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Disguised as a young man, Shirland served under
the command of Sir Francis Drake, before she returned to England and got
married in 1595. However, she could not stand the life of a housewife and
soon left her husband and went to sea again. Little is known about her life
and destiny from that point forward. She returned to York, England again
once or twice, where she gave birth to a little son. Soon afterwards she
left her family for good.
When she was captain on her own ship, she used men from the crew for her
pleasure and cut the throats of some of them with her cutlass. Due to that
and her mastery of the blade she was also known as the Cutlass Liz.
Hardly anything is known about her operations and the only successful
strike reported was the capturing of a Spanish merchant in 1604, where
Cutlass Liz looted silk and gold before burning the captured ship. A few
weeks afterwards she was betrayed to the Spanish by two members of her crew
and was arrested while making love to one of her traitors. As the Spaniards
dragged the naked woman pirate from the bed, she was suddenly aware of the
treason and managed to stab her lover with the dagger she had hidden beneath
her pillows. She was instantly killed by the soldiers, who spared her from
public humiliation and the painful death of hanging. Her only mentionable
booty was not on board her ship anymore and was never retrieved. |
