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Originally Posted by katana
Hi
It seems 'plugging' the touch hole was a common procedure when necessary. I still think that the stilleto, carried by the gunners, would be quickly and easily accessible and if the 'point' thin enough would make an ideal spike.
".....When a cannon had to be abandoned such as in a retreat or surrender, the touch hole of the cannon would be plugged flush with a iron spike, disabling the cannon (at least until metal boring tools could be used to remove the plug). This was called "spiking the cannon"...."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannon
Regards David |
This is a very interesting aspect of artillery, and as I have noted before, not having great familiarity with this topic, had not really 'struck home' as it were.
In rethinking the plausibility of these actually quite attractive and fascinating daggers being sacrificed to this clearly basic necessity, I returned to the original article to recheck the note on this. Terenzi does state that these 'fusetto' were likely used, if such be the case, to foul the touchhole as described.
It is noted as well that the author was 'uncomfortable' with the position that these gunners stilettos were exclusive to the artillerymen of Venice, though it was well known that the Venetian 'fire mouths' were the best organized and proficient in the world. With this, it seems odd that only 6 examples of these exist in Venetian museums.
With this apparantly well established elitism, Angelucci (Turin, 1890, cited by Terenzi) accepted the thesis that these daggers were issued to Venetian cannoneers as 'badges of corps' without any function as either tools or weapons. He suggested further (and questionably) that the scales were applied without order or meaning. This presumption seems well disproven, but is included here as worthy of note.
It would seem to me that with the Venetian artillery, an elite corps considered the best organized in the world of the time, would have a 'tapered steel pin' fashioned as a round device specifically for this reluctant but necessary action. Surely, one of these gunners would not sacrifice what seem to be rather valued weapons in this manner, except as a last resort. The practice of 'spiking' cannon, or otherwise disabling them, seems well known as a standard military practice throughout the history of these weapons. With this being the case, certainly such spikes must have been part of the accoutrements accompanying the gun crews, and I wonder if such items exist among the holdings of old artillery miscellania.
I am inclined to think that a weapon such as a stiletto, regardless of how it was used, would not be left deliberately brittle, nor with deep incisions intended to break the blade more easily. Despite the obvious shortcomings of these daggers as defensive weapons, I think that much as most weapons worn in dress or court situations, they were entirely capable of at least limited combat potential.
Regarding my previous note on the advent of premeasured containers of powder precluding the need for these for measure, it is noted by Terenzi that these needlepoint stilettos served well to puncture the containers to release powder ar key locations for ignition.