THE ROYAL NAVY CUTLASS.

M ELEY · 24th November 2017, 02:52 AM

Great additions, Ibrahiim. You brought up a good point that just because a weapon went to sea didn't mean its exclusive function in that regard. Obviously, marine troops on ships were used for land actions, as this 'Marmara' contingent you pictured would have done.

Many of the boarding type weapons long outlasted their supposed usefulness in regards to changing warfare (the obsolescence of the sword towards the later 19th c.), era and the end of Fighting Sail. Cutlasses and pikes still continued to find their way aboard merchant ships and tea clippers into the early 20th century. Still, one might recall that many of these trading ships were traveling to the East to possibly 'seedy' ports, through areas where piracy was still alive and well (Malay islands, South China Sea) and into tropical warrens where local tribes were possibly hostile to the European interlopers (Polynesia, Borneo, the Celebes, etc). There is an amazing and exciting descriptive encounter between whalers and Kingsmill islanders as they stormed the ship in Gilkerson's 'Boarder's Away', pg 135. The point being, these weapons were still relevant up unto the present era.

24th November 2017, 02:52 AM	#23
M ELEY Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: NC, U.S.A. Posts: 2,184	Great additions, Ibrahiim. You brought up a good point that just because a weapon went to sea didn't mean its exclusive function in that regard. Obviously, marine troops on ships were used for land actions, as this 'Marmara' contingent you pictured would have done. Many of the boarding type weapons long outlasted their supposed usefulness in regards to changing warfare (the obsolescence of the sword towards the later 19th c.), era and the end of Fighting Sail. Cutlasses and pikes still continued to find their way aboard merchant ships and tea clippers into the early 20th century. Still, one might recall that many of these trading ships were traveling to the East to possibly 'seedy' ports, through areas where piracy was still alive and well (Malay islands, South China Sea) and into tropical warrens where local tribes were possibly hostile to the European interlopers (Polynesia, Borneo, the Celebes, etc). There is an amazing and exciting descriptive encounter between whalers and Kingsmill islanders as they stormed the ship in Gilkerson's 'Boarder's Away', pg 135. The point being, these weapons were still relevant up unto the present era.