Heart of a Pirate — Pamela Johnson

Jamaica, October, 1720. The pirate ship of Calico Jack Rackham is captured off the western coast of Jamaica. While most of the crew is too drunk to defend against the onslaught of the King's navy, two of the crewmembers stand to fight against overwhelming odds. When finally forced to surrender, the commander of the governor's ship is amazed to discover that the two who defend are women disguised as men--Anne Bonny and Mary Read.
Based on the true life story of the legendary Anne Bonny, Heart of a Pirate traces Anne's life, beginning with her parents and their subsequent arrival in the New World, Anne's upbringing among the society people of Charles Town, her marriage to penniless seaman, James Bonny, and their departure to New Providence, the pirate capital of the Bahamas. As a girl of sixteen, Anne makes her way among taverns, notorious sea captains, and life aboard ship disguised as a man. Eventually leaving Bonny, she flees from New Providence with Captain Jack Rackham, to share both joy and tragedy, on land, sea, and in battle, finally meeting the woman who will become her closest friend, Mary Read.
As Anne matures from the girl who leaves Charles Town, she faces the moral questions of emerging slavery in the South and the Caribbean, and the poverty, prejudice, and war that defines the men who become pirates, all the while fighting to take control of her own destiny among men who will 'knock a woman down for her sex', the drama set against governments determined to rid the oceans of the sea robbers who threaten to cripple the world's emerging new capitalism.