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Originally Posted by Dmitry
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.
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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.