Historic Replicas

Pirates were fearsome brigands that dominated seas around the world for centuries, and still exist today but in more conventional terms.  The pirates of legend who sailed the waters of the Caribbean carried a number of tools to assist them with plundering, fighting, and all of their illicit behaviors.  Pirate swords, often called cutlasses, were crafted with an Arabic design featuring a curved blade with a wide flat surface and a pointed tip.  These blades were ideal for slashing and the unabashed swashbuckling techniques pioneered by pirates.  Pirates also often carried a pistol, with one, two, or even three barrels.  In the heat of battle, a pirate could not reload their gun, thus it was often used as a last resort or method to initiate a quick kill.

Pirates have been long celebrated for their brazen attitudes and unique style of apparel and accessories.  A common Halloween costume, the apparel of pirates is still widely recognized today.  

 “Walk the plank”? Not before all pirate personnel aboard the ship agree! Contrary to popular belief, the pirate captain of the ship doesn’t call all of the shots alone, and all members on the ship get a say in what happens aboard the ship. For example, every pirate gets to vote on where the ship is headed, and if a colonial ship was to be attacked. Once the ship was attacked, after the majority agrees? All pirates got equal share of the “booty,” or treasure. Of course, pirates have to keep some form of dignity: the captain gets double the pirate’s share, a portion is set aside for maintenance, and a select few other members get a higher percentage of treasure than the average pirate. After all treasure is doled out, the average sum for a pirate is more than four times what he would make as a naval man or a merchant, exemplifying the allure of the occupation.
 Before becoming a pirate, each hopeful signs an agreement called “the articles” that outlines how much they would be paid, acceptable behavior, and punishments for breaking rules. Not so different from our laws in civilization, are they? But beware! If a pirate broke any of the aforementioned “rules,” any number of pirate swords would be used on him, and he would be left to perish on a deserted island.
 Think the plundering of ships was just for treasure? Think again. Pirates would forage on ships for pieces of clothing, and some would wear odd pirate costumes because of this. All Pirates agreed, though; they would never be caught wearing “slops,” the striped shirt worn by British sailors.
 It’s strange to consider pirates as being a civilized type of people, but when it comes to the formation of democracy, they were definitely ahead of us “civilized” people!

 Did you know that pirates were one of the first equal-opportunity employers?  In a time of slavery and unquestioned racism, a pirate ship was one of the few places were black people could expect something like equal treatment.  Most were runaway slaves, and made up a significant portion of the pirate population. Most ships had at least a few black crew members, and Blackbeard’s crew was over 60 percent black.  Black Bart had 88 black crew members out of 368.  These men weren’t slaves, but fully entitled shipmates who received an equal share of treasure and a vote in ship-wide decisions. Each man had to bring their own pirate sword and proper clothing (or pirate costumes). Some held prestigious positions:  Francis Sprigg’s cook was given the sacred responsibility of dividing captured treasure into equal shares.  In general, ships were governed according to a contract between captain and crew called the Articles of Agreement.   Black Bart’s read as follows: 

“Every Man has a Vote in Affairs of Moment; has equal Title to the fresh Provisions, or strong Liquors, at any Time seized, and may use them at Pleasure, unless a Scarcity make it necessary, for the Good of all, to vote a Retrenchment.”

Like many other pirates, his Articles made no mention of race, and his words were more than lofty rhetoric.  They applied equally to every crewman, regardless of color.  It is no secret that pirates were often cold-blooded and murderous.  Yet they could also be astonishingly progressive in a time when prejudice was the natural order.  

Pirates are perhaps the most morally ambiguous figures in history.  Popular myths surrounding pirates swords and pirate clothing are often at odds with reality, and even eye-witness accounts of famous seafarers are often conflicting.  A single pirate can be both hero and villain, noble and savage, depending on who tells the tale. In a way, it makes them seem more human than say, George Washington, who is so revered in most accounts he might as well be supremely virtuous protagonist of a Greek epic or spaghetti Western.  Pirates in history are more like the people in our lives, a mix of good and bad, decent but flawed. And now to stir the pot… (e.g. to be continued)

Pirates and flintlocks go together like jam on toast, like fish to water, like steak and sauce! No self respecting man of the seas would have been caught dead without a proper pistol by his side. This pistols, flintlocks, are made in a variety of sizes, shapes colors.  Some are engraved with ivory, double barreled, etched with markings, made with antique brass or silver. Each one uniquely made, but what they all do have in common is the classic look of a long, lean pistol with flint trigger action and the ability to effectively target any shot. These classic pirate weapons are a neccessity for any pirate costume, and would make an excellent gift for any collectors.

Today’s pirate flintlock reproductions are pretty similar to the ones found in the 17th and 18th centuries. The most popular pirate flintlock pistol features a wood stock, detailed with skull & cross bones and a steel finish barrel.

This practical 18th century French pirate flintlock does not boast much decoration, except for the skull and crossbones embossed into the handle. In contrast to the lean look of a classic flintlock, there is also the blunderbuss. This huge, intimidating weapon was particularly adapted to ship-based combat, where loading a pistol in the middle of a ship raid wasn’t very easy. Move on blunderbusses to come…

A Pirate flintlock is more than just a fabricated weapon: it is the reproduction of a weapon that existed sometime in history, and appears just as the original did when new. Too many replicas do not fit that definition, but if you look carefully online you will be able to find true replicas of pieces that can be viewed in museums, or that have been known to exist.

Flintlock pistols are especially sought after by those that either take part in reenactments, or that collect pirate flintlocks or pirate swords of various kinds. However, before discussing that let’s have a look at how flintlock pistols work. It is the firing mechanism that is referred by the term flintlock. The cock, or hammer, was fitted with a tightly held blade of flint and then drawn back to the half-back position, known as half-cock.

You might have heard this term before – it is common in England in particular for an action that is carried out without thought and with no chance of success. That is because a hammer at half-cock is in a safety position, and cannot be fired if the trigger is pulled. With the hammer safely at half-cock, the black powder was loaded into the pirate gun, normally down the barrel via the muzzle (muzzle loading) and then the ball, twisted in a screwed up piece of paper or cloth.

The Blunderbuss was commonly used as a defensive weapon on British, French, and American warships to repel would-be boarders. Most of these weapons are mid-sized, being smaller than most shoulder-fired arms, but larger than a pistol. Although fitted with a butt, the dimensions suggest that most were not really intended to be fired from the shoulder and were instead fired from the hip.
The compact dimensions of a blunderbuss would facilitate use in small spaces (e.g. on a ship, or in a house) and would also make storage easier.

For those requiring an even smaller weapon, blunderbuss pistols were also produced, though these are now less common pirate replicas. The blunderbuss was in use in the 17th century, and is the weapon most commonly pictured in the arms of the Pilgrims. Flintlock blunderbusses were also used by Catherine the Great’s forces during foreign wars to expand Russia’s territory.

Few historical figures are more romanticized and well-known than pirates, the swashbuckling outlaws of the high seas.  With their black flags, pirate swords and flintlocks, their story is a rich and longstanding tradition that began folklore and gradually became the province of popular literature and Hollywood movies. In 1882, Robert Louis Stevenson wrote and released his classic Treasure Island, a spirited tale of pirate Long John Silver, plucky young adventurer Tim Hawkins, and their quest for buried riches. 

At first, the story foundered on the pages of Young Folks magazine, receiving lukewarm reviews and reader response.  Finally, in 1883, it was published and sold as a book, and the world took notice. The young Scottish novelist thrust pirates and their exploits into the public eye, and they have been a cultural obsession ever since, epitomized in our own time in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise- with dozens of pirate replicas being sold.  Furthermore, Stevenson almost single-handedly created the images of pirates that captivate popular imagination.  When most of us picture a pirate, it is Stevenson’s 18th century adventurer, with wooden leg, parrot, and cryptic treasure map, that we see.  

Someone asked about the proper size for a cutlass, so here is a quick bit of info… A pirate’s cutlass would be no more than 24 to 30 inches long to allow it to be used properly in a tight space. A boarding cutlass might be slightly longer but would be quickly replaced by the classic pirate’s cutlass at 22 – 25 inches for tight close work.

I think that the movies made us think that pirate swords were very long, when really they were short and quite functionable.  Hollywood has much to answer for – they even invented ‘walking the plank’ to add drama to the screen.  I would assume that a real pirate would simply have thrown the victim overboard.

More on pirate weapons – today some uses for the commonly used flintlock pistols.  Pirate’s typically favored small blunderbusses and used them as boarding weapons. A blunderbuss was a medieval shotgun (used even into the 19th century) and it could clear part of a deck with one shot. That would leave it easier for the boarding crew to clear up that part of the deck.  Others would have boarding blunderbusses for the part of the deck that they boarded.

Other types of flintlock pistols had a grenade like flare at the end of the barrel.  That looks just like a cup and its function was to hold a grenade for launching.  One of the more famous pirate replicas is Captain John Henry Morgan’s flintlock, that was inscribed witth “1671″ and markings of a skull and crossbones.  The picture above is a replica of a real grenade cup flintlock, owned by a former British Admiral from Wales who became a privateer.  He was a pirate who used the Anglo-Spanish wars to get himself knighted by sinking Spanish ships among other things , and finally died of liver failure due to his heavy drinking:  “Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum”, but not so much ‘ho-ho’  and too much rum for poor old Henry!