Female Pirates/Rank ( Historical)

[super_intelligent_shade_of_azure]

'lo all! I'm a newbie in SCA, and looking for infomation about female pirates and rank aboard pirate ships. I've been reccomended to this site ( don't you all feel special ) for infomation. The only kicker is that is needs to be historically accurate, at least for SCA purposes. If you could all give me a bit of assistance, I've be most grateful.

On to the questions:

Most of the female pirates I've read about seem to have taken

command of their own ship and such. Did most female pirates simply

join the crew, and if so did they disguise themselves as males?

What about privateers? ( Aka the times of Drake, where the english

hired people to go and mess with the Spanish )Were there any female

privateers, and the same two questions apply-- did they captain, and

did they pretend to be boys?

Assuming they didn't disguise themselves as males, what sort of

garb would a female pirate wear? Obviously this depends on the period

and place ( and rank? ), but did they generally dress as the men did? Did they leave their hair long, or cut it short? ( I have short hair, which is

why I ask ). Did they tend to be feminine, or more tomboy-ish?

What about the 'ranks' per se, on a pirate ( or even just medieval )

ship? Obviously there was a captain, and I assume the second in

command would be the first mate, but who would come after that? The

second mate? And while I'm at it ( I know, I have a lot of questions!

=D ) about what age were cabin boys, and what are the chances of a

girl being a cabin boy, either in disguise or otherwise?

And the names. Would a pirate simply introduce him/herself as ' So-

and-so,(rank) of such-and-such ship' ( i.e. " Jack, first mate of the

Dreamrunner" ) or would they usually have a longer name ( " Jack du

Lupin blah blah blah" ) or both ( "Jack du Lupin blah blah blah,

first mate of the Dreamrunner" )

And ( last question! ), can I ask for an explanation as to the spelling ( pyrates vs. pirates) ?

Thanks again!

- Hawke

[the Royaliste]

Ahoy! and welcome aboard. You've answered most of your own questions, but here be some skinney: As far as most ship functions, excluding large warships with 800 crew, such as the H.M.S. Victory, but closer to the 30-50 man pyrate vessel, the next most important would be the Bos'n's mate, as he would take the orders from the first two, and relay them to the crew as far as operation of the ship went. All positions had 'descending' ranks, 2nd, 3rd, etc. But first 'everythings' were the honchos. Youngsters were quite often born at sea, so positions relevant to youth were started at all ages, sexes, dress codes. I weren't there,but, I would suppose greetings were as long as dictated by whom ye were jawin' with. Another pyrate or crew, 'I'm so and so. Stranger, the 'long' version.Cheers :)