Spirit of the Ocean

This is a very interesting manga. The background of the story is Ming Dynasty, China. The main character of the story is an outgoing teenage girl named Ning Hai (Hai means ocean). She grew up in a family of pirates... She's the daughter of the head pirate. One day, Hai lead a group of pirates to rob a Spanish ambassador ship while her father was away. Then she met an English man, Michael, who was traveling with the Spaniards. Michael gladly traded the whole ship of treasures for a map of China. Later, a friend of Hai was caught by the new police inspector Shao ZhiSiün. Hai snuck out to save her friend... but got caught also. Meanwhile, she met Michael again. When Hai's father heard that his daughter was being held in custody by the new police inspector, he tried to bribe the new guy, but failed. The new police inspector was not to be bought. So Hai's father bluffed and said he didn't care what would happen to the two (his daughter and the other young pirate). He thought his daughter should be able to get herself out of the mess. Michael helped Hai conceal her true identity so that Shao believed that Hai and her friend are just innocent civilians who were forced to join the pirates and arranged for them to work in his house...

(Source: Manga Art)