Plug Bayonets in the Gold Age of Piracy?

[Jib]

Were plug bayonets still in use by the time of the GAOP or had they been abandoned in favor of the socket bayonets? I seem to recall socket bayonets in use during the Spanish War of Succession.

[Red John]

Of course I'll have to go find my old sources for this, but, looking at surviving weapons and period accounts, plug bayonets as a general matter lasted much longer on the 'civilian' side than in the regular-ish military forces of the period. Main reason is that they were far more functional for ordinary use as a knife and tool (more than a few had the hammer and turn-screw ends to the guard, etc.). A socket bayonet is only good for one thing, that being a bayonet. Well, ok, two things if you count acting as one of those 'stick in the ground' candlestick holders . . . but I don't.

Bottom line, you rarely needed your plug bayonet as an actual bayonet, and then it was often to dispatch an animal, not so much another human in battle, esp. in the style of fighting pirates did, very individual in close quarters, not in a formed line with volley fire like regular troops. And this is a very piratical use - the dispatch and dressing of game, I mean. The dispatch of humans in battle, if aboard a vessel, a socket bayonet would be too unwieldy - just too long to handle effectively amongst all the rigging and what not.

The Spanish (individuals, not regular forces) kept them in use for hundred(s) of years after they were militarily obsolete for these very reasons - and they have many finely made and decorated examples as 'gentlemen hunters' and so on would have. Some officers may have had them as fancy side blades as well, but not regular troops after most of Europe gave up on them. And this makes sense, as hunters and so on would not normally require the rapid reload that a military formation giving volley fire would need.

The rapid fire a socket bayonet allowed regular troops in formation to achieve - and some disastrous results when plug bayonets were military issue (Killiecrankie, Scotland, is an example) - led to very rapid adoption of the socket bayonet among regular forces once the design was perfected.

Aye, I'd have no hesitation to carry a plug bayonet through the early GAOP, some misgiving carrying one the later the time got, and would generally carry it in lieu of a different 'big knife' bearing in mind it would supplant a 'normal' big knife in most all cases (otherwise, why carry both?). I tend to favor the shorter, more 'knife-like' ones too, for the same reason, rather than the really long ones.

yours, aye,

John

[Jib]

Thanks John! I'm considering adding a plug bayonet to my kit.