The Chinese Ching Shih worked as a prostitute and ended up being the leader of a pirate fleet numbering 2,000 ships.
She was born in 1775 and at the age of 26 she was working in a brothel in southern China.
There she met a well-known pirate who wanted to marry her. This was after he agreed to have her as his partner in running the fleet.
He began commanding the Red Flag Fleet of 200 ships. Eventually this fleet reached 1,800 ships.
6 years after their marriage, he drowned in a typhoon and Ching took command of the fleet. The piracy action was taken over by the vice-captain of the fleet and she took over the business sector.
Until 1810 she controlled the entire sea in southern China with tens of thousands of pirates and a spy network.
She made agreements with merchants in coastal cities to provide them with protection and they paid taxes.
She controlled with strict discipline and for any serious offense there was only one penalty, cutting off the head and throw it into the sea.
The emperor of China tried many times unsuccessfully to ‘tame’ her. Eventually he was forced to grant amnesty to her pirates and incorporate them into his own navy. For her he gave a title of nobility.
Then she opened a gambling brothel which she ran until her death.
She died in 1844.
[Source: http://www.mixanitouxronou.gr]
