Pirate Weapons

What Weapons Did Pirates Use?

Dec 31, 2008 Robert Marcell

Pirates were fierce and often desperate sailors, who, when forced to fight, utilized a wide variety of weapons to overcome their foes.

Pirates preferred an easy, bloodless victory to a hard-fought and brutal battle, and to this end they developed numerous scare tactics to intimidate their victims into surrendering. However, when forced to board a vessel, pirates utilized a wide variety of weapons to overcome their opponents. They were often better armed than their prey, and usually outnumbered them as well.

Some of the weapons pirates used include:

Firearms

Firearms were popular with pirates, and many pirates became excellent shots. According to the journal of Basil Ringrose, who spent two years sailing with Captain Bartholomew Sharp, they could clear a deck and destroy rigging to slow a ship down with accurate sharpshooting while they advanced on it from behind (so that the other vessel's cannon could not be fired against them).

In describing one such attack, on three Spanish warships on 23 April 1680, Ringrose claimed that by the time the pirates boarded their first ship, two-thirds of the crew had already been killed by their muskets and pistols, and the remainder surrendered immediately. They then went on to capture the other two ships. (Cordingly and Falconer, 74)

The most common firearms were muskets, pistols, and blunderbusses. Pirates might also use bows and crossbows, and deck-mounted swivel guns. Muskets are long firearms (usually around five feet long), and fired with a flintlock or wheel-lock mechanism. Muskets, unlike modern rifles, are loaded through the muzzle, with a charge of gunpowder and round bullet. Shorter versions, called musketoons, also existed. (Cawthorne, 69)

Pistols came in a variety of shapes and sizes, and utilized a number of different firing mechanisms. Like muskets, they were also muzzle-loaders, but because of their short barrels they were more easily reloaded than their longer cousins. They could also be fired in one hand, and worn in number, unlike a musket, which requires two hands. According to Nigel Cawthorne, pirates "prized the pistol above all other weapons." (Cawthorne, 71) Blackbeard, perhaps the most famous pirate of all time, is said to have carried six pistols at once when boarding enemy vessels. (Konstam, 117)

Blunderbusses, like the musketoon, is a close range weapon. Some of them could fire a very large ball, but most fired several small ones, or a large number of shotgun pellets. (Cawthorne, 70) On a crowded deck, they could be devastating weapons, spreading shrapnel over a wide area and potentially injuring or killing several people at once.

Bows and crossbows were more easily reloaded than most firearms of the day, and were excellent for sniping. Swivel guns, on the other hand, were mounted on the ship, and meant primarily to repel boarders.

Swords and Axes

The most popular pirate sword was the cutlass, a crude, heavy, single-edged sword that was typically about two feet long. Although somewhat clumsy, this sword was easily wielded during a crowded battle, and relatively cheap. It could also be used as a tool. "A man could fell a tree with a cutlass," writes Cawthorne, and they could also split coconuts, strike a spark to start a fire, and cut ropes and anchor lines. (Cawthorne, 66) Naval officers (and some pirate captains) preferred the more gentile smallsword, though, which was meant to be thrust, not swung. (Konstam, 117)

Pirates also utilized numerous knives. Some were meant for eating, others for cutting ropes and sail, and others for fighting. These might include dirks, stilletos, main gauche, poignards, and other daggers, or more makeshift weapons, like the marlinspike or belaying pin, which were more tools than weapons, and used mostly by mutineering soon-to-be-pirates.

East Asian pirates might utilize the razor-sharp dao sword, knives, spears, and blowpipes, in lieu of European weapons, in addition to whatever firearms and cannon they could acquire. Early pirates, and smaller pirate localities, would also use whatever local weapons were available to them.

Boarding axes, pikes and halberds were also utilized by pirates.

Grenades and Stinkpots

Yet another weapon that pirates used were early grenades, or grenadoes, which were filled with blackpowder and could cause mayhem on the decks of a small ship. Stinkpots, similarly, were thrown explosives, but instead of containing powder, they contained noxious chemicals that created foul-smelling clouds when set on fire. They were used to sow confusion, causing defenders to cough and gag and let down their guard.

The Fully Armed Pirate

When all of this was put together on a pirate, he (or she, as there are several notorious female pirates in the historical record) was quite a sight. Unwashed, face blackened with powder, with a hat or kerchief to keep the sun and sweat out of their eyes, the typical pirate would be armed to the teeth. A cutlass hanging from his hip, several pairs of pistols strapped to his chest or swinging at his sides, a number of knives and maybe some grenadoes, and perhaps with a musket, initially, to be dropped once fired -- it is easy to see why most pirate victims preferred to surrender to a pirate crew rather than try and fight them off.

Sources

Cawthorne, Nigel. Pirates: An Illustrated History. Chartwell Books: Edison, NJ, 2005.

Cordingly, David and John Falconer. Pirates: Fact & Fiction. Crossriver Press: New York, 1992.

Konstam, Angus. The History of Pirates. The Lyons Press: Connecticut, 2002.

The copyright of the article Pirate Weapons in Military History is owned by Robert Marcell. Permission to republish Pirate Weapons in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.