The most successful pirate of all time.

Posted by Miss Cellania in Everything Else on August 29, 2007 at 9:39 am


ChingShih1836

A Chinese woman named Cheng I Sao (also referred to as Cheng Shih) controlled a fleet of more than 1,500 ships and upwards of 80,000 sailors in the early 19th century. She ruled with an iron hand, became extremely wealthy, and managed to talk her way out of legal troubles and retire peacefully. Link -via Reddit


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COMMENT

8 comments to "The most successful pirate of all time."

  1. BelchSpeak
    August 29th, 2007 at 11:28 am

    Miss Celenia,
    Many pirate afficianados will recognize the reign of terror that was Cheng. She was a scourge in her day and only avoided the gallows by using her influence over the fleet to help bring a peace to the region's tribes.

    If you like this story of a woman who kicked ass in Pirate times, you would love the story of Mary Carleton.
    http://www.belch.com/blog/2006/10/05/well-behaved-women-rarely/

  2. Rob
    August 29th, 2007 at 11:44 am

    As far as successful pirates, arguably Dick Cheney controls more ships and sailors, and is probably even wealthier, but I seriously doubt he'll get to retire peacefully. Unless prison is more peaceful than reports suggest.

  3. artbot
    August 29th, 2007 at 11:53 am

    My son is going through his requisite pirate phase, so I've been learning a lot about pirates, both real and imaginary. The thought that keeps going through my head is, Why haven't more of these stories been made into movies? And I mean *real* pirate movies, not the comical Disney kind.

    I'd like to see something along the lines of Master & Commander, but with pirates. These movies (any movie, for that matter) are notoriously expensive to make, but as digital effects get cheaper and faster to create, I hope they'll start to tell more of these stories.

    Oh yeah, and pirates are better than ninjas.

  4. Atomic
    August 29th, 2007 at 12:00 pm

    Hope that tin foil hat doesn't keep you up at night, Rob.

  5. Alex
    August 29th, 2007 at 12:06 pm

    Yay! A mental_floss article. They rock!

  6. Ali S.
    August 29th, 2007 at 12:19 pm

    Gyaaaar! *swings cutlass maniacally over his head*

  7. Dan
    August 29th, 2007 at 1:44 pm

    I thought this article was going to be about Roberto Clemente. Oh well.

  8. the Asocial Ape
    August 29th, 2007 at 4:04 pm

    i came home from work early, and drank way too many beers.


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