Elisa Davis

Elisa Davis, stepdaughter from Ann Davis, who's real name actually was Ann Bonny, from Cork. Her stepfather was Joshua Davis, born 1684, an innkeeper. He and his Irish wife Ann owned a little inn near the shore in Kernevac in Cornwall called the sea dragon. The place had been a trading post of booze smugglers for years. Joshu was killed because of the smuggling business. He stood up against the leading men and paid for that with his life. With Joshua out of the way, the leader of the gang, Faulkner, tried to buy Ann out of the Inn. But she refused the bid. Because of the use of ancient rules and a ruthless Faulkner, the rent Ann had to pay multiplied by 30. With Joshua gone, regular customers stopped visiting the Sea Dragon and even with selling her body there was no way of earning enough money to pay the rent. Elisa saw this all happen, tried to keep her mother from harm but through her actions only made things worse. One day Ann burnt the place down by setting the liquor stock on fire and they fled direction Bristol. The road was long and wet and cold. And full of hazards like the smugglers of Faulkner. Elisa, trying to help, again made things worse. In trying to turn over Faulkner to the police, she sentenced many smugglers to dead. Her stepmother Ann died while trying to undo the action of Elisa. She was killed by Faulkner.
In Bristol Elisa met Roodbaard (Redbeard), a man she only knew from stories and whom she all her life had wanted to meet. She knew the mysterious pirate captain Roodbaard once had been close somehow with her mother. Now here in Bristol, from this mysterious man of the sea and from other sailors she learned that the woman she had known all her life as being her mother wasn't her mother at all. Her real mother had been Mary Read, a friend of Ann Bonny. Both ladies were feared pirates in the early years of 1700.
In order to learn more bout her real mother and her stepmother Elisa decided to sneak on board the Black Falcon, (Zwarte Valk, Faucon Noir) the ship of Captain Roodbaard. She proved herself being worthy of being part of that crew en even got and grabbed the opportunity of killing the man Faulkner who had murdered her stepmother Ann. From then on Elisa would be known as Anny Read. She stayed on board the Black Falcon as a pirate and she and the much older Roodbaard became true partners and lovers.
Their relationship was on of ups and downs however. The young Anny, who by now had fulfilled many of her wishes and had gotten answers to many of her questions was caring and full of passion. The old pirate captain on the other hand, never was known to show passion, weakness or compassion. On day on a desperate journey that should lead to eternal wealth, he, Roodbaard, shot Anny in the left lower arm to end a serious fight. History does not tell whether there would have been another option to stop de fight, but the fact is that gangrene spread in the ill attended wound and on a rocky high trail in the Andes mountains her hand and wrist was amputated.

Series Barbe-Rouge, © Dargaud 2004
For the Dutch edition, series Roodbaard, © Dargaud 2004
The series Barbe-Rouge was originally created by Jean-Michel Charlier and Victor Hubinon
Artwork taken from album 31, De schaduw van de duivel (L'ombre du démon), album 32, Het pad van de Inca (Le chemin de l'Inca), album 33 and 34, Het geheim van Elisa Davis 1 and 2 (Le secret d'Elisa Davies, tome 1 et 2)

Writer: Christian Perrissin. Artwork: Marc Bourgne. Coloring: Jean-Jacques en Yves Chagnaud

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