Pirate swords and weapons

[RhysMichael]

Jim
A while back I told you about a sword at a resturant in Charleston called "Queen Anne's Revenge" (for obvious reasons). As I am sure you know Charleston's pirate history is extensive. The owner there has been collecting pirate artifacts for a good while (I am told decades) and has many of them on display in the resturant. The one I wrote of on here had a Nimcha ( Saif ) hilt and a blade from what looked to be a takouba. There are more than a dozen other swords on display there some are indeed hangers. I do not have photos from there but there are video tours from a news clip on the resturant here under the tours section that give a brief view of some of them.

http://www.qarevenge.com/

The priates soul museum in key west may be a good contact as well. They have a large collection but not many online photos of it
http://www.piratesoul.com/contact.aspx

While not all pirate the National Maritime Museum online collection is here and contains over 300 edged weapons, thats 300 online I think and more than 600 in its total collection (BTW they have a link on their page to this site )
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/exp...tegory/weapons

[Jim McDougall]

Thank you so much for the great responses guys!!! I really do think we can have some fun and exciting adventure with this topic!
You're right David, they did shorten down the blades on a lot of these weapons...wasn't a lot of room to wave around a three or four foot sword on those tiny decks!
Spiral, thanks for the name of that exhibition. I wish I had the copy of the catalog handy right now....it was an incredible reference, and most impressive accuracy. Maybe Artzi will read this and might have suggestions about copies.

Rhys Michael, I am determined to get to Charleston one of these days and think that will be on the GPS soon. Excellent links BTW ! Thank you! During the earlier dives on the "Queen Annes Revenge" I had a number of great conversations with Wayne Lusardi and we often joked about the finds because I always grumbled about the cannons...where are the swords I said!! Dont think they ever found any. There were some distinct finds on the "Henrietta Marie" I believe with a shellguard English hanger, and on the "Whydah" I think there were some.
The book "Swords for Sea Service" (2 vol) by May & Annis has great illustrations of many of these swords from the National Maritime Museum.

Its been a while since that saif with the takouba blade! but what a great example of the great diversity of weapons used in the mkany forms of piracy.

One book that comes to mind here that has great references on this topic is "Boarders Away" by Gilkerson.

One weapon that seems to come up in illustrations of pirate weapons, but is seldom focused on, is the Scottish basket hilt. It has been established that Blackbeard was actually dispatched by a blow by one of these, but it seems that a Highlander who had joined with British expedition chasing him was simply aboard at the time, not necessarily regularly at sea. Any thoughts on whether the basket hilt was actually employed at sea?


One thing that has really inspired me to address this subject on pirate swords is these pirate websites that inevitably show the brass basketguard 'cutlass' which is actually a M1860 U.S. naval cutlass of Civil War period. I think Wyeth perpetrated this is some of his otherwise magnificent illustrations.

While obviously European and British hangers of the mid 17th century prevail as those used on pirate vessels, thier adventures into the waters of the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean surely provided them with many forms of exotic weapons. Elgood shows karabela hilt nimcha with widened blade tip that may well have been used at sea by pirates from Muscat and others.

So many possibilities!!

All very best regards,
Jim

[Gavin Nugent]

Great thread Jim, I love them there pirates....hence my handle, Freebooter.

As with the trademark thread, just not a lot of time this time of year but I will leave you all with these images of an Executioners axe from the Danish West indies.

I bid with fury on this many years ago but just didn't have the coin to win at the time.

The images of the gallows and the wheel on this axe are very sinister, the gallows I am sure we all know about, but for those who have not seen the spoked wheel before, don't confuse it with a makers mark.

This wheel was a horrible things. For further reading follow this link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_wheel

This particular group of images is what pirates were on the receiving end of if they were ever caught.

[katana]

Hi Jim,
due to the close proximity of combatants on the decks of a ship, it is my understanding that basket hilted swords (European pirates and Privateers) were favoured, not only for the protection of the hand ( a crew with badly injured hands would have great difficulty in 'sailing ship') but also to strike your opponent,to stun ....before the coupe de gras. It seems that the cutlass blade was favoured for its weight (which was comparable to longer blades.) A basic functional 'chopper' suited to its use.
Apparantly the Barbary pirates favoured the Nimcha, however I cannot find any pictures or any reference to the dimensions of the blades.

A link to other pirates or those considered pirates....

http://www.national-army-museum.ac.u...ks/page2.shtml

Was hoping that the flags used by pirates might provide clues....nothing conclusive (a number of weapons shown) so far but this gives a little more 'background'

http://pvcbanners.co.uk/world-flags/...s/pirates.html

Regards David

Jim, interestingly the first flag has latin (?) similar to early makers marks

.

[Norman McCormick]

Hello,
Here's a blade I picked up a while ago and although probably dating from the latter half of the 18th Century, well after the pirate "golden age", I think it illustrates quite well the type of weapon most associated with buccaneers and pirates. The blade is 26 inches long pretty sharp and is most likely from a Government issue cutlass/hangar type weapon, the GR mark. If the makers mark on the tang rings a bell with anybody please let me know. Any more info or corrections, again, please let me know.
Regards,
Norman.

[Jim McDougall]

Freebooter, I figured that was behind your well chosen handle!!! I think we all have a certain curious affinity for these rascals! at least in the romanticized sense.
Your post with that fearsome looking axe surely adds some perspective to the darker side of the actual piracy phenomenon, and the markings are most intriguing as we have noted the appearance of similar marks on early executioners swords. Thanks very much for posting this, something not often seen in these discussions!

David, well said on the favor for well guarded hands on the close quarters melees on deck, and all manner of basketed, shell guarded edged weapons were chosen. There was little 'fencing' or 'styled' sword combat, typically more of a street fighting anything goes scrap, though many 'pirates' had been seamen in various navies.
As you note, the flags, while intriguing, offer only stylized hints of the weapons actually used and were used for emphasis symbolically. The letters do seem to represent first letters of some saying or phrase, probably well known to the men who used it, but unknown to us at this point. It does indeed fall in line with this practice on sword blade markings. Sets the mind to wondering what in the world it might have meant. It seems interesting that very similar defiance and rebelliousness is seen today in tattoos, biker symbolics etc. These guys were basically seagoing versions of todays rebellious subcultures.

The nimchas were of course used in degree by the Barbary pirates, which were actually confederations of groups along the littoral in North Africa from Morocco to Algiers and Tunis. These 'nimchas's (actually sa'if) were among the many forms of edged weapons probably used, and as you note, there was considerable variation in the blades but most were of full length, suggesting these might have been used more in shore assaults.


Norman,
Thank you for joining us here, and I've very much enjoyed the weapons you have been posting on the other threads! Great examples, as is this one, which is as you note, a heavy cutlass type blade from the 1790's to early 19th century. This would probably have been mounted with the regulation naval disc hilt (see "Boarders Away" by William Gilkerson for exact references but if I recall there is one nearly identical shown). I am not with most of my references presently so please bear with me, this is a fantastic book though! The GR and crown ordnance stamp was not used until the end of the 18th century, and was typically on these cutlass blades, particularly with government contractors. If memory serves, one of the contractors of this period was I think William Dawes, but would need to reconfirm. The reference would be in "Swords for Sea Service" May & Annis, again, not handy

Although as you note, the "Golden Age" had largely subsided by 1725, the scourge of the seas continued, and of course still does. These naval cutlasses certainly found use aboard various renegade vessels in those later times, but would be difficult to substantiate specific cases.

Thank you very much guys!!!
All very best regards,
Jim

[Matt Splatt]

Hello all, this is such a great subject I felt I had to throw in this little tidbit. I've had this for years and it used to have an old tag that read "Seized from Igbo pirate Niger delta, 1897". I'm very aware that this may just be a bit of fiction designed to sell a crusty old gun but I also think it might be representative of the modification of available arms to meet the requirements of pirating. The lock plate, stock and trigger look to be from a Brown Bess. The hammer is definatly not, it is rather crudely forged and bears the remnants of silver Koftgari. Perhaps it is Arab. The trigger guard and lanyard loop are rather roughly filed from aluminum. A short handy gun with a lanyard would be ideal for clambering from ship to ship with out your pistol going into the drink.