about the figure

It is hard to separate the legend from the facts of Anne Bonny . The only thing we can be sure of is that Anne Bonny was a strong, independent woman , who was way ahead of her time. 18th century, was still a time when man made all-important decisions, a time when women did not have many rights. In this men's world, it was hard for Anne Bonny to become an equal crewmember and a respected pirate.

Anne Bonny was born in Kinsale, Ireland in the late 1690's. She was the daughter of a penniless maid and her employer, a well-to-do lawyer who was then married. After their tryst was discovered, the two ran off to America and established themselves as respected plantation owners in South Carolina. For young Anne, however, the rural comforts of plantation life were far less alluring than the stories floating around the nearby port of Charleston, a well-known pirate haunt. There, she met and married a small-time pirate named James Bonny, and the two moved to New Providence-now Nassau. He had hard time supporting her, and in the end, he became a pirate informer for the governor. Anne was disappointed, because she had made many pirate friends.

Anne left her husband. She run away with Calico Jack Rackham , romantic pirate Captain who even offered to buy her from Anne's husband.Calico Jack Rackham was a typical small-time pirate who usually attacked coastal shipping. He was not very successful as a pirate, but he knew how to spend money with style. The love relationship between Anne and Calico was not public, but on the ship, everybody knew that Anne was "the captain's woman".

When Rackham found out that she was pregnant, he left her on Cuba to deliver the baby. There are several theories about what happened to Anne's first baby. Some people think that she just abandoned her, some think that Calico had a friend with a family on Cuba who agreed to raise their child. Some even think that her child died at birth. After few months, she returned to Rackham's ship, but now infamous Mary Read was also on board. It did not take long for the two girls to become good friends.

In October 1720, Captain Barnet, ex-pirate, now commander of British Navy attacked Rackam's anchored ship "Revenge". Almost the entire Rackam's crew was drunk. They were celebrating all night, because they managed to capture a Spanish commercial ship. The fight was short because, only Merry and Anne resisted. However, at the end they were also overpowered. The crew of "Revenge" was taken to Port Royal to stand trial. The trial was a big sensation, because the background of the female prisoners was reviled. Anne and Mary were women who escaped from traditional restrictions and in their own way, fought for equality between men and women. Everybody was found guilty for the crime of piracy. The sentence was death by hanging. However, Anne and Bonny were spared, because they claimed to be pregnant.

Mary died in a Jamaican prison from fever, but the fate of Anne Bonny is unknown. According to some references, Anne Bonny’s father managed to pay the ransom for his daughter and bring her back to the Charles Town. Soon after, she gave a birth to Rackham’s child. In 1721 she remarried to Joseph Burleigh. They had eight children. She died in April 25, 1782 in South Carolina.

Whatever she did, her most memorable words are those she said to Calico Jack on the eve of his execution: I'm sorry to see you here, Jack, but if you'd have fought like a man you needn't hang like a dog.

box

As mentioned before, Romeo Models made a change on the cardboardfigure boxes to metal ones. The figure comes in the new 130 x 90 x 50 mm. size Romeo Models metal box. The four sides of the metal box includes the company logo and the bottom of the box tells about company information and some warnings about white metal models. The front cover shows the figure painted by Danilo Cartacci from three angles– front view,back view and the upper torso for the facial details .

Inside the box, there is an A4 paper sheet including short historical info about Anne Bonny prepared by Riccardo Carrabino and represented in 2 languages; Italian and English. There is no specific painting instructions for the figure and noted that as pirates has no dress code, the artist is free to use his/her imagination,except for the painting of parts in leather or metal.

Parts are well protected between two slabs of thick white polyfoam and parts of the figure base are placed under the polyfoam not to damage the figure parts.

parts

The figure is sculpted by Maurizio Bruno and made up of 10 white metal parts 2 parts for the figure base. All parts are cast clean and crisp in good details. There will be a small need to clean the a few slightly visible vertical seamlines on the inner sides of the arms.

The main part is full body without left foot. She wears a collarless short jacket with large cuff style sleeves named Fearnought. Though the captains usually wear long jackets, they were not practical for the crew who work on the deck so they prefered short and straight-cut jackets. Cloth folds and emroidery on the buttons are well defined. A small scarf is tied on her neck. The inner garment showing half of the breasts shows nice folds and nipples are also marked as a nice touch. She wears a knee lenght, wide trousers with front buttons which looks like a petticoat breeches, woolen lined stockings and metal buckled shoes. She carries a leather belt on his waist and a leather strap to hang the boarding axe is attached to her belt on the right side. A wide weapon belt is crossed on her right shoulder under her jacket to carry her cutlass and pistoles. The holes on the belt makes the holsters assembly easier and correct fit.

Head : The facial details, hair and bandana are well represented. It makes a nice fit to the neck part.

Left foot : Folds on the stocking and metal buckle of the shoe are well defined.

Right arm : Posed to put her fist on his waist. The puffy sleeves of the inner shirt, cloth folds and cuff-style sleeves of the jacket decorated with 3 metal buttons are well represented.

Left arm : Posed to put her hand on the wooden sidewall of the deck. It shows nice cloth folds. The two rings on the fingers are nice touch.

Sword : She carries a Cutlass - short,broad sabre or slashing sword with a straight or slightly curved blade sharpened on the edges and a hilt often featuring a solid cupped guard.

Handguard of cutlass : A shell-shaped handguard is given as a seperate part and will be attached to the hilt of sword.

Boarding axe : She carries a British style Boarding axe on the right side attached to her belt.

Pistols : (2 pieces) She carries 2 Flintlock pistols in leather holsters attached to her weapon belt.

Figure base : It consist of two parts ; the deck floor section and wooden sidewall . Parts fit together well and show very nice details with metal studs on wooden texture. Note that this figure base can be attached to the figure base of RM 75-005 Calico Jack figure to display them together. For the correct fit of the 2 figure bases ; pins and holes are given on the parts.

references

The following books and websites can be useful when painting this figure.

Osprey Publishing - Elite – 067 –Pirates 1660-1730 by Angus Konstam & Angus Mc Bride

Osprey Publishing - Elite - 069 – Buccaneers by Angus Konstam & Angus Mc Bride

conclusion

Another good addition to Caribbean Pirates series of Romeo Models. Very nice sculpt, high quality casting, ease on assembly and correct fit with pins and holes on the parts. A unique figure to paint with great pleasure.

Very Highly Recommended