Navajas of the Galleons
 

Here's an awesome article supporting the use of these magnificent knives at sea-

http://www.melfisher.org/pdf/Navajas...2_Galleons.pdf

Gilkerson has mentioned the use of jack knives of this sort used at sea. It's great to find confirmation like this, though. Once again, like the Spanish/Portuguese cup-hilts, these little boogers were probably the side-arms of soldier/sailors guarding the Treasure Galleons. Some of the examples in Neuman's book and online are truly vicious weapons (one I just saw had an overall length with blade extended of 24" (a 13" blade!!), more than your typical jack-knife.

Nice paper on navajas, Mark.
Although these knives had their golden period (in Spain) by the XVII-XVIII century, Rafael Forton reminds us that the first navajas, as they may be so called, appeared by the end of the XVI century. There are (doubtful) records of artisanal cuttlery activities befora that date, but among the variety of short white weapons that were then produced, none would be considered as navaja, in its conventional attribution.
Now playing by ear ...
It is well known that these knives derived from ancient razors. Evolution must have been at first stage, the folding handle and, later, the locking method, which might have brought (greatest?) charisma to these knives. Such locking features, of several variations, culminate (for me) with the ratchet, with its various connotations, being the most amazing one, that of giving the unwary a chance to "hear" the noise of the knife being unfolded by its owner.

Awesome information on these knives, Fernando. Now that you mention it, I see where the earliest 'razors' had a similar form. From what I've read (I'm still a novice in this area), there are some distinctions that can somewhat help date them. Simple grips lacking rachets with only a simple pin holding the blade in place are some of the earliest, as are spear-point double edged blades. Rachets started appearing around the mid-18th century, as did expanded bolsters. It wasn't until the mid-19th c. that we see the pull ring release for the blade. Likewise, the more decorated examples with MOP grips, inlay designs and shaped hilts were later affictations. I can't wait to add one of the plainer, early examples to my naval collection...

Great paper. Thanks. I once had a horn and bronze navaja with Afikaans inscription on it.

Hello Battara,
Do you still have the piece? Pics? :D When you mention afikaans inscription, are you referring to the Moraccan style markings? Sorry for my novice question.
It is fascinating how many of these are made in the so-called Moorish style, with the same type of "star" designs and line patterns one sees on Spanish colonial pieces. Hopefully I'll get an old one some day.

Actually it was not Morrocan but Afrikaans and said, "Van a boor in varin (spelling)" which a friend who could speak Afikaans translated as "From a true Boar". The horn handle was white horn and it had a ratchet locking mechanism.

I which I had internet pictures of it but alas they were lost and I sold the piece long ago. :(

My money is on the razors, not knives. Iron discipline was required on board ships, especially the treasure ships and naval vessels. Sailors did not carry knives as a matter of fact, all the repairs of the tackle and sails were done by the sail-makers and their crews, who had their own tools.
As we can see from numerous period paintings, most people were clean-shaven, even the lower classes [and sailors were the lowest of the low], to combat lice and infections. Author writes about scars on faces of some of the crew members. It could have been pox, acne, who knows.
The lone knife that he pictures with a plastic mould done after the original blade looks like a fruit knife. In regard to Newman's pictures of the folding knives, many of them have been identified as provincial Italian shabby jobs, not 18th c., but mid-19th or even early 20th c.
All in all I find the topic interesting, but the supplied article not convincing in the least. I can be wrong, of course.
Just my $ .02

Interesting. As I said, I'm a novice when it comes to these, so I welcome the feedback and opinion. It is troubling that the powers that be would allow sailors, many of them possibly mutinous, access to such tools while at sea. Hmm, perhaps you are onto something, Dmitri. I do wish there were some period paintings or inventory lists that might shed light on the subject better. If these were carried by sailors or pirates, I'd love to add them to the collection. If not, I'd pass...

The egg of Colombus
 

Say, Mark,
Have yout tried the search button ?
... Many threads on navajas there, including pictures of Battara's example, as well as others.

Oh no, Fernando! Not the egg of Columbus quip again!! That one is becoming my "Shaver Cool" shocker these days! :D

You are right, of course. I did briefly look at some of the past threads. My main concern was for possible naval use. Even given that perhaps common naval men and merchant sailors didn't carry them, there is still enormous room (and needed research) for their use on privateers and pirate vessels, who had no such rules and regulations. As Gilkerson points out, these flotilla of vessels far out-numbered the existing navies at the time. Thanks for the reminder about old threads, though. I shall partake of them when I get the chance.

Not to worry Mark .
I was brought up with a round turn on my hand cannon inquiry . ;)

You are not alone . :D :D

Think about it. 500 ton galleon, loaded with millions worth of riches, with a crew of about 200-250 rough muchachos, many of them convicts. Even 20 hombres armed with navajas could easily disarm the guard of the gun-room, secure it, proceed to overtake the ship, and sail her wherever they wanted to. No captain in his right mind would allow knives to be carried by the ratings.
I don't want to repeat myself, but all the jobs requiring something to be cut were done by the specialist crews, carpenter, sail-maker, purser, etc. Sailors would have no business having a knife on board. They even ate with their hands.
Just my 2 reales..

Hi Folks,

I am with Dmtry on this one. This paper has been around for a while, but I for one cannot take it seriously as it clearly was written without having given serious thought to the subject.

After having studied the work of Forton and others, I have concluded that whilst folding knives of some kind or another have been around since at least Roman times, the lockable navaja, for our purposes the only one of interest as a weapon, is an XVIII century development,


Here are some loose and abbreviated translations from Forton's La Navaja Antigua Espanola, the standard reference book on the subject:

Pg 25: In my judgement, the navaja of olden times can be defined as follows: Popular instrument used in Spain during the XVII, XVIII and XIX....with a single edge, pointed and nearly always somewhat curved, fitted with a mechanism that allows it to turn from within the handle... measuring 18-24cm when closed.

CE's Note: I consider it very significant that Forton does not include a blade fixation or locking mechanism in his definition. This omission broadens the concept of what a navaja almost to the point of meaniglessness. It is also significant that Spanish legislators recognized that it was the locking mechanism that rendered a folding knife into a weapon.

Pg48: From the beginnings of the XVI century the word navaja is used frequently but in a vague and undefined sense. It isn't the shaving razor nor the navajon (CE: A large navaja, but of what kind?) but it did refer to some kind of cutting instrument with a sharp edge.

Pg 65: It is difficult to establish when exactly the navaja appeared in Spain.... The most important reason that the use of the navaja became adopted by the populous, from the XVII century onwards, was self defence in the face of dangers attendant on prevailing conditions.... As long as the Spanish monarchs allowed the possession of the sword, the navaja did not appear....

CE's Note: Until the death of Charles I, in the mid XVI century, there were no restrictions on the ownership of swords

Pg69: ....the navaja did not appear in a generalized form until the beginnings of the XVII century

Pg 72: The earliest reliably documented navaja that I know of is dated October 23, 1699... It is nowadays kept at London's Victoria and Albert museum.

CE's Note: This folding knife does not look anything like what we would now call a navaja

Pg 77: It is from 1732 when the word "navaja" gains a definitive meaning in a legal context....

Pg 90: Quotation of first royal decree, dated 1721, against the possession cut and thrust weapons that may have included navajas by implication.

CE's Note: Curiously, Forton does not elaborate on the Spanish war of succession of 1702, which resulted in the expulsion of the Habsburgs and the ascent of the French Borbons to the Spanish throne. It was after this event that Spain became an annex of France and the government commenced the effective disarmament of the population. Why Forton glossed over this watershed event defies my comprehension.

Cheers
Chris

Chris, could you expand on that?
That decree wouldn't include swords, would it?

No Dmitry, no swords.
May antecipate Chris?
Felipe V pragmatic (decree) of December 1721 reads:

We impose that those who are caught with puñales, giferos, rejones and other short white arms; if they are Noble, the penalty of six years in the Presidium, and if they are Peasants, six years in the galleys ...

The three specified weapons were dagger variations of the period. The expression "other short white arms" leaves no doubt to Forton that included navajas.

Thanks, Fernando.
Looks like the King was not keen on the concealed weapons on dry land. I would assume that he was also not keen on the concealable weapons on board his ships.

The Lash
 

In a time when even giving your superior a wry look would buy you a flogging; I have got to agree about this form not being a Sailor's knife .

Dmtry,

Fernando beat me to it (I was asleep down under!)


Fernando,

Thank you.

Cheers
Chris

Thank you gents for finally clearing this issue up for me. As you know, many naval references are being updated and the older manuals still mention these as side knives. It makes sense that the cargoes of these lost ships would have been carrying knives and razors to the New World, and their discovery on the wrecks lead to the confusion. The same goes for the large groups of un-hilted sword blades often found. However, I'd bet a silver cobb or two that there were pirates/privateers that carried them- ;) :eek:

Pardon me
 

I wouldn't digest this thing of sailors not being allowed to carry knives without some extra mastication.
The reasoning of, only crew members with an appointed craft be allowed to use them, is perhaps a bit ambiguous.
I am too lazy to browse the books looking for evidence, but in a first thought i would say that, the majority of sailors aboard had one or more crafts to perform; in a way that was the (multi) purpose of professional sailors. Maybe not mechanic jobs like carpentry, or fixing the water pumps, but mending sails, tying ropes and that sort of things. I can not imagine a sailor without a knife; not a folding knife, with a concealing intent, but a tool knife, for a zillion needs inherent from being aboard ship.
If a mutiny had to take place, it was not the knife which played the nuclear key for such decision. Lots of devices found aboard could be used as weapons. Even admiting that only selected artisans could bear knives, this would not be a secure way to prevent mutiny ... either in their own hands or grabed by other men.
Discipline aboard and contention of conflicts passed by other measures.
Besides rank sailors, ships garrison was more diverse, including soldiers and artillery men ... although firearms and gun powder were kept locked and only distributed in case of iminent combat.
Concerning the social status of crew members, ironically were the soldiers that were "drafted" in streets, taverns or prisons and not sailors, as these would have to be more qualified for the job. Soldiers were not so much required to know how to shoot a musket or handle a pike, as sailors had to undoubtedly know how to operate a ship.
In this last one (and half) paragraph i am citing the chroniclers.

Hi,

I think that a key consideration here is the weapon potential of an early, that is pre XVIII century, navaja. As far as I can make it out, in the absence of reliable diagrams/paintings and surviving specimens, this has to remain a moot point.

Forton thought that the XVII century navajas had weapon potential but did not advance evidence for this and given that all extant specimens that could fill this role pertain to the post Borbon ascent, I remain unconvinced.

This is not to say that simple, non-locking friction type folders were not around before the 1700s, as they were for centuries, but rather that these would not have served as weapons of any significance. Without a lock, a folding knife is not a weapon, as evidenced by current UK legislation.

Cheers
Chris

Fernando, you got my brain working again! Thank you :D :rolleyes:
In multiple books and manuals on naval "tools", I've seen small knives carried by sailors for a variety of ship-board purposes. The knives were used for whittling, scrimshaw, fraying rope, sharpening fids, etc, etc. I understand that perhaps navajas were not allowed and likewise as Chris points out, not around at the early date specified, but there were definitely side knives at sea. A recent book I read concerning punishments at sea even mentioned sailors killed in knife fighting on the ship, with the transgressors being hung from the yardarm. Perhaps these knives were smuggled aboard? Come to think of it, in this circumstance, I believe it was a merchant vessel...

That is not the case. Sailors were pressed onto ships en masse, not all of course, but significant numbers. That's the main reason that most were not allowed to disembark when in port, or they would inevitably run off. Whores were brought on board instead.
Much valuable information on the life of sailors in the age of sail exists.

BTW, scrimshaw is not done with a knife, it's scratched into the ivory with a sharp needle, also called a scribe.

Chris, to what period would you date the earliest locking folding knives? Any extant examples of the really early stuff?

Dmtry,

This is a very difficult question to answer with any certainty, principally, because there is not a single known and reliably dated surviving specimen that predates the XVIII century, save for one made in 1699 and which is not a weapon, nor am I aware of any paintings or other artistict depictions that show people carrying one in earlier times.

However, the technology of the lock found on later navajas, IMO, could have been easily replicated by the end of the XVI century, given the advanced state of metal working and lockworks in general. So why didn't we have locking navajas earlier on? I tend to agree with Forton that as long as better weapons were available, there was simply no need for clasp knives, which IMO even at their best are vastly inferior to fixed blades.

Where I differ with him, at least until some contrary evidence is presented, is that he ascribes the adoption of a non specific weapon grade folder to the beginnings of the XVII century, whereas on the evidence available, it was after the Borbon ascent that a credible weapon grade folder became widely used in Spain.

Of course, it is entirely possible that substantial primitive folders came gradually into use in the course of the XVII century and that these could somehow be crudely locked out for use as a weapon on the odd occasion, but why do this if better weapons were available? Here we need some proof that effective and enforced weapon bans, other than restricting swords to the nobility, were in place before the Borbons.

It is a while that I read Forton's book with due attention, but with all its faults it remains the most highly regarded work on the subject. It examines the navaja in various contexts, one being the legal and devotes quite a bit of space to it. Remembering that he graduated as a lawyer, I find it curious that all the anti C&T weapon ordenances and laws that he quotes were post 1700 and this reinforces my belief.

Cheers
Chris

That makes much sense. Gadgets like the locking knives would be relegated to the people who could afford them.
Like this Italian mid-16th c. folding spetum in the Higgins Museum.
The locking mechanism, with a button release looks similar to the weapon-grade folders.
Was it made out of necessity? Hardly. It was a one-a-kind gimmick, but a beautiful one.

But why did the locking knives blossom later on? Tradition?
Unfortunately I don't read Spanish...

Perhaps there are differences between the various (country) navies and also in time period. Pyrard de Laval (1575-1652) points out some, distinguishing determined habits aboard practiced by either Portuguese, Dutch, English French.
May also the logic of terminology be considered, aggravated by my poor english and translation difficulties.
Senior sailors and (cabin) boys would be a distinct thing, respectively in what touches their recruiting, capacities, attributions and behavior from command towards each of them.
Laval makers a thorough description of the navigation between Portugal and India, emphasizing distinctions of crew members in the diverse type of embarkations, namely carracks (Naus) for the (so called) India career, all built in Lisbon, destined to bring back spices (generally called pepper), or the galleons ready for combat, to transport big shots or other express purposes, these being also built in India ship yards and elsewhere. He states that such carracks reached much over 1000 tons, being therefore the largest ships out there, not able to navigate on less than ten braces depth. Concerning personnel, he describes a remarkable distinction between the well considered sailors of such large merchandise carracks and mid size ships, where sailors were of lower profile, those, yes (your’e right here) were caught by force … even superior rank, assuming that those ships do not come back. And if ever they return, their crew men might get a post in large ships, but no so high as in the galleons they have served; from what comes that is a higher honor be a sailor in a large carrack than counter master in a galleon.
Concerning knives aboard, i believe these were decidedly sailors gear, but naturally not that of boys, be them grumetes (aspiring to sailors) or pages which, after all, counted for a significant number of the garrison aboard. Laval mentions more than one boy per sailor; narrations from the Pedro Alvares Cabral period (1500’s) describe these boys with ages from 12, receiving a symbolic salary and, in both descriptions, performing the simplest jobs, like wetting the decks (would could not get too dry, risking the whole boat to crack), screaming the hours (live clocks) and other kind of “public” attentions, besides serving their master sailors in all services aboard.
… But i am digressing here :o .

Dmitry,

I have serious doubts about locking navajas having been ever normative in Spain. Much more likely is that it they represented only a fraction of the total numbers of folders in use and then only in the regions where cutlery industry was a significant part of the economy, as in Albacete.

As to why a lock was needed: For a knife to become a serious weapon, it must allow for the thrust. The wielder of a folding knife that does not have some sort of blade fixation mechanism when open, runs the risk of finger amputation should the blade close, be it whilst thrusting or if the blade is parried with a jacket, as was the practice in the Spanish fight.

Forton gives examples of post Borbon legislation that prohibit locks and then tells us on Pg 108 that the authorities did not have a problem with with folding knives per se, given their general utilitarian necessity, but rather their violent usage, for which a blade fixation mechanism was a requirement and thus legislators focused on this feature.

On the same page Forton says that since the majority of navajas in use had some sort of lock, the adverse legislation had a devastating effect on the cutlery industry. I find this assertion very hard to accept because:

a) Non locking navajas were much easier to make and thus cheaper. Hence, anybody who needed a working knife would not have exposed themselves to the wrath of the law, nor (given the prevailing poverty) spent hard earned money needlessly and would have opted for a friction folder.

b) The bulk of the large French navajas imported into Spain during the XIX century had only what I call a demi-lock, which did not prevent the blade from closing if some force was exerted on it, much like a modern so called slip joint.

c) For work, to this day cheap friction folders are still extremely popular in Spain and not the locking navaja. These are typical examples:http://www.filofiel.com/tienda/index...=22_34_112_472

In any event, since fixed blades were prohibited, cutlers still could make a living from making legal friction folders as the boutique cutlers of today do. A much more likely cause behind the decline of Spanish cutlery was its uncompetitiveness in the face of industrialization in the rest of Europe, especially France.

Cheers
Chris

Fernando,

Good post. Am learning a lot about naval matters!

Cheers
Chris

Very interesting material and points made-

Fernando, you bring up an excellent point and back it up concerning the class of ship and cargo, as well as nation. All of these facts would affect attitude and armament as you mention (I had hinted at it briefly concerning the merchant classes). Even apart from side-knives, we also have to take into account the use of dirks by midshipmen and officers. Unlike other boarding weapons that were accounted for, dirks were the personal property of the men coming aboard. They purchased them and often chose the style/design. If knives were banned, would it not have caused great derision to let the officers (including midshipmen as young as 10!) to carry such but ban the others? Not trying to put up a fight, but I think the jury is still out on the final answer to this one.

Chris, nice information on the evolution of clasp knives. I still am fascinated with these types and hope to obtain an earlier specimen some day. Think 'XVIII' type, which from what I can glean from this thread so far would lack the later rachet and be more of a friction type.

Derision?! A man would have been flogged if he even looked at an officer the wrong way, let alone expressed derision. In that case he would've been put in irons, and probably hanged. Dirks were patently officers weapons, like swordss, and part of uniform. Men had no uniforms. The divide between ratings and officers was astronomical. There is a wealth of information on life on board.
Certainly if knives were carried by men we should see some period accounts of their use on board.

Chris, thanks for the explanation.Looks like I have succumbed to the false notion that locking navajas were the norm. I guess the romantic sea novelsa re not a good source of credible information. :-)

There were a number of co-existing typologies, the ratcheting locker being just one of them. By the XVIII century locking navajas were indisputably in common usage. Many had a lock but no ratchet, or a rotating ferrule, like modern Opinels, a good many only had back springs like modern slip joint and probably far more were simple primitive friction folders.

Cheers
Chris

Well, you are not alone as Forton himself tells us so, but I beg to differ as his assertion does not stand up to critical scrutiny.

The problem with navajas is that like the creole/gaucho knives, they became national cultural icons and all kinds of myths have been created about them. Now it is the devil's own job trying to sort out the facts from fiction.

A further problem is one that we as collectors have created for ourselves. We instinctively go for the glamour pieces and ignore the banal - With time this acts as a filter and only these items end up surviving in collections creating the impression that they were normative, rather than the exception.

Cheers
Chris

Maybe as often with this subject, some myth should be discounted and due context should be taken into account.
Hanging would be a practice exercised in piracy environments, where such was the lightest penalty among all imaginable practices of cruelty that reportedly took place. Would also be one of various anti piracy penalties. But not a current procedure in regular navy
Captains of the India route, for one, in their full authority could not condemn to death, even for crime, but could submit the offenders to torment, which the French called passer par sous le navire e caler (tying the man and pass him all the way under the ship's keel ... eventually full of sharp shells) and other body punishmernts, like hanging the man from under his arms. He could also keep any man locked by his feet with irons during the whole trip, for later delivery to justice.
I guess there are no emphasided accounts of knives being used on board because their possession was a natural thing, not worth so much to point out.
Besides, when we read period chronicles, we pay our attention to other more decisive particularities.
Also authors prefer to mention what the ships or soldiers are basicaly equiped with, giving account of their respective artillery, muskets and lances, not contemplating such basic thinks like sailors pocket gear.
But perhaps if we re-read those books and focus on this subject, now and then knives play their role; primary or secondary, whether in a fight or, more likely, as an utilitarian device.
Again, i can not imagine a sailor going to ask the guardian to lend him a knife every times he has to mend a sail, make a knot or fix the riggings.

AS AN EXAMPLE
 

Laval narrates that, contrary to the Dutch and French, who are provided with a cook and every six men eat ready food in one plate, the Portuguese are supplied once per month with raw goods: salted meat, olive oil, vinegar, salt, onions, fish; bread, as much as they can eat, whine and water are given daily. Other raw articles are sold aboard by those who bring them from land; he saw one chicken be sold for 20 reales.
Every one has to cook his own food, resulting that you can often see more than eighty or hundred pans simultaneously on the fire. And when these are cooked, a next lot is put on such fire. For this reason when some men are ill and can not compete with this strugle, are mistreated and sub nourished, eventually dying of such cause.
This to say that, if the men had to prepare and cook their food, they would naturally had to use knives; hardly they would toss entire fishes and hens on the pan, before cuting them in pieces.
But not a single mention of knives appear in the text !
I would however risk to say that such it is implicit.

Likewise, while not trying to split hairs, perhaps we need to more closely define who we are calling the 'crew'. I never meant to only concentrate attention on the common sailor on ships. We are in agreement that midshipmen and officers carried dirks in French/English/American crews. Who is to say what the officers of other navies carried (knives, navajas). When we see that some on these ships were likewise separate from the average sailor, such as the Royal Marine squads that served in the Tops and dispensed discipline on board, one can question what these soldier-types carried. On the Treasure Fleets, many of the Spaniards and Portuguese personnel on board were 'soldiers' and not crew. These men apparently always had their weapons at the ready to stave off pirate and enemy boarding. I will agree that knives on board ships was probably restrictive and not the rule, but I can't accept that they were non-existent in this setting-
Perhaps with more data in the future, I will feel confident to fully come aboard with the idea of "no knives, ever"- :shrug:

Gentlemen,

You all make observations that cannot be ignored, but we are moving away from the subject of this thread, namely the paper of Corey Malcolm.

He makes the following points re the folding knife which is the subject of his writing:

In line with such thinking, these items would have been useful not only for shaving but also as medical scalpels.

CE: As far as it goes, this is not contentious.

...But, in light of the many other needs aboard a ship at sea, and only a limited number of resources to cover them, did these knives really serve such specific purposes on the ships? Or were they much more versatile? The word navaja itself is certainly suggestive of this. The term is interchangeable for both folding knives and razors...... Just as today, sailors then would have found themselves relying heavily on an easily accessed, portable, personal “pocket” knife. Such a tool would serve any number of mundane uses throughout a typical day, such as cutting lines, peeling fruit, and cleaning fingernails.

CE: Here he makes a huge unwarranted leap of reasoning. Anybody who ever had to shave and sharpen a straight razor would know that this assertion is ridiculously impractical. Razors/scalpels are not all purpose tools and any attempt to press them into such service puts an and to their life as razors/scalpels. Their edges are extremely thin and delicate, fit for only the intended task. The claim that the term "navaja" was ambivalent does not change the physical realities.

The one blade, which was recovered as an epoxy cast from the marine concretion that formed around the original, is 13.2cm long, and 2.9cm at the widest point. The cutting edge has a slightly convex belly, and an examination of the sides shows a hollow grind...

CE: The blade is way too short for a weapon of any great consequence and the hollow grind is indicative of a razor. HGs were preferred for razors because they provided the thinnest edge possible. HG in the olden days was a difficult and time consuming process and was not found on utility knives until much later.

Though the point is not blunt, it is not particularly sharp. All of these characteristics suggest this knife was designed more for cutting than stabbing or piercing.... Holes for the hinge pin are barely 2mm in diameter.... The sheath was either broken or rotted over time, and is not quite complete....There is no evidence for a locking mechanism to hold the blade in place when it was opened....

CE: A frail construction and the absence of a lock! Hardly suggestive of anything but the lightest duties and certainly not the characteristics of a weapon grade or multi purpose clasp knife. And the case? Utilitarian/weapon grade folding knives were not carried in laboriously decorated cases/sheats, rather tucked in the belt. In any event, the brass work on the case shown is way too elaborate for an affordable sailor's knife.

....In the 16th century, navajas were carried regularly in the waistband.....


CE: Indeed, and the galleon in question was not wrecked in the 16th century, rather in the 17th!

In moments of anger, this handy tool could also become an easily accessed weapon.

CE: This is a most ridiculous leap in reasoning. To be sure, we know that barber's razors have been used as weapons of last resort, but so have blunt table knives, brooms and whatever, but does this make a case for these folders having found such generalized usage? Hardly.

....a significant number of folding-knife sheaths have been found..... The one blade, which was recovered.....

AND

The large number of navajas recovered from the 1622 galleons makes clear they were a common part of early 17thcentury shipboard life and because of this fact, as well as their versatility, were found well beyond just the surgeon’s tool kit.

CE: Am I missing something? A number of cases and one blade were recovered. No disputing that razors would have been common on a ship, but to conclude that these were all purpose tools and weapons is unjustifiable on the basis of the evidence presented.

Does anybody know if sailors shaved themselves or was this done by the barbers? Mirrors would have been very scarce....

A final comment: There is nothing in this paper that would suggest that these folders belonged to sailors, rather than officers/soldiers/barbers, OR that they simply formed part of the cargo.

Cheers
Chris

Folks,

Went to the website of the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum and found a number of similar and very interesting papers, similar to the one being discussed here.

http://www.melfisher.org/1622fleetresearch.htm

There is one by the same author and titled Crime And Punishment On A Galleon, which gives us a bit of an idea about on board discipline. After reading it, I tend to concur even more with Dmitry that violent behaviour by sailors would not have been tolerated on a Spanish galleon and that this article undermines the author's suggestions re navajas and sailors.

Cheers
Chris

Folks,

Here is an very informative paper on Spanish galleons and ship life organization.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/60556803/O...0-Osprey-Nv-96

Cheers
Chris