This has been a fascinating thread which was intended to study the weapons and historic factors involved in piracy, admittedly with focus on the popularized versions most of us are familiar with. It is great to see this active 18 years later, and while there were of course the usual scrapes typical of forum and social media discussions, the valuable and interesting content manages to prevail.
I personally hope that more objective input can continue here without the editorial, idealistic and socio-philosophical perspectives which are better placed in other venues. I think we can all agree that 'piracy', clouded with 'privateering' has always existed in some degree on the seas, in most nations, cultures and times. However my goal here was to recognize the objective characters of the weapons used by all parties engaged in these activities.
I think Captain Kidd was one of the best examples of the fine line between privateer and legitimate preying on vessels and the state of being a renegade outlaw, pirate. Clearly there was great opportunity which attracted many men from various nationalities and ethnic groups. While this of course brought certain influences and biases, for the most part, pirate factions were strongly democratic in a most ironic twist. That being said, IMO that is as much of the political critique as needed to examine the weapons used in these pirate situations of these earlier periods and modern 'piratical' or other circumstances are indeed more political and not useful.
Returning to the central topic.......just WHAT determines a weapon is indeed a bonified pirate weapon? and how do we determine just what forms were in fact in use, and in certain areas in the 'Golden Age' and post Golden Age into early 19th c.?
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