Pirates and Their Weapons

Susan F. Craft
Author, The Xanthakos Family Trilogy

        I'm sharing some of the history about pirate weapons I found while researching for my novel, Cassia, which takes place in the NC Outer Banks and along the Atlantic Coast in 1799.
        Contrary to what we have seen in movies, for real fighting pirate captains big floppy boots, belts with huge buckles, and long swords would have been nuisances. Instead of long swords, they used curved cutlasses that wouldn’t interfere with their mobility in climbing tangled ropes and boarding other ships.

        They wanted to be able to shoot often, so they carried multiple smaller pistols. The infamous pirate, Blackbeard, was known to carry as many as eight pistols attached to his clothing with fabric hooks.

Two images of Blackbeard



   Long distance weapons, though rare, included six-foot spears called boarding spikes. Boarding axes were used to cut netting strung to make it harder to board. These axes were also used to break down doors once the pirates were aboard.

       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        Here’s another weapon that’s yucky, but interesting—caltrop.

        In the 1700s, pirates would sometimes toss caltrops onto the decks of the ships they wanted to capture. These diabolical little antipersonnel weapons remind me of current-day jacks from the game Ball and Jacks (well, sort of). About an inch tall, they were fashioned out of iron or steel with four barbed-wire like points, constructed in such a way that, no matter how they landed, one point was always sticking up.

        The reason behind this weapon? Eighteenth century sailors went barefoot, mostly for comfort, but also because it made it easier to climb up into the sail rigging. So, if you stepped on a caltrop, it was mighty painful and would delay you from fighting back as pirates boarded your ship.
        Barbaric -- you think?

Susan F. Craft is the author of The Xanthakos Family Trilogy, historic romantic suspense: The Chamomile (Revolutionary War and winner of the SIBA Okra Pick, re-released in April 2015); Laurel (post-Revolutionary War, released in January 2015); and Cassia (1799-1836) to be released September 2015--publisher is Heritage Beacon imprint of Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas. 

Medicine at Sea -- Not for the Squeamish!

The more I learn about doctoring on board a ship, the more I’m thankful I live in this day and age!  Much more than life on land, shipboard life was wrought with many dangers and diseases. And if the ship was a man-of-war or a pirate or privateer, they also had to endure battle from time to time.  Injuries ranged from gunshots, punctures, slashes, dismemberment, to scorching burns from cannons.

Aside from battle, a wooden ship was a floating bucket of germs and disease. Rats, cockroaches, weevils, lice, and lifestock infected every corner. Sailor's clothing was often damp, making it more likely to harbor disease. Sunburn, heat exhaustion, sun stroke, hypothermia, exposure, and frostbite were just a few of the normal problems each sailor faced.

Diseases such as typhus, cholera, yellow fever, or bubonic plague had a nasty habit of invading ships where large numbers of people were gathered together in confined places  Scurvy killed more sailors than any other disease, natural disasters, and fights combined. Historians conservatively place the number of deaths at more than 2,000,000 between Columbus’ first voyage to the New World and the mid-nineteenth century.

In 1596 William Clowes, an English surgeon at sea, described how his men suffered from scurvy:

Their gums were rotten even to the very roots of their teeth, and their cheeks hard and swollen, the teeth were loose neere ready to fallout…their breath a filthy savour. The legs were feeble and so weak, that they were not scarce able to carrie their bodies. Moreover they were full of aches and paines, with many bluish and reddish staines or spots, some broad and some small like flea-biting. (Brown, 34)

Aside from battle, most injuries occurred from simple accidents. Scurrying up and down the rigging as the ship swayed back and forth often caused sailors to lose their footing and fall, resulting at best with a fractured skull, at worst death. Falling or snapping rigging, shifting yards, and accidents with knives and other tools also caused severe injuries.

Then, of course, an actual battle normally flooded sick bay with wounded men. The worse of them needed the dreaded, amputation

The process involved cutting off the injured man’s clothing and applying a tourniquet. The surgeon then gave him a stick to bite down on.  Anesthetics had yet to be invented and contrary to belief, they weren’t given alcohol either. Only after the surgery were opiates or grog given for the discomfort.  Without going into details, the limb was sawed off and tossed in a bucket. Either hot tar was applied to the stump or it was cauterized with a hot iron to stop the bleeding. The tourniquet was removed and strips of linen lashed over the stump. If a wool stocking cap was available, this was also pulled over the stump. The entire operation took eight to ten minutes. The man’s chances of survival? Fifty-fifty.

A seaman aboard HMS Macedonian assisted during an operation.

We held [one man] while the surgeon cut off his leg above the knee. The task was most painful to behold, the surgeon using his knife and saw on human flesh and bones as freely as the butcher at the shambles.”

The Medicine Chest

Every ship at sea was in dire need of a medicine chest. In fact, the medicine chest was considered more valuable than a doctor. If a doctor was not on aboard, the captain simply designated someone to tend to the patients, but the medicine chest they could not do without!

John Woodall’s The Surgeons Mate, first published in 1617 was a shipboard manual that listed instruments and medicines found in the chest as well as special instructions for emergencies and ailments.  There were 281 remedies listed, which consisted of popular herbs of the day, rosemary, mint, clover, sage, thyme, angelica, comfrey, blessed thistle, juniper, hollyhock, absinthe and pyrethrum.

Here’s a list of tools and supplies normally found in medicine chest

Knives

Razors

Head-sawes

Cauterizing irons

Forceps

Probes

Spatulas for drawing out splinters and shot

Syringes

Grippers for extracting teeth

Sissors

Stitching quill and needles

Splints

Spomges

Clouts (soft rags)

Cupping glasses,

Blood porringers

Chafing dishes

Mortar and pestle

Weights and scales

Tinderbox

Lantern

Plasters

These medicine chests were so valuable and sought after by ships that Blackbeard himself blockaded the port of Charleston just to get one in exchange for prisoners. The going rate for a medicine chest of the day was  between 300-400 pounds!

Remedies or medicines had to be concocted on the spot. Normally the medication consisted of a curative agent, water or oil, flavoring, if swallowed, and a compound used to deliver the medicine (like a pill or ointment).

Here’s a list of ailments and their remedies. I think you’ll find some of them most amusing!

• Vomiting, hiccups, stomach ache --- cinnamon water ,licorice juice, peppermint water 
•  Urinary problems, fevers – spirits, salts and tinctures like salts of wormwood, vinegar and quicksilver
• To close up a wound, or as a varnish on a violin – Dragon’s blood, the resin made from the agave and rattan palm
•  Malaria – quinine bark
•  Headache – Chamomile flowers
•   Mucus – syrup from vinegar of squills with sugar and honey
•  Skin wounds – oil of St. John’s Wort
•  Fear of water, bites from serpents, mad dogs, and creeping things – Methridatum – an opiate
•  Syphilis – apply poultice made of frogs, “earthworms, viper’s flesh, human fat, wine, grass from northern India, lavender from France, chamomile from Italy, white lead and quicksilver”
•  And my personal favorite! Wounds from battle – apply poultice made of “burnt earthworms, dried boar’s brain, pulverized Egyptian mummy, crushed rubies, bear’s fat, and moss from the skull of hanged man which had been collected from the gibbet at moonrise with Venus ascending.”

And get this, the plaster was not applied to the wound but to the sword that sliced him!.

Why I fell in love with Charleston, South Carolina!

Before I even set foot in South Carolina, there was something about Charleston that drew my affections. A mystique, an allure of romance and adventure that caught my heart long before I tread upon the city’s cobblestone streets. So when my publisher agreed to publish my trilogy, Charles Towne Belles, and more currently, my next release Veil of Pearls, also set in Charleston,  I just had to visit the city for myself (Research purposes, of course) and see if it was everything I hoped it would be.

I wasn’t disappointed. From the rush of the mighty Cooper River pouring into Charleston Bay, to the unique narrow houses with their open air piazzas stretching the length of the building, to the clip-clop of the horse-drawn carriages over the cobblestone streets, to the magnificent St. Michael’s church built in 1761, and the colorful gardens blossoming with Bougainvilleas, I was enthralled.

But the most fascinating thing I discovered about Charleston was that it was once a walled city, complete with moats and drawbridges. How cool is that? Combining the romance of the medieval castle with the untamed colonies. The colonist built the wall to protect their new homes from Indians, the Spanish, and of course Pirates, but in 1719 they soon outgrew the boundaries and the wall was slowly dismantled.  If you want to see a small part of the wall that still remains, visit the Watch Tower museum and take a tour of the dungeon.  (See picture above.. apparently, they still have pirates imprisoned there!)

Of course, being a pirate lover, the best part of the history for me was learning about the Charleston pirates.  Did you know Blackbeard and his crew once blockaded the entire city?  He captured several leading citizens and held them hostage on board his ship, not allowing supplies to enter or leave Charles Towne port. Finally after a few weeks of negotiation, Blackbeard released the hostages for only a few medical supplies and left. Lucky for Charleston since he was one of the most brutal of all pirates. 

Another of my favorite pirates is a lady pirate named Anne Bonny.  She, along with another woman pirate, Mary Reed, terrorized the Caribbean in the early 1700’s, but apparently Anne had her beginning in Charleston where she was often seen in taverns right alongside the men.  (She actually makes an appearance in my book, The Red Siren!)

But, my favorite Charleston pirate has to be the pirate they called “The Gentleman Pirate”, Stede Bonnet.  A wealthy and educated landowner on the island of Barbados, he abandoned his family and all his belongings to become a “gentleman of fortune”. They say he was not the best pirate, but he also wasn’t a cruel pirate either. He loved books and brought a whole library on board his ship.  In September, 1718, Bonnet was captured and brought to Charleston where, being considered a gentleman, he was given residence in the Marshal’s house instead of the dungeon while he awaited trail. Apparently, he was quite good with the ladies and somehow managed to get a hold of some women’s clothes which he quickly donned and then made his escape. Bonnet was recaptured shortly thereafter and, though found guilty, received several stays of execution as the result of pleas from city merchants and several doting ladies! Bonnet's friends were influential, but not enough to save him. The "gentleman pirate" was hanged at White Point in Charleston on December 18, 1718. Moral of the story, gentleman or not, don't become a pirate!!

All in all, my research adventure to Charleston was well worth the trip!

By MaryLu Tyndall, Welcome MaryLu as a regular contributor to Colonial Quills!!! This is MaryLu's first post on CQ.