The Most Successful Pirate in History Was Never Caught. She Got a Deal.

The widow Zheng (Zheng Yi Sao, also called Ching Shih) ran a pirate union of tens of thousands of sailors off South China in the early 1800s. She beat China's navy again and again, sold "protection passes" to fishermen, broke out of a blockade by China's navy and Portuguese warships, and when it was time to stop, she walked into the governor's office with no army and negotiated her own retirement. Her crews were pardoned, her right-hand man (and new husband) Zhang Bao became a navy officer, and she opened a gambling house. Blackbeard did not get this ending. Images: portrait of "Zheng Yi Sao" as imagined by a European printmaker, 1830s (public domain); Zhang Bao, from Yuan Yonglun's Jing hai fen ji (1830, public domain); Qing painted scroll of the blockade at Lantau (public domain); "Cheung Po Tsai Cave 2.jpg" by Minghong, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi.... ⏱️ Chapters 0:00 Never Caught? 0:26 The Woman With No Name 1:31 The Pirate Union 2:45 The Widow Takes Over 3:59 Everyone Tries to Stop Her 5:56 The Deal 7:12 Retired Rich 📚 Sources Dian H. Murray, Pirates of the South China Coast, 1790–1810 (1987) Yuan Yonglun, Jing hai fen ji (1830), tr. C. F. Neumann, History of the Pirates Who Infested the China Sea (1831) Richard Glasspoole, narrative of his captivity among the pirates (1809) Robert J. Antony, Like Froth Floating on the Sea (2003) Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Zheng Yi Sao" 🐦 Pigeon Post: history, delivered. New episodes every week. Subscribe so the pigeon can find you: https://www.youtube.com/@PigeonPostHi... Some scenes are comedic exaggerations, but the history is real. Music: "Asian Drums" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Music: "Mystery Bazaar" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Music: "Monkeys Spinning Monkeys" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Music: "Darkling" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Music: "Sneaky Snitch" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Music: "Five Armies" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Music: "Fluffing a Duck" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Music: "Investigations" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...