Pirates Swords - What did they use in the Golden Age of Piracy?

Thank you to Wondrium for sponsoring today’s video! Signup for your FREE trial to Wondrium here: ow.ly/C3jo50N4T3y

Two pirate captains, who served with each other when younger, meet in port one day. 1st pirate says, "last I saw you, you had both hands," pointing to the other's hook. 2nd pirate answers, " aye. I was in a fight with a Dutch merchantman and when dueling with the captain he cut me hand off. What about you? Last time I saw you, you had both legs," pointing at the other's peg leg. "Oh, aye," says the 1st pirate, "we was running down a Spanish galleon in the Caribbean and they let loose a broadside and one of the cannon balls took off me leg. What about you? Last time I saw you, you had both eyes," pointing out the other's patch. "Aye," says the 2nd pirate, "we was just leaving port and I looked up and a gull shat in me eye, it was only a few days after I got me hook..."

I've posted this quote under a Schola Gladiatoria video before, but I'll do it again both because I think it both illustrates some broader historical context to the question of pirate swords, and because it's just plain awesome. Here's what the great pirate captain Henry Morgan said when asked directly what the best pirate weapon was: "The president of Panama was astounded that 400 men could have conquered such strong fortresses, whose defenders had not lacked courage, with nothing but small-arms. He sent a messenger to Morgan, asking that he might be allowed to see the weapon which had given him such power. Morgan received the president's envoy with great civility and gave him a French musket with a barrel four and half feet long, firing a one ounce bullet; he also sent a cartouche which he'd had expressly made in France, containing thirty cartridges full of powder. He charged the messenger to tell his master that Morgan presented him with this musket, and that within a year or two he would come to Panama to fetch it back again." (From 'The Buccaneers of America' by Alexander Exquemelin) Exquemelin sailed with Morgan and was present at most of the events he described, so he knew what he was talking about. Apart from the sheer bad-assery of Morgan's promise to come back and get his musket in a year's time, the thing I like about the quote is that it shows the context Morgan was operating in. The 'Golden Age' of piracy was all well within the age of gunpowder warfare, and although everybody loves to think of swashbuckling pirates crossing blades, guns were the primary weapons of the era and swords were very much a back-up for when ammunition ran low, or the fighting became too close to allow time to reload. Morgan prized long-barreled muskets (for accuracy and power) and bandoliers of paper cartridges (for fast reloads and rapid fire), and liked to recruit from local hunters who were skilled shots. he knew that firepower was key, and he definitely got results- he was possibly the most successful pirate captain of the age. Many pirates wouldn't have had a sword at all. Long muskets could have been fitted with bayonets, and even today in the Caribbean the word 'cutlass' is used to refer to machetes/ cane knives- these tools were widely available and would have made decent weapons, especially for the pirate rank-and-file who may not have known how to fence and would probably only have fought hand-to-hand as a last resort.

It's important to distinguish between the earlier buccaneers and the later 'pirates' or privateers. Buccaneers like Henry Morgan fought more on land, raiding Spanish settlements, while the later privateers attacked Spanish shipping. The later stage of piracy was predominately outright sea-borne criminal gangs. I suspect these men used different weapons at different times for various purposes. Of course, if you only had a cutlass, that's what you used. But one imagines these chaps used the best weapon for the purpose at hand.

A slight correction. Wallonie (whose inhabitants are known as Walloons) is actually the southern, French speaking, part of Belgium

So “Sid Meier’s: Pirates!” wasn’t too far off in offering our character the choice of a shorter cutlass, a medium-length broadsword, or a longer rapier. Seems like Sid’s research was on target. Shiver me timbers! I’ve got the urge to go a-plunderin’. (In-game only, of course.) :)

In fort Matanzas in St Augustine, they found an interesting amount of 17th century jian and dao along with the Spanish finds.

Here in the USA, the most prevalent image of the "pirate cutlass" in the popular imagination is certainly the 1833-pattern French naval cutlass. I suspect this is partly due to the US Navy's adoption of a similar design from 1860 through the early 20th century. Even more important, though, were Andrew Wyeth's wonderful illustrations for Treasure Island, published in 1911. Wyeth's pirates are romantic, fascinating and wholly anachronistic in their swords; they also were a huge influence on the popular visual vocabulary of the Golden Age of Piracy. The influence of these illustrations is visible in films like Disney's Treasure Island, and the design of the original Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Disneyland.

The shipwreck of the Whydah is the actual pirate ship of Samuel Bellamy sunk in 1717. Unfortunately, the swords have all rusted away, but the hilts are still there. I don't know if maybe we could guess what the swords were from the hilts.

Let's also not forget axes and knives. Because even for a pirate, the daily business was far more connected to sailing, not fighting. Swordsmanship requires practice, which you usually don't get too much of on a ship. But the tools you use every day are something, you know to use very well. Another reason, why rather broad blades were more popular (despite the absense of mentionable armor) was, that they could be used to cut ropes. Entering a ship that is still maneuverable, can still massively increase the risk of failure, so that was part of the very useful versatility. The more limited the space, the more important are a rather short reach - and multifunctionality.

This video could not have come at a better time for me. Since I've been recently looking for information not specifically on this topic, but on this era. I was trying to find information on how cavalry would have been equipped in the war of Spanish succession. And this video has given me a really good jumping off point for the era

As an interesting followup you should do some of the more interesting combinations that One could run into and and reasons why some unexpected swords might have performed better than one might expect.

This would be a good primer for another video about shipboard combat of the period.

I need to watch Captain Blood again, for historical research!

Matt, another really great video. Thank you. I had two thoughts: 1) Since so much of the Golden Age piracy took place in and around the Caribbean; and since the primary crop of the Caribbean was sugar cane; and since sugar cane was harvested with machetes, so those were no doubt cheap and plentiful; and since a short cutting sword worked well against unarmored opponents aboard ship; and since pirate crews likely did not have a lot of fencing training; and since most anyone can slash away with a machete - I wonder if they were not a common pirate crew weapon as well? 2) Please don’t ever go to north west Belgium and proclaim that the Flemish speak French! Walloons speak French! In Flanders they speak a dialect of Dutch. 😁 Sincerely, Eric van Vlaanderen (The original spelling before great granddad went through Ellis Island.)

Rum, swordomy and the lash 👍

Great video, I love the in-depth explanations of it all. If there's one thing I understand about weapons it's how difficult they are to classify, but you did a great job with that. I see lots of people commenting about knives and guns, but this is a video about swords and a great one at that. Thank you for the information friend.

Matt, I'm so glad you included the Bilbao. That is a sword about which I'm very curious and I was actually getting ready to post a question about whether they were common and how you would classify them.

Before the video starts... They used whatever they could get their hands on. Which would mostly be cutlasses taken from other ships. Now, on with the show!

Captain Hook in Hook actually has interesting taste , he carries a mortuary sword as his regular sidearm but switches to a smallsword for the duel with pan. In the 2003 remake Pan he has a Spanish rapier... Historically as well after the Jacobite 1715 rising some Scots fled to the colonies and long basket hilts may have been briefly more common at the end of the "golden age".