Guns of The Pirates?

flintlock pistols.

edit: oops, PirateJoe said it first, and I have no additional specific insight

a quick google turned up this site:

http://www.thepiratesrealm.com/pirate weapons.html

I Just watched a history channel speical (2 hrs long) yesterday on pirates.They show typical flintlock pistols, long flintlock muskets (for taking out officers prior to boardng from longer ranges), and apprently a favorite for the initial moments of boarding a ship being raided was very short flintlock blunderbuss's for wounding as many as possible, as quickly as possible in the pah of the pirates to 'make a whole' for the pirates to board.A VERY good show.Wife and I really enjyed it.

If you are ever on I-81 in Raphine, Virginia, you need to stop at White's Truck Stop, they have one of the most eclectic privately owned firearm collections that I have ever seen. They have one whole display that is filled with old pepper box and duckfoot pistols. I'm no pirate expert, but I remember reading somewhere that the duckfoot pistol was rather popular among boarding parties and such. Here are some pictures of their collection, but it doesn't do it justice. SC

http://www.whitestruckstop.com/arsenal.htm

As far as I'd read, the blunderbuss was quite a favorite. A short blunderbuss, packed with small shot, was the original "scattergun" and would have been quite effective as a deck-clearer when pointed at a close group of opponents. Blunderbusses were also famed for being able to shoot just about anything you could stuff in the muzzle, whether it was ballast pebbles, pottery shards, scrap nails and iron, coins, or anything else that would fly out without getting stuck. I'm sure more than a few jokes were made about the suitability of hard ship's biscuit as shot.

A lot of other illustrations also show pirates with multiple single-shot pistols on a bandolier across their chest, and members of boarding parties with fuselit shrapnel grenades, which were tossed down hatches before going down, in hopes of killing or wounding defenders waiting to ambush below. The procedure for the single-shots seemed to have been "fire and drop"...they'd be useless to the defenders, you could retrieve them once you took the ship, and if you didn't take the ship, you'd likely have more pressing issues to worry about.

Johnny Depp??? I thought everybody knew the definitive pirate documentary was Captain Blood. Watch it a few times. They used U.S. trapdoor Springfields.

One thing I found most amusing about the first Pirates movie was that that one pistol charged with shot he had...he went underwater with it, fell in water several more times, wore it all during storms, rain, etc... and the powder didn't foul.

Yah.

During the "Golden Age" of piracy (1500-1600s), shipboard combat involved longbows, matchlocks, wheel-locks, and doglocks. Firearms were expensive, complicated, and required maintainence; therefore they were usually reserved for officers, NCOs, marines, or sharpshooters. The average sailor or pirate would be armed with a few swords and cutlass, pikes, axes, and even belay pins and clubs.

Most pirates didn't want to have to work for their booty, and would use speed and terror to get their pray to surrender. Often signs of a stand-up fight would cause the pirates to abandon their quarry.

Flintlock pistols and muskets had become common by the 1700s but so had the Royal Navy; a pirate's life expectancy dropped sharply. Piracy dropped sharply in the 1700s, and was all but eliminated by the early 1800s(compared to the 1500s and 1600s).

During the "Golden Age" of piracy (1500-1600s), shipboard combat involved longbows, matchlocks, wheel-locks, and doglocks.

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I'm familiar with others. What's a "doglock"?

The doglock is an early and primitive form of flintlock.

Here's a reproduction that would be good for a pirate.
http://www.loyalistarms.freeservers.com/doglokpistl.html

I would think that pirates use(d) whatever was available at the time, nothing more or less. Modern day pirates use Fals, G3s, and AKs as much as anything else.
I'd say pick the period of your pirate, and "arm" accordingly.

Dan

The average sailor or pirate would be armed with a few swords and cutlass, pikes, axes, and even belay pins and clubs.

Click to expand...

Only until they took a ship that had all the expensive guns on it, and then use those, instead. That WAS the point of piracy...

True, but most ship-to-ship melee quickly degenerated into "Hack and Bash" where that brass buttcap would be of much more value than the single shot in the barrel.

(yeah, about to throw away any "cred" I've got on this board...)

How about A-ARRRR-15s?

Milsurp matchlocks and Bubba'd flintlocks?

The blunderbuss was popular. Odd specimens like the ducks-foot pistol were developed for use in sea fights. The boarding pike, cutlass, rapier and dirk (mostly for officers), boarding axe/tomahawk, flensing spade, knife and boarding net were all frequently used.

There's an excellent pair of books

Boarders Away, Volume I: with Steel
Boarders Away, Volume II: Firearms of the Age of Fighting Sail

by William Gilkerson

Unfortunately they are quite expensive.

Of course modern pirates prefer Arrr!-PGs:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4410826.stm

Keith......I was just about to groan in pain at those two, but then I realized I'd have been saying, "Arrrgh!"
From what I've seen in movies, the only standard pirate weapon was witty banter.

"I dont think any of them could screw with Henry Morgan, Bart Roberts, or Blackbeard."


Actually, I wouldn't bet one way of the other. One person's evil is as good as anothers, regardless of the time.

It's OK to carry a highly romanticized notion of pirates, but it is important to remember that they were still bloodthirsty murderers and thieves.

It's also to important to note that practically ALL of the pirates of the "Golden Era" of piracy had fairly short careers (in terms of time, not achievement.) A vast majority of them met a bloody end or were hanged for their crimes.

What is even more interesting is that most pirate ships operated as democracies-- electing the captain. There are ships that had as many as 18 captains in a 12 month period of time.

We can romanticize them, but there isn't anything redeemable in their character or morality. And I certainly wouldn't want to be one-- captain or crew. Malnutrition, Disease, Illness, Filth, and then a very bad death are all part of the job description.

Confirmation of this can be seen in the fact that when Blackbeard blockaided the city of Charleston, SC he demanded in exchange for hostages a small box of medicine to treat STD's.

I watch the Hilter, I mean History Channel, too


John

The problem here is, WHAT pirates, WHEN? Even Caribbean piracy spanned several hundred years. Plus, piracy could easily include Drake's exploits and the work of Letters of Marque during the 18th and early 19th century. The weapons could vary from swords and nets to advanced Napoleonic flintlocks and cannons. Worldwide, people we would consider pirates included everything from fully armed privateers and primitive tribesmen alike. The pirates of the late 17th century were far closer to privateers in many respects, and performed many legitmate services for regional trade. They made money privateering during wars, and kept doing it "illegally" during the peace. But the popular imagination has conflated them with the more primitive bands of escaped slaves from French and Spanish colonies such as Saint Domingue (Haiti).

Very true, Cosomoline.

My negative comments regarding pirates didn't include privateers, although one county's privateer is another's pirate.

And of course, many Privateers often turned pirate if things got lean (in the "Golden Age of Piracy")

John