Deacon Frye

There is something irresistible about the combination of scalloped shells and a curved blade, isn't there?

I agree that rifle-barreled guns were extremely rare in colonial New England. However, I'm not sure I can agree that accuracy at longer range would not have been useful. In the inhabited areas, the landscape had been significantly deforested. Even in densely populated suburban areas, there are more trees today (and I believe more deer) than prior to the AWI. Certainly rifled guns caught on after the AWI in New England. I have to wonder if it wasn't a matter of regional difference combined with British colonial/mercantile policy. The American rifle is perhaps the only truly "home-grown" gun of the colonial period, being originally produced by German makers who had brought their skills with them and settled in the middle colonies. British policy strongly discouraged American manufacturing. The colonies were viewed as a source of raw materials and as a market for the goods produced from them in England with "value added", and they weren't producing significant amounts of rifles. I think it's possible these two factors largely account for the abscence of rifles in NE in the colonial period. Once the yoke of British colonial policy was lifted, American manufacturing began to assert itself, and New England was a leader in this regard. But it took a while to play catch-up with the British. The infra-structure and skills base had to be developed, and capital was in short supply. But they eventually got there.

I think these are the sort of underdrawers to which Redhand refers: The Recollections of J.P. Ryan I don't think they'll go very far toward keepin' ya warm, though, and I wouldn't expect to find them on a sailor.

The site normally goes down for a while on Sundays. I suspect it's when they do their updating, maintenance, etc.

It opened on the 15th in Australia, I believe.

Zorg, you might want to take a look at the British National Maritime Museum's edged weapons collections. They have an impressive selection of cutlasses, though mostly of a later date than the "Golden Age". Here is the direct address of the edged weapons collection: http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/DisplayCo...Edged%20weapons They also have a small, but nice, group of hangers. And the "swords" category is well worth checking out.

That's OK. I know Deepeeka makes one. The sell it as a "French Minitaure" sword under their "French" category, and as a "French Cavelier" sword in their renaissance(!) section. At the top here: I don't know what it retails for.

If you look at the first paragraph of the passage I quoted, you'll see that it would be quite possible (at least in theory) for a lieutenant to gain the title Commodore directly upon being posted Captain.

From Wikipedia:

I'd be interested to know who the manufacturer is. How many Jack Sparrows are there around here?

Not Hawkyns, but I think he's already gone a ways toward answering that question. The answer, of course, depends on what cutlass, what period, and so forth, but I believe that in general they were made from blades manufactured in the sword-making centers of the period. In spite of being fairly utilitarian weapons (at least from 1700 or so forward), they had blades that required a substantial infrastucture to make properly and knowledge that your average blacksmith just didn't have. As an example, a member on another forum I frequent recently acquired a cutlass, out of the Robert Wheeler collection described as an "American" cutlass, c. 1710-1730. It would make a fine pirate cutlass. It is quite similar to Neumann's 365.S. It has an "Andria Ferara", which implies that the blade was made in Germany for the British market. (The Ferera blades are perhaps most strongly associated with Scottish basket-hilted broadswords and backswords, but they were quite popular in England as well.) The sword may have been hilted in America, but then again, it may well have been hilted in England.

Neumann is a great reference for swords of the period. In spite of the title, Swords & Blades of the American Revolution, he has examples going back to 1600. His cutlass section has a number of examples dating to the "Golden Age". He provides three views of each sword, and specifications which are rarely included in other works: Overall length, blade length, and width of the blade at the guard. But more than this, he provides weights, which is nearly unheard of. People are often surprised when they discover just how light many original swords were. But unfortunately for the present question, he doesn't supply info on the sharpening. Thankee, Hawkyns, for doing the search.

Matchlocks had essentially been dropped from use by mid-17th century, capnwilliam. They were abandoned here even earlier than in Europe. Peterson gives the figures and dates in his Arms and Armor in Colonial America, I believe. Swords were still quite common at the time of the revolution. Many if not most of the militia muskets lacked bayonets, and it was often a requirement that the soldier carry a sword, or had the choice of a sword or tomahawk. The use of hangers by British and European infantry troops had persisted almost until this time as well, and was just being phased out. I also think Hawkyns has a good point.

There was a cutlass in a chest reported to have belonged to Thomas Tew in the Driscoll Library collection. They were both auctioned off at Christie's a while back. It would be interesting to know if that cutlass was sharpened. Red Maria knows more about this.

From a letter to the editor of the London Times, April 5, 1855. The question as to whether (American) Civil War sabers were sharpened or not is often debated as well. Their seems to be a widespread notion that they were not, even among collectors. I've seen it stated that it was a court martial offense to do so. Yet there is eye-witness, documented evidence that those actually used in battle were in fact sharpened. I should note that none of this necessarily applies to naval swords. Furthermore, the above indicates that the English at the time weren't particularly keen on a keen edge. In particular, Royaliste: I wouldn't want you to get the notion that I am doubting your hands-on experience. I'd be very interested to hear more about your swords.

I can't speak specifically to naval swords and cutlasses, but nineteenth and early twentieth century military swords were issued unsharpened, and left that way during peacetime. If hostilities developed, however, they were indeed sharpened on the "eve of battle", sometimes literally. In many cases, they were intentionally blunted, per regulation, with the cessation of hostilities. Naval officer's sword rarely saw battle after the Napoleonic era, and even then they usually had fighting swords for use and dress swords for wear. There would be no need to sharpen the latter. I would expect to find most naval swords of the era unsharpened, unless they had been used in battle. As far as sharpening a replica, and perhaps doing a bit of cutting, I'm all in favor of it as long as the replica is structurally sound, safe practice is followed, and the sword is kept away from innocents and fools.

Thank you for posting this Maria. I note that Capt. Tucker didn't provide the titles for any of those accurate British films. Perhaps you'd be so kind as to ask, and whether they're available over here? I'd be most interested. With regard to the review, I'm struck by the fact that the Capt. seems to spend more time talking about himself than about the film. Although he does put in the disclaimer that he hasn't read the novels and seems to feel this makes him an "unbiased" observer, his concerns about Aubrey's uniform indicate that he lacks a basic understanding about the relationship between the novels and the film that was well know to the lowliest of the media hack critics. In spite of the inclusion of M&C (the first novel) in the title, the film is primarily based on the action in FSOTW, the tenth novel. O'Brian has it set in the War of 1812, with an American ship being the protagonist. The movie moves it back to 1805, with a French ship. At either date, Jack had been a Post Captain for a long while. Even without this knowledge, however, I would have thought the Capt. would know that an officer below Post Captain would not have command of a frigate. Temporarily under unusual circumstances, yes. But sent out by Whitehall on a mission of this sort, never.

Mais oui, Ryann. I share your pain. Quite a long while ago, I spent several years studying the language. At the time, a teaching method know as ALM (Audio-Lingual Method) was in vogue. Unfortunately, I am a visually-oriented person. I never felt comfortable in the classes or with the language. However, the classes were valuable in that they taught me how to get good grades without really understanding the subject matter. I did eventually acquire the ability to at least read some French. Unfortunately, in the intervening years I have forgotten what little I learned. The good news is that I know the way to the Babelfish/Alta-Vista translation site.

Mais oui, naturellement, mon ami. Un pirate vrai doit pouvoir converser dans d'autres langues si pour aucune autre raison que pour découvrir où le butin est caché. But having said that, the actual page has the text in English. Unfortunately I can't seem to post it. The address bar has the url for the category, and grabbing the direct url takes you to the page in French. The sword is the one in Edged Weapons/France/Quality sabers 1780 to 1840 described as a "GARDE DE BATAILLE CAVALRY OFFICER SABER". The English text reads:

Where did you find the pics? You could just post the urls for the sites.

Ben Franklin at one point suggested that longbows might be a viable option, but I don't believe longbows were ever actually used or acquired by American forces in the AWI.

Twenty Pounds! Let's see, how does it go again? "Knit one, perl two"?

Well, show us a pic of the pistol, and we'll see ...

Here's another, from Le Hussard:

Here's another, from Le Hussard: