Which pirate captain was known as Calico Jack and associated with Anne Bonny?

John Rackham was the pirate captain known as Calico Jack and associated with Anne Bonny. Their partnership is one of the best-known stories from the final decades of the Golden Age of Piracy.

Rackham met Bonny while he commanded the sloop Revenge. Bonny joined the crew, and Mary Read was also aboard during the later voyage. Accounts describe both women as active participants in combat, although surviving evidence comes largely from trial records and later reports.

A Jamaican privateer captured Rackham and his crew in October 1720. Rackham was executed, while Bonny and Read avoided immediate execution because both claimed to be pregnant. Read died in prison, while Bonny’s later life is not securely documented.

The story is sometimes simplified into a romantic partnership, but the historical record is more limited. What is firmly documented is Rackham’s command, the women’s presence aboard the vessel, and the crew’s capture in 1720.