Pirate swords and weapons

[David R]

Originally Posted by 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.

Looks very like one of the Kurdish pistols I bought fromm "the Corry Collection" many many years ago... still loaded as it turned out!