Morgan Drawing

[JoshuaRed]

I like the playful ones that like to wake you up just as you're falling asleep!

[Gentleman of Fortune]

Pirate Pete....

I think that you might be on to something.... Foxe has made some comment as well about "soft boots". Apparently though, the only evidence we have are some french sailors (but not on a ship).

This may bear some looking into (at least the boot advocates). I think I sent the PM to your Pyracy Pub mail.... check there!

I think you may have answered my question. There is a Batavia Wreck Museum in Australia that has the collected items recovered from the 1629 wreck.

There is also a Batavia in Europe which may have a museum that these boots are from... so they probably are not connected. We will have to ask Charity to be certain, but if you google batavia wreck you can follow the leads to the museum and, in turn, a data base of the recovered items.

GoF

[Fox]

I don't know which the boots come from - I suspect the Australian museum, but I might be wrong. The Batavia in Holland is a modern replica of the Batavia whose wrecked remains are now on display in Western Australia.

[Capt. Sterling]

On firearms and swords, I was quite interested by the following passage and the light it sheds on "everyday" armaments. It is the testimony of one Mr White who was robbed by a highwayman named Goodman, then a few days later came across him again, quite by chance.

I sent my servant to demand my horse, and he going up to them, they both clapt spurs to their horses, and rode away. We pursued them. Goodman flash'd a pistol at me, but it did not go off. Then they quitted their horses, and got over a ditch into a field, unpon which, I gave my servant a small gun {which he just happened to be carrying}, and order'd him to pursue them, which he did. The prisoners fir'd twice at him, but miss'd him; he fir'd at them but miss'd likewise.

"Damn it!" says one of the prisoners, "we'll kill or be kill'd, we won't be taken alive! Let's turn upon 'em, and fire again, for our lives are as good as theirs!"

Upon this, my man recharged his gun with some pebble-stones and, firing, wounded Goodman behind the head. He presently fell down, and was taken. Another person, whose name was White, coming by, leap'd the ditch and pursued Stevens with a drawn hangar; Stevens perceiving himself hard put to it, presented two pistols at him; White bid him fire, but told him, if he mist, he would cleave his skull; and thereupon Stevens dropt his pistols and surrendered. We took from them two musquetoons, a screw pistol, which was loaded with three bullets, and each of the other pistols was charg'd with two.

I would think that highway men intent on robbery would be as heavily armed as possible and yet still be able to ride away with haste. What I'm not seeing from the quote is whether the fellow giving chase with his servant, was pretty much on the road traveling, in which case he might be heavily armed as well for protection. Does the rest of the book mention anything about pistol buckets, and other tack that could be used for carrying all the additional weapons? I think it might be hard to compare carrying guns on the road with your average citizen walking about town... although I do agree swords were carried on a regular basis by gentlemen.

Neat quote, as always Foxe... Where's it from? Just purchased Stand and Deliver by Brandon but haven't yet cracked the cover.

Hector

[Fox]

It's a deposition made in court, quoted in Gerald Howson's "Thief-taker General: The Rise and Fall of Jonathan Wild."

I believe that Mr White and his servant were on the road, so the gun comes as little surprise. What I was really hoping to illustrate with it was a: the fact that they had a gun as a matter of course, and b: nobody seemed too surprised by the outbreak of a gun-fight, the second Mr White even went so far as to join in! Also, that Mr White#2 was carrying a practical hangar rather than a dress sword, and that he was prepared to use it.

[Dorian Lasseter]

Hmmm....

Reminds me of my favourite quote when dealing with weapons....

"An armed society is a polite society..."

Foxe, as ever, you have a great collection of the obscure, yet very helpful, information...

It does make me wonder truly when folks began to carry fire arms as a usual, everyday item for protection...

Staves, Knives, and Swords too...

Well, Swords didn't become affordable to the commoner until the 1600s I believe...

[Fox]

The thing with the sword is it's essentially a luxury item. If you want a cheap weapon then a spear is going to cost about a tenth the price of the cheapest sword. If you want an effective weapon then a spear has twice the reach of a sword. If you want a dual purpose weapon then an axe or a bill can be used to trim your hedge with. I wonder if the rise in popularity of swords around 1600ish was due to their becoming more affordable or to the rise in popular fashion (I'd say the "fashion" for wearing swords about town probably began no earlier than 1570ish, and took a while to really take hold and spread). The first truly cheap sword was probably the Bohemian peasants' "dusack" which developed in the mid 16th century, but it was a military item, not a fashion trend.

I suspect that the common ownership of firearms is of the same sort of era, when they began to be mass produced and became more obtainable, but I could be wrong.