Charlotte de Berry Biography
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Charlotte de Berry was born in 1636 in England. She was one of the few female pirates who had been successful and were famous. When she was a teenager, she fell in love with a young man who was a sailor but her parents were not in favour of their marriage.
Early life
Despite the opposition, she married him. Berry dressed as a man joined the English navy with her husband posing to be his brother. She was forced onto the ship to Africa.
After a few days of pretending to be a man, an officer on board came to know that she, in fact, was a woman. He, however, did not reveal her truth as he wanted Berry. All his attempts to get her husband out of his way were unsuccessful. He then charged her husband of mutiny. He was found guilty and was flogged around the ship which eventually killed him.
The officer made advances towards Berry after her husband died. She killed him in order to stop his advances and started working on the dock dressed as a woman. There she was seen by a captain of a merchant ship who kidnapped her and forcefully married her and took her to Africa.
Charlotte de Berry career as Pirate
Once on board, she was successful in convincing the crew members for a revolt against him. She then killed the captain and became the captain of his ship. In this way, Berry started her pirating career and plundered ships on the African coast.
After some years of looting ships, she fell in love with a Spanish man and married him. This marriage also did not last for a long time as their ship had been destroyed by a storm.
They were able to survive without food or water for some days but all of them were too hungry to stay like this.
Facts About Charlotte De Berry
It was decided that they would draw lots and one who looses will give his life for others to feed on him. Unfortunately, Berry’s husband was the first victim.
However, soon they were rescued by a Dutch merchant ship.
The merchant ship was attacked by pirates and Berry and her crew defended the ship. It is said that when everyone was busy celebrating the victory, Berry jumped into the sea to join her deceased husband. It is a mystery whether she survived or not.
Another version of the story says that Charlotte was severely wounded in the fight and knowing that they were going to be defeated, blew up the ship rather than accepting defeat.
When did Charlotte de Berry die?
It is not surely known when or at what Charlotte de Berry may have died. She was believed to have died on the coast of Africa while fighting other pirates.
Many believe that Charlotte de Berry’s life is an entirely fictional account that was first brought up in Edward Lloyd’s books “History of the Pirates” in 1836. It was exactly two-hundred years after her birth. Most of the retelling of Charlotte de Berry’s life has more or less followed Edward Lloyd’s version.
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