Well, I have fallen into the old pit trap that is 'naval swords prior to 1800', meaning that because there were no restrictions on what one could carry to sea and no actual "m1650 swords" (model types), ANY sword could be a sea sword. This was covered extensively by Annis and May in their monumental work, "Swords for Sea Service", whereby they identified everything from rapiers to cavalry swords with known sea use. This creates the conundrum whereby all we have to go by is what PATTERNS were popular among the naval men (and pirates, consequently). Thus, we do have clear documentation that hangers of this sort did go to sea. As far as specific individuals of fame carrying them, we have the brass 'hunting' hangers being carried by Admirals Benbow and Shovel. But there is nothing really to say that this piece could have been used in a naval setting. Looking through my books, I saw numerous Dutch and English hangers of this type, many in silver, but none identified as 'naval'. However, of the many brass hilts of this same time, the books also didn't list any of them as being naval either. Let's face it, the rules were so loose back then that few weapons for naval use were categorized and recorded as such. The same is true for every potential naval sword all the way up to the beginning of the nineteenth century! It came down to "Well, it has an anchor on the pommel. Must be a sea sword!" Known swords removed from ships or taken in battle are extremely scarce. So, my point is, we may never be sure if this beautiful piece saw service. Some great examples of the silver hilt stag hangers can be seen in Southwick's guide and in the Victoria & Albert Museum collection volume on swords by Norman.
|