I can't see any previous mention of "A sailor's Life" which is yet another (rather improbable) story of a girl going off to find her sailor love and hearing of his demise. I often wonder if the sailors wrote these songs to encourage fidelity, or if it was wishful thinking on behalf of their bored and lonely sweethearts on the shore.

Of course in "House Carpenter" the lady does actually dump her partner and go of to sea with someone else !

As for women pirates, besides Grace O'Malley mentioned above, there were also others such as Ann Bonny and Mary Read.

How many women successfully posed as men and went to sea undetected will probable never be known, but for some women (especially if their looks were rather masculine) both the sea or army could seem a more attractive life than that of a female drudge.

Still, a female (posing as male) managed to rise to the rank of surgeon-general in the British army at the time of the Crimean War. The deception was only discovered after her death. Someone else must have known, however, because in the best "Handsome Cabin Boy" tradition, she had at some point given birth to a baby !