Excellent information,gents! RhysMichael, great stuff! When I get more time, I'll look more deeply into the listed links. I'd read about Hoppson's exploits somewhere else, but never got to actually see the nimcha itself. It's nice to see one of this early dating matching its later counterparts exactly.Thanks!
Fernando, thanks for the mention of crossbows. Fascinating! On the link that Rick attached, it does show a Corsair with a crossbow. When I first saw it (before reading your comment and seeing the reference to flags), I just figured it was another farsical European depiction of a Berber. Too cool! In thinking about it, it makes perfect sense. Firearms were fairly scarce for many of these poor pirats (except what they could capture from others-note the pic of Barbarossa above with the captured European sword). many of the Maghreb weapons were primitive matchlock devices, so a crossbow would be a welcome alternative. Likewise, it was a silent weapon. When Stephen Decatur snuck into Tripoli in 1804 to destroy the captured U.S. warship, it was under a veil of silence. He allowed his men no firearms in fear of an accidental ignition and all bladed arms had to remain sheathed as not to reflect moonlight and give away their position. In keeping with this theme, the crossbow would have been an ideal pirating weapon to sneak over the side of a ship with. Very cool!
