An amazing pirate collection!

[M ELEY]

Well, folks, all i can say is I am humbled. The following collection of maritime weaponry and sundry items is on par with most museums. Steve Bunker at China Sea Trading was kind enough to send me pics of his private cache (which also reminded me of my own meager stockpile- Hope you pirate enthusiasts out there enjoy! And you know who you are!

First off, two early 18th c. sextants. Note the ivory inlay and lack of a securing screw found on later examples.

[M ELEY]

Ahhh, old Caribbean cuphilt rapier, a main gauche, early plug bayonets, a nice early spike ax with brass tack haft, and who can miss the grenado in the corner!
All pics copyright China Sea Trading

[M ELEY]

Telescopes, rare jugs, mugs, plates and such, all dating to the era...

Note the onion bottles, Dutch Delph pottery and the single pull octogonal telescope mid-18th c.

[M ELEY]

A fantastic Sincaire-type saber, just like that one we discussed from that fellow in St. Augustine. Also, a Danish cutlass, several Dutch hangers and a double disc 'Figure 8' Brit or Amer cutlass! Baltimore pattern???

[M ELEY]

Don't forget the importance of long guns, which were popular with the Royal and US marines up in the tops. The blunderbus were great for 'discouraging mutiny' and for ripping apart boarders. Note the priming flask gun, a rarity.

Note the caltrip, an item affiliated with boarding, a spontoon/pike, an old belay pin and a Corsican?? dagger.

[M ELEY]

Broadsides and articles dating to the Age of Fighting Sail and piracy!!

All pics copyright China Sea Trading Company.

[M ELEY]

Lantaka, Portuguese petrarro? Nice swivel/rail gun! A small coehorn cannon. Note the bar shot, chain shot and ultra rare spike shot (17th c. back to Elizabeth's sea rovers!)

Thanks again, Bunker, for allowing me to post these!
All pics are copyright China Sea Trading Co.

[M ELEY]

Manacles and restraints from Age of Sail, both a hint at the slave trade and the Pirate Round.

Note some of the goodies in front of this rack of long guns. I see a nice Chinese dau, a Kybele rifle, several eagle head Amer swords.

[fernando]

Bravo Captain ... but:

Originally Posted by M ELEY

... Note the priming flask gun, a rarity...

Do you mean the powder tester ? .

... and, by the way:
Have you missed the multi barreled handcannon ? .

... Or are my eyes tricking me ?
.

[corrado26]

it was very, very interesting and a great pleasure to look at all these pictures showing items of a very long gone time, telling stories of old sailing ships, pirates and great dangerous adventures.
Thanks a lot
corrado26

[CutlassCollector]

Great post Mark, thanks.
Love that boarding axe and those cutlasses!

Regards, CC

[M ELEY]

Hello Fernando! Yes, a powder tester it is. I just couldn't remember the title for the thing!

No, 'Nando, that isn't a multi-barrel handgunne. It's just an antique curling iron! Thought you might like some of his swivels and iron barrel guns. In particular that long 6 sided barrel standing upright in pic #13. What do you think? A handgunne or simply a barrel from a large musketoon?

[M ELEY]

Hello Corrado26, glad you like it. This collection does indeed bring back maritime memories of shadowy characters, port taverns and old sea yarns.

[M ELEY]

Hello CC,

Glad to hear from you and I knew this one might draw you in. Still waiting for our other 'pirates in the wings', Broadax and Jim McD. You just know those scalawags are around here somewhere-

[fernando]

Originally Posted by M ELEY

...Lantaka, Portuguese petrarro? ...

Portuguese ? maybe not; we made them, they made them ... you never know, if not marked. But certainly not a 'petriero', the Italian term for 'pedreiro', a term used for earlier guns that shot stone projectiles; sorry being a brainpicker .

Originally Posted by M ELEY

... No, 'Nando, that isn't a multi-barrel handgunne. It's just an antique curling iron! ...

A curling iron ? ; can you elaborate ? The shape is so similar (to my eyes) to that in picture #12 ...

Originally Posted by M ELEY

...Thought you might like some of his swivels and iron barrel guns...

Oh, i like several things in there; the cannons, the barrels, the shackles ... you name it.

Originally Posted by M ELEY

In particular that long 6 sided barrel standing upright in pic #13. What do you think? A handgunne or simply a barrel from a large musketoon?...

Good question. Easier to identify if pictured in different angle/s. Maybe something in between ... like an haquebut barrel ...


.

[M ELEY]

Ha ha! Got you, my friend! I was just kidding about that multi-barrel handgunne. You were correct in identifying it and I was just having some fun.
Petriero, eh? I don't know my cannons so well.

So what are your thoughts on that ivory handled dagger with wedge shaped blade? I was thinking Corsican or Venetian, like the vindetta daggers.

[fernando]

Originally Posted by M ELEY

...Ha ha! Got you, my friend! I was just kidding about that multi-barrel handgunne. You were correct in identifying it and I was just having some fun...

My turn next time .

Originally Posted by M ELEY

...So what are your thoughts on that ivory handled dagger with wedge shaped blade? I was thinking Corsican or Venetian, like the vindetta daggers.

I wouldn't know Mark, but as i see it, it could even be an old sailor's knife; a senior sailor, judging by the handle ... which could be bone and not ivory, anyhow !

[broadaxe]

That small dagger/knife is a generic west-Mediterranean dirk, carried by both sailors and land people along the shores of Spain, France, Italy and the islands nearby.
The two objects in the 1st photo are not sextants but its direct forefather, the octant (with apparently original cases, very cool!).

[M ELEY]

Opps! So you are right, Broadaxe! Octants they are. Thanks for the dagger info. Fernando and you both astutely identified it and makes sense it would be in his collection. Thought you might like the pics.

Now...where's Jim?

[colin henshaw]

[QUOTE=M ELEY]Manacles and restraints from Age of Sail, both a hint at the slave trade and the Pirate Round.

Hi Mark, thanks for posting this interesting thread.

The shackles with the long bar, third from the left, are the type that were often used in the West African slave trade.

Regards.

[M ELEY]

Thank you, Colin, for that clarification. I suppose the others still fit in with the imprisonment of said rascals when the pirates were caught!

[Norman McCormick]

Maybe me and my old oak coffer will take to the high seas once more. Weapons obviously later than the above but maybe some bits have seen service at sea. Coffer once had a lining of period written documents but mostly gone now.
Regards,
Norman.

[Rick]

Originally Posted by fernando

Portuguese ? maybe not; we made them, they made them ... you never know, if not marked. But certainly not a 'petriero', the Italian term for 'pedreiro', a term used for earlier guns that shot stone projectiles; sorry being a brainpicker .


A curling iron ? ; can you elaborate ? The shape is so similar (to my eyes) to that in picture #12 ...


Oh, i like several things in there; the cannons, the barrels, the shackles ... you name it.


Good question. Easier to identify if pictured in different angle/s. Maybe something in between ... like an haquebut barrel ...


.

That 3 barreled item may be out of place.
A antique dealer friend bought a half dozen of those at the Brimfield flea market 2 years ago.
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ht=hand+cannon

[fernando]

Originally Posted by Rick

That 3 barreled item may be out of place.
A antique dealer friend bought a half dozen of those at the Brimfield flea market 2 years ago.
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ht=hand+cannon

I wasn't registering such an inconsistency, Rick. Apparently its owner sailed the China seas; might have bought a few in a Macau ... flea market .

[M ELEY]

Nice old chest, Norman! The perfect coffer for your treasure trove!

[fernando]

Very nice ark, Norman ... and promising contents .
No doubt it would be worth the double, if the lining with the period handwritten documents was all still there .

[Jim McDougall]

Ahoy Cap'n Mark and fellows of the Brotherhood!!! Its great to see everyone gathered here on deck!
This is a breathtaking assemblage of piratical stuff!!!!and I have looked in numbers of times, unable to even find words or focus enough to compose anything lucid.
So my apologies for being late, with my only explanation as the good ship lollipop (aka bookmobile) has been careened here in the port of Albacrocko for much needed repairs.
Looking at these makes me desperately want to re chart my course to St. Augustine and N.C.!!!!

It is always fascinating to watch you guys exchange such knowledge and detail on all of these things, and while I cannot add much to the firearms and ordnance, I wanted to at least throw in a few shots on some of the other items. While naturally always obsessed with the swords, I can only note how magnificently untouched and well represented these are here...great assembly of the shell guard sabres....which were as I have understood termed colloquially by the pirates, a 'shell' rather than the term cutlass.

On the small dagger, Broadaxe is spot on in this being a Mediterranean dirk, used collectively for these daggers in nautical use by sailors in and from the regions throughout ports there. With these daggers it is hard to distinguish specific identity to region in many cases, so the broader identification is usually better than the much romanticized 'Corsican vendetta' (which it could very well be).
In any case, the 'Mediterranean dirk, in another interesting and much romanticized incarnation, was actually the ancestor of the famed 'Bowie' knife, which is hard to believe when seeing the comparison to this much smaller knife.

I was intrigued by the multi-spiked item in post #5 (which looks like a Mercedes logo in this image). This is as noted , a 'caltrap' (I found interesting detail in "Brevertons Nautical Curiosities" , Terry Breverton, 2013).
Apparently these 'thistle' like devices were fashioned from scrap iron, and into four sharpened spikes. Sailors often went barefoot on deck to avoid slipping, so these devious things were devastatingly effective when strewn out before boarding. The term 'caltrip' derives etymologically from Latin and Old English words such as 'calketrippe' (OE= any plant which tended to catch feet).

The pragmatic 'belaying' pin, was of course to secure rigging and was emplaced in pin rails along the deck sides, however, these very hard wood pins quickly became a 'weapon of opportunity' used to severely club a victim.

Absolutely magnificent collection, and Mark, thank you for sharing it with us and extend deep gratitude to Steve Bunker!!!! a hearty extra ration of grog to him!!!

[Norman McCormick]

Hi Mark and Fernando,
Although the contents mostly date to the 18thC the coffer itself by the style of construction, locks and hinges etc sits very comfortably in the 17thc, right in the thick of the buccaneering days. It's a shame the document lining is mostly gone as it might have made some fascinating reading, a treasure map!!!! or maybe not
My Regards to you Both,
Norman.

[M ELEY]

Ahoy yarself, Cap'n Jim!

I was hoping you might see the thread and have comments! As always, a great pleasure to hear from you. Hope the
U.S.S. BookMobile is soon 'seaworthy'! If you're ever this way, let me know and we'll share a bumbo (real pirate beverage made from fermented fruit sans cocktail umbrella) and salmagundi (a dish only a sailor could stomach!)

Great information on the items, especially on the 'calketrippe'. I hadn't thought about the barefoot factor. Makes total sense!

Steve has shown an interest in possibly joining the Forum. He is a self-confessed Luddite, as I am. Still working on him to join. We'll see. He's got a long nautical history and would be a great asset for us maritime fellows

[M ELEY]

Hi Norman. I think the collection is perfectly on par for Age of Piracy. One of my biggest pet peeves are those who say piracy ceased after 1717 (the end of the Golden Age). This is simply not the case. Piracy existed ever since the first cavemen threw a log into a river to fish from while some other scoundrel floated out to rob him. It was alive and well into the 19th c. and of course still exists today. Don't mean to get on my soapbox, but the facts prove piracy went on.
I personally believe that some of that 'piracy is over' thing was created by aristocrats in the Indies that wanted to downplay its continued existence. It was the same type of ballyhoo about every pirate being a murderer, rapist, torturer, etc. While most were brutal men and thieves, some gentlemanly, well mannered, educated and had families. The infamous Edward Teach, who supposedly murdered by the score, has no historical documentation that he killed anyone save Lt. Maynard's men when they stormed his ship. Sorry about the tirade. Perhaps I'll stir up a little debate with that one!