Pirate swords and weapons

[kronckew]

hi jim, interesting thoughts on the one that was billed as a 'klewang' by it's previous owner who mentioned it might have been confiscated from pirates. could be chinese with the point reground. here we go using terms that just mean 'sword' locally. it was purported to have come from malaysia.

i also have this bornean (?) parang on the way from birmingham*,

while it looks a bit like a dyak parang ilang, it's apparently not a mandau (double knife). the blade supposedly is from around 1900, but the dress has been restored. will have better idea when it arrives (would have been easier to drive the hour up there, but it's coming via Royal Mail ).

* the UK one, the Alabama one woulda been a two hour trip from home in morgan county.

[fernando]

Also pistols like this one are said to have been were used by pirates ... those with more wealth.
This is a Queen Anne pistol, assumedly from the the XVIII century.

[Gavin Nugent]

A long time coming with these pics as with a lot of threads I do wish to add my bit too. Below are a series of engravings from a time life book that should give a good indications of the weapons carried by them there pirates arrg!!

Also a great read for anyone interest in these pirate stories and discoveries from the bottom of the sea would be any books by Barry Clifford, the research and insight into the life and times of these misplaced men is amazing.

I beleive if you right click and attempt to save the image it will reveal the name of the pictured Pirate for those who are interested.

There is also an image of weapons of the day and it is said all these weapons are carried at once for most excursions as they had to be a walking arsenal but both long arms were most likely not carried at the same time. As seen in one engraving 6 more more pistols were carried by some.

Gav

[Robert]

Well I can't say that this was ever on a ship but I do think loaded with nails or shot it would have been quite helpful if you had to clear the decks. It was originally a flint lock that was later converted to musket cap.

Total length is 30 inches
Barrel is 16-1/2 inches
Bore about 3/4 inch


Robert

[Jim McDougall]

Hi Gav,
Thank you for posting those illustrations out of "The Pirates". That Time-Life book has some of the greatest photos and illustrations, and really brought things to life when reading about these scoundrels
Its great to have those pictures here to bring that dimension to the discussion while we examine the many different types of weapons actually used by them. While those illustrated are pretty much the standard forms estimated in use, we have seen that in reality there was an amazingly wide spectrum of forms from equally widely ranged cultural spheres.

Good suggestion on Barry Clifford, especially on the discovery of the "Whydah". It seems that among the artifacts discovered, I believe there was the remains of one of the pistols with ribbon still festooned to it. Interesting to think of these pre-revolver days with one gun having six shots instead of having to wear six pistols!

Thanks for the musket Robert, quite literally a hand held cannon! No doubt, as you have noted, it would clear a deck pretty quick!

All best regards,
Jim

[BBJW]

Carrying 6 or more single shot pistols was quite a load, but Jesse James and others in Quantrill's Raiders were known to carry more than 20 revolvers on and about them and their horses on raids. That was a lot of firepower in the 1860's! On shipboard one of the best guns was the swivel gun ususally mounted on both sides of the bridge. I'm building one now and when it is finished I'll post it. It has a 1.75 inch bore and I have test fired it with shot. Absolutely devastating out to 25 yards.

Shiver me timbers
bbjw

[Rick]

As a personal aside, seeing as how I've rubbed elbows with many of the principals involved in the Whidah Galley project in our local watering holes .

Before we get too far with Mr. Clifford might I recommend a read:

Walking The Plank by Stephen Kiesling ( ISBN 0-9638461-5-9 ) for another perspective on this controversial Gentleman and his discoveries .

[fernando]

Originally Posted by BBJW

Carrying 6 or more single shot pistols was quite a load, but Jesse James and others in Quantrill's Raiders were known to carry more than 20 revolvers on and about them and their horses on raids. That was a lot of firepower in the 1860's!
Shiver me timbers
bbjw

Untill after firearms were instantly reloadable, action folks indeed used to carry lots of them.
It is said that, for example, during American civil war, colts were thrown away after discharging their six rounds, to get free a hand to handle the next one.
After the battle, troopers used to go around the action field, to gain them back, sometimes ending up gainning somebody else's piece.That's why there are plenty "captured" colts being offered out there.
Fernando

[A. G. Maisey]

This morning is the first time I have read this thread, which I have found to be of some interest, however, there are a couple of things I would like to comment on.

Firstly, there is the question of exactly what a pirate is:- how do we define a "pirate"?

In the sense implied by this discussion, Oxford tells us that a pirate is one who attacks and robs ships at sea.

This raises the question of whether we can refer to the Iban as "pirates".

The Iban raided coastal and inland settlements, principally of Land Dyaks. They raided for two reasons:- heads and slaves; the heads were an integral part of their culture and tied into tribal continuity, the slaves were necessary labour to assist with rice farming--- the Iban were rice farmers, not forest dwellers.

Because the primary targets of the Iban were more often than not the Land Dyak, this put the Iban on a collision course with James Brooke.

The Iban would raid in fleets of hundreds of war canoes, Brookes had no army, and unless he could gain the backing of the British government his attempts to carve a minor kingdom for himself would fail. Suddenly the rice farmers of several different river systems became "Sea Dyaks", and "pirates". Up to this point they had been known as Skrang, Undup Dyak, Saribas, Balau---but because Brooke needed British government backing these people suddenly became "pirates", and "Sea Dyaks". The British government latched on to this terminology and the Royal Navy jumped in to give Brookes a hand at subduing these evil 19th century terrorists.

By any reasonable measure the Iban were not pirates. They were rice farmers whose culture demanded heads, and whose economic survival demanded slaves. Their targets were not ships at sea, but settlements where they could obtain these necessities.

Yes, there were pirates in maritime South East Asia. They were for the main part coastal Malays , usually fishermen, who had struck trouble in making a living from fishing. When the fish started to run again, they would leave the pirating and go back to fishing. This is, I understand, still the case today

[M ELEY]

Wanted to bring this one back before it dropped off the list! Finally got some pics made of my collection. Rick (RSword) has generously agreed to help me post them as soon as he can. I'll start commentary soon so as to save time. I hope to get a little feedback on one of them that remains a mystery to me. Will comment soon...