion of a woman being bad luck was probably more easily overcome so long as she was talented at bringing in literal boatloads of plunder.
    • Being able/willing to kill you for suggesting she's bad luck is likely also a factor.
  • Check The Other Wiki for a complete list of female pirates.
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