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Lilly Lark

Lilly Lark worked as a serving wench scratching a living (along with her flea bites) at the Mermaid Inn. She was frequently accosted by drunken sailors who had come to port after being at sea for many a month. But with her trusty cutlass always strapped to her hip she learned fast and learned well how to fend off the scurvy dogs. The only seafareres she had any time for were the Pirates of St. Piran who always treated her with a degree of respect and some kindness. One day when they were in port she decided she was sick of working for a pittance as a serving wench and disguised herself as a boy. Calling herself Tom Lark, she signed aboard with the Pirate crew when they set sail again on morning tide. This was a dangerous ploy on her part, because at that time, it was considered unlucky to have a woman on board. But young "Tom" worked hard and fought well earning much respect as a fine swordsman and a loyal shipmate. However on her first watch as helmsman things almost went disasterously wrong when she strayed miles from the course that the navigator had requested. But good fortune smiled on her that day and her error brought the ship right across the bow of a spanish merchantman laden down with silks and spices and a considerable quantity of gold.  This was the first of many strokes of good luck which earned her the reputation of being "lucky" and she became a kind of ships mascot. You can just imagine the crews consternation when it was revealed at a later date (due to an incident with some very slack knicker elastic) that she was in fact Lilly not Tom. The crew however, decided that as she had disproven the myth that women were unlucky on board ship, and as she had proven herself so well in other ways, she should be allowed to stay........ and here she be to this day. This was when the Pirates of St. Piran decided that wenches could make good crew members and have taken many lady pirates aboard since that day.