Subject: pirate

Culture: colonial English

Setting: Golden Age of Piracy, Caribbean/Atlantic 1714-1722

Object: guns (various)

Pistol

* Konstam/McBride 1998 p12

"Pistols were the most popular firearms simply because they were so compact. Edward Teach ('Blackbeard') is reported to have carried three pairs of pistols, as well as a sword and a knife, and others carried pistols tied with silk cords to prevent them being dropped overboard during the fight. A pistol recovered from the wreck of Samuel Bellamy's pirate ship Whydah wrecked in 1717 was wrapped in its own long red silk looped ribbon."

Blunderbuss

* Breverton 2004 p22

"The blunderbuss was a close range, devastating weapon, a large shot rifle, superseded by the musketoon of 1758. This so-called 'thunder gun' was a huge shotgun with the firepower of a small cannon. There was a 2-inch bore which fanned out to a funnel shape at the end of the barrel, which was supposed to help spread the pellets over a wider area. This long hand-gun, about half the length of a musket, was so powerful that it had to be held away from the body -- the recoil would knock a pirate over. Alternatively, it was held against the hip, and used for boarding-parties and personal defence."

* Konstam/McBride 1998 p12

"[B]lunderbusses were more popular [than full-size military muskets], firing a blast of scrap-iron and nails into the face of the enemy."