Mary Read’s life reads like an adventure novel that never slows down. Born in late 17th-century England, she was illegitimate and, according to later accounts, raised disguised as a boy so her mother could keep claiming money meant for a deceased son. As “Mark,” Mary worked as a servant and then as a soldier in the Netherlands, fighting in infantry and cavalry. She reportedly even fell in love with a fellow soldier and briefly lived as a woman, married and respectable, before his early death pus

Anne Bonny and Mary Read were female pirates at a time when the idea of women committing such significant crimes was so unusual that the admiralty didn't know what to do with them. When the pair went on trial, things became even more complicated after some shocking admissions were made. #PiratesBehindTheLegends is now streaming on Disney . | National Geographic History