Golden Age Grenades

[Daniel]

Books like the Sea-Man's Vade Mecum and Defensive War At Sea emphasize the use of grenades or "granadoes" in naval warfare.

It occurs to me that grenades would have been very inconvenient to carry, as you can't just stick them in a belt like a firelock, sword or dagger. You could put them in a very large pocket or pouch, I suppose, though there would be the risk of breakage. Does anyone know how these weapons would have been carried? Did men carry them all the time, or were they kept in the arms chest and simply passed out right before the enemy got in throwing range? Were they lighted by the gun crews' linstocks?

How effective were these grenades? I speculate that they were substantially less lethal than modern fragmentation grenades, and would most often have stunned and injured opponents rather than killing them outright (death perhaps following some days later from infected fragment wounds and burns). Does anyone have good sources on the lethality of Golden Age grenades?

[Capn_Enigma]

I dunno if this applies to the so- called Golden Age as well, but buccaneer grenadiers usually carried a dozen of them in a utility bag on the left side, along with the sword.

As the grenades were cast iron, breaking them was not really a problem.

And FYI: Every buccaneer chucking a grenade into an enemy fortress received a bonus of 5 Pieces Of Eight above his normal share.

[Gentleman of Fortune]

If you haven't yet, order "Boarder's Away Volume I -With Steel" Here is a link to Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/j497y

he covers grenades, but, as with most things in this book, he lightly covers GAoP, and gives a lot of info on, 1750 to 1880s stuff.

He shows a wooden bucket that grenadoes were stored in, has several pictures of grenadoes and their fuses, and gives historical accounts of their use in combat.

Apparently they would have sailors aloft whose job it would be to rain down grenadoes onto the other ships' deck.

Of course, you could fire them with a hand mortar....

More info here:

http://www.gentlemenoffortune.com/weapons.htm

GOF

[Daniel]

I dunno if this applies to the so- called Golden Age as well, but buccaneer grenadiers usually carried a dozen of them in a utility bag on the left side, along with the sword.

As the grenades were cast iron, breaking them was not really a problem.

And FYI: Every buccaneer chucking a grenade into an enemy fortress received a bonus of 5 Pieces Of Eight above his normal share.

Thank you!

About this "utility bag": is this something that attaches to a belt or is slung over the shoulder?

I had been under the impression that grenades were sometimes made from hardened clay or glass, not just cast iron.

GoF, thanks for the pointer to Boarders Away. (As for launching grenades by the hand mortar, thanks but no thanks. I already read what you wrote on your site about them!)

[Fox]

An engraving of a grenadier in, I think, The Travails of Mars, printed in the 1670s shows him with a square bag slung over his shoulder and hanging on the left side, as Enigma said.

Cast iron grenades were probably the most common, but pottery ones were certainly used too (never seen glass before, but it's perfectly feasable). The pottery (and probably glass) grenades were not designed to blow up like the iron ones, but were more kind of incendiary weapons, like a petrol-bomb.

[JoshuaRed]

I have an engraving of a French grenadier (1680's I think) that I'll post when I get home. He has a large pouch slung over his shoulder, hanging on his left side, full of grenadoes. I'd say 8-10 of 'em. Had to be HEAVY.

[Capn_Enigma]

Here's the engraving I was thinking of and of which Foxe already mentioned the source: Alain Mallet, "Les Travaux Des Mars", 1672.

[JoshuaRed]

That's the one. I was off by 8 years.