Queen of England Elizabeth I - The pirate queen

First published 2011 by
A & C Black
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP
www.acblack.com

This electronic edition published in March 2012 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Text copyright 2011 Terry Deary
Illustrations copyright 2011 Helen Flook

The rights of Terry Deary and Helen Flook to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

eISBN 978 1 4081 8111 9

A CIP catalogue for this book is available from the British Library.

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My ma was the greatest pirate that ever lived. My ma was the terror of the Irish Sea. My ma made strong men turn to water.

My ma was Grace OMalley.

How do I know she was the greatest terror that ever turned water into pirates I mean the greatest pirate that ever turned the Irish Sea into water I mean oh, you know what I mean.

How do I know she was great? Because she told me. She told me every day she was back home.

Catherine, she said. Catherine, your ma is the greatest pirate that ever lived.

Are you really, Ma? I asked and looked up at her fine figure with her cropped, red hair. Her hair was so short they called her Granuaile in the old Irish language. If youre not Irish, that means bald. (If you are Irish, it still means bald.)

Most girls are proud of their mothers and think theyre as pretty as a shamrock in bloom. Now, even when I was too young to walk, I knew my ma wasnt a beauty. Her face was blotched by the salty west winds and scarred with fifty fights. Her nose was broken and one eye was half blind.

But I was still proud of my ma, Grace OMalley. Of course I wanted to be just like her. I wanted to bring back riches to our castle in Connacht. If youre not Irish, then you need to know that Connacht is the grandest county in Ireland. (If you are Irish, its still a grand county on the west coast of Ireland and I dont care how grand you think your county might be, Ill fight anyone who says Connachts not the best.)

As I say, I wanted to be just like my ma. I wanted to be a pirate. The problem was I could not wait. And thats how I got into all that trouble.

Mind you, it was just as well I did cause that trouble, because it was me who saved the life of Grace OMalley, Pirate Queen of Connacht.

I remember the night we sat in the great hall of the castle. The chill wind blew wild around Clare Island and all the shutters in Ireland couldnt keep it out. Even the blazing log fire didnt warm the room very much. My ma and her captains sat close to the fire. The poor peasants and the children like me shivered in the draughty dim corners with the dogs.

The last crumb of bread was eaten and the last bit of mutton gristle spat on the floor and Grace OMalley filled her wine cup. Heres good luck to the pirates of Connacht! she cried. And may the seas be full of treasure ships tomorrow!

The captains cheered and the sailors on the benches waved their hats. In the corners we coughed and sniffled.

Tell us a story, Queen Grace! a sailor shouted.

Of course she wasnt a real queen, just the leader of the OMalley clan, but the pitiless pirates of Clare Island would follow her to the death. Thats what mattered.

A story? she smiled. I dont know any stories.

The men laughed. Tell us about when you were a wee girl, old Hugh ONeil called out.

Aye! the others cried. They settled down with their warm wine and turned to face their pirate queen.

And so she began

When I was a girl, Grace said, my mother wanted me to be a lady. She taught me sewing and mending, painting and playing the lute, curling my long red hair in ringlets and making perfume from rose petals. I was so bored I could have jumped off the top of Clare Castle tower!

Hurrah! the pirates cheered.

I begged my father to take me with him on his next trip to Spain, but he said he wouldnt dare my mother would kill him!

Haaaa! the pirates laughed.

So I cut off my hair, stole clothes from a serving boy, and went down to the harbour. I walked over the gangplank to my fathers galley and told a sailor I was the new cabin boy.

I hid in a cabin till the ship was far out to sea and then I slipped away and found my father.

Ooooh! the pirates sighed, knowing what a fierce temper the old chief had.

First he said hed throw me over the side to feed the fishes. But I told him I was too skinny to feed a minnow. He laughed and said I could stay, but if he attacked another ship, I had to go below deck. And so I sailed to Spain with my fathers fleet of four galleys.

Hurrah!

One morning the lookout sighted an English cog and the crew raced to clear the decks. Father was too busy to notice me on the forecastle. That cog was as slow as a donkey in the water and we soon caught up with her, threw grappling lines across and made ready to climb aboard.

Ooooh!

But what Father didnt know was the cog had a troop of English soldiers aboard, and instead of us jumping aboard them, they jumped onto our decks.

Ahhhh!

Swords flashed and muskets blasted. I didnt want to be trapped in a cabin with no way out. So I climbed the rigging ropes that hung from the main mast and watched them fighting down below. Slowly, the English drove back our crew, and my father was facing an evil English soldier