1718–1719, then took a commission to privateer, but joined the crew in mutiny. Read's ship was taken by pirates, whom she willingly joined. This ship that she boarded for the West Indies happened to be boarded by a pirate ship and her being disguised as a British male helped her and they took her on board with the crew which was British. With peace, there was no room for advancement, so she quit and boarded a ship bound for the West Indies. Upon her husband's early death, Read resumed male dress and military service in the Netherlands. When they married, she used their military commission and gifts from intrigued brethren in arms to acquire an inn named 'De drie hoefijzers' ('The Three Horseshoes') near Breda Castle in The Netherlands. Read, in male disguise, proved herself through battle, but fell in love with a Flemish soldier.

Mary moved on to a Regiment of Horse which was allied with Dutch forces against the French (this could have been during the Nine Years War or during the War of the Spanish Succession). She later quit this and moved into Flanders where she carried Arms in a Regiment of Foot as a cadet and served bravely but couldn't receive a commission because promotion in those days was mostly by purchase. She later joined the British military, and the crew of a British Man of War. Īt age 13, dressed as a boy, Read found work as a foot-boy, and, then, employment on a ship. The grandmother was fooled, and they lived on her money until the grandmother died. Several years later, on a visit, her mother passed off young Mary as her first and only child, the boy, to continue receiving support from the boy's grandmother. After she arrived in the country, the infant boy died, and she gave birth to a girl, Mary. Soon she became pregnant again by another man and went to live with friends in the country to hide the shameful second pregnancy. His mother then had began to send her financial support. Her mother’s husband then disappeared at sea. Her mother had married a sailor, with whom she had a son. Rackham was executed, but Read and Bonny both claimed to be pregnant and received delayed sentences. Her time as a pirate was successful but short lived, as she, Bonny and Rackham were arrested in November 1720.

In 1720, she met Jack Rackham and joined his crew, dressing as a man alongside Anne Bonny. She then married and upon her husband's death moved to the West Indies around 1715. She began dressing as a boy at a young age, at first at her mother's urging in order to receive inheritance money and then as a teenager in order to join the British military. She and Anne Bonny were two famous female pirates from the 18th century, and among the few women known to have been convicted of piracy at the height of the ' Golden Age of Piracy'. Mary Read (1685 – 28 April 1721), also known as Mark Read, was an English pirate. English-allied infantry and cavalry in Holland

The unbinding of mary reade