From the moment of her birth, she was disguised as a boy so that her paternal grandmother would think that she was her deceased brother and not an illegitimate granddaughter. Her grandmother died when she was in her early teens, never suspecting that Mary was a girl.

Mary worked at a number of men's jobs, such as foot-boy and powder monkey, before she joined the Flemish army. There, she fell in love with her tent-mate, a Flemish soldier. She let him know that she was a woman. He fell in love with her and they married. They opened a small inn. Eventually, the business failed and her husband died. Mary put men's clothing on and became a sailor on a Dutch merchant ship.

The ship was attacked by English pirates. The pirates said they would spare Sailor Read because he was English, but only if he became a pirate. In 1718, Mary was in the Bahamas. She and her crewmates signed up to be privateers, pirates who were enlisted to attack enemy ships for the King of England (King George I).

Mary was on the same ship as Calico Jack Rackham, a flashy-dressing pirate. Mary fell in love with an Englishman on the ship. She saved his life by fighting a duel with one of his enemies.

Later, Mary again sailed with Calico Jack. This time, Calico Jack's common-law wife, Anne Bonny, took a liking to Mary. Mary refused her advances, eventually revealing that she, too, was a woman. Mary, Anne, Calico Jack, and the Englishman became close friends. They were the only people who knew Mary was a woman.

In 1720, the crew sailed a new, stolen sloop, the William along the coast of Jamaica. They were captured. The men were hanged. The women "pleaded their bellies." Pregant women could not be executed. Mary Read died of a fever in jail before she could be hanged. She is buried at St. Catherine's parish in Jamaica. There is no reliable record of what happened to Anne Bonny.

For an excellent biography of her and other woman pirates, read Booty, Girl Pirates on the High Seas by Sara Lorimer, 2002 Chronicle Press, San Francisco, California.