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A poor woman, Gertrude Stubbs dressed as a man so
that she could work aboard as a coalman on the steamships traveling along
the inland rivers of Whitby, an east coast port town in Britain. After an
injury blinded her in one eye, the doctor discovered she was a woman and she
was immediately fired from her job.
In revenge, she stole a police patrol boat, customized it into a fast-moving,
reinforced gunboat which she named the Witch. Hoisting her Jolly Roger, she
attacked paddleboats up and down the river using this boat, and was
nicknamed Gunpowder Gertie.
One of her crew eventually betrayed her for a reward and clemency, and in
a final battle with the law, he was killed along with most of her crew.
Gertie was imprisoned and died of pneumonia. The location of her booty was
never discovered. |
