Pirate Roster

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Catherine Hagerty

Copyright 2003, David Stapleton

Catherine Hagerty and Charlotte Badger were sent to the penal colonies in and around Australia; the following provides a summary of their adventures.

Catherine is described as the more attractive of the pair, being blonde and fresh complexioned; while Chalotte is described as fat with light hair. It is assumed that both were being transported to the penal colonies in and around Australia; Charlotte as a London pickpocket, Catherine for an unknown crime. Shipped first to Port Jackson and from there departed for Hobart Town, Tasmania aboard the brig Venus. June 16 saw Catherine, Charlotte and some male convicts convincing the first mate to steal the ship while anchored at the River Tamar and the captain, Samuel Chace was visiting another ship.

 The women with two of the men departed the ship at Bay of Islands, New Zealand, while the remaining crew went pirating, although there was no one aboard that knew how to navigate the ship. The two men who had accompanied Catherine and Charlotte, John Lancashire and Benjamin Kelly were captured and taken to London for trial. The Maoris, South Sea natives, captured the Venus with it's pirate crew, burned the ship for the scrap metal and more than likely consigned the crew to the cooking pot.

It appears that Catherine had died of disease; Charlotte is said to have had a child and lived with a minor chieftain at the Bay of Islands (another story tells of her being picked up by a passing American whaler on Vavau in the Tonga Group.

Charlotte is known today as Australia's first female pirate, although it seems more probable the Catherine was the real instigator of the crime. Joan Druett tells the story better in She Captains.