Which weapons were most used by pirates?
Other than swords and scabbards, a pirate would typically use a gun called a flintlock. A flintlock is a wide mouthed ‘blunderbus’ design, though the design changed according to the country of origination. Most 18th century pirates were Spanish, Indian, French and English, though there were pirates of every nationality, including Portuguese, and North African. The Corsairs were French and the Barbary Corsairs were Turks.
They tracked ships for days deciding whether to attack them or not, but rarely used shots since that would damage the vessel that they wished to capture, not to destroy. They used more skilled tactics to capture ships. They would fly a friendly flag as they approached a ship, then strike it and raise the pirate flag, the skull and crossbones. They would then fire one shot to persuade the captain of the competing vessel to strike colors and surrender. In that way they took the ship complete and none of the treasure on board was damaged.
A typical pirate cutlass had a thick, slightly curved blade just over two feet in length. There were many variants to this basic design, and many of these are available as replicas.
A replica pirate cutlass, scabbard, or collectible pirate costume can be found at Historical Weapons Store. Also learn more about the history of pirates within our Articles Directory.
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