Frances Mary Blanche Bowen

Frances grew up in an extremely poor family, in the Welsh town of Pembrokeshire. Starting as a family of eight, her three older siblings died, soon followed by their father. Disease and illness took over and left the rest of the family devastated, and somehow worse off than they began with. Desperate and with two young mouths to feed, Frances's mother had no choice but to try and sell her as a slave or worker at the age of six. Due to her androgynous features, she didn't look her gender at all. No particular feature came out as female or male, which helped her mother pass her off as a young boy. Her hair was chopped and covered with a cap, and she wore her brother's old clothes and shoes to trick the eye even more.

She was quickly picked up and paid for by a crewrecruiter, but also quickly dropped off at the next port when she was caught going for a toilet. Even as she tried to be careful, she was found out on multiple occasions, until she turned sixteen years of age. She joined a merchant crew, surviving for a year before the captain realized something was up. Instead of the beating she expected, he listened to her story and agreed to keep her on, as long as he could educate and take advantage of her brain that he had been studying over time. With his help, she learned the best ways to keep her identity a secret, learned to read and write and learned how to further expand her mind. When he passed, she moved on from the ship, deciding to try her ways on the land. Years passed, she learned more and explored more before returning to the sea once again with a band of pirates. Instead of fully hiding her womanhood, she learned how to use it to her advantage.

The crew was a rare one - they all knew who she was, and none of them couldn't care less. Well, until they didn't dock for four months, then it started getting a little handsy. She aided them in raids and robberies, accentuating her feminine side with makeup and dresses to distract, proving her use more than anything. At the height of their career, the ship was attacked by the navy, and everyone but her and two other crew members survived - Mangus, who moved on and found a new crew, and young William, who decided to stick with Francis and follow her adventure.