"The Pirate Queen begins in Ireland with the notorious Grace O'Malley, scourge to the most powerful fleets of sixteenth-century Europe. This Irish clan chieftain and pirate queen was a contemporary of Elizabeth I, and a figure whose life is the stuff of myth. Regularly raiding English ships caught off Ireland's west coast, she commanded two hundred men (and a couple of husbands), and acquired lands and castles that still dot the Irish coastline today." "But Grace O'Malley was not alone, especially in the waters of the North Atlantic where author Barbara Sjoholm traveled through coastal communities and seafaring ports to collect these little-known stories. Since ancient times, women have rowed and sailed, commanded and fished, built boats and owned fleets. The Pirate Queen brings some of these heroines back to life, including Leif Eiriksson's explorer sister Freydis, and Trouser-Beret, the Norwegian fishing captain. Sjoholm takes readers on a journey from the Irish coast through the Shetlands and Faroes to the fjords of Iceland and Norway."--BOOK JACKET.