Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - Sword Found at Wreck Site of Queen Annes Revenge

M ELEY · 19th January 2011, 01:53 PM

Hello gents, sorry I was away for awhile.

Jim, you bring up an excellent point concerning the evolution of the espada, from its ealy broad-bladed beginning to the classic forms of the later 19th century. It brings back the argument for me concerning the Brazilian espada cutlass we've discussed as far as practicality of it being a true horseman's saber vs a possible naval sword. I don't wish to digress from the present discussion, so I'll save that one for another time-

I am in agreement that after carefully perusing through Neumann, Gilkerson, Moore, Wilkinson-Latham, etc, you are spot-on that the style of this sword is probably too late for our time period. The ONLY example I did find, as mentioned, was in Soutwick with hall-marks around 1690. The hilt on it matched ours, but no drilled quillon hole. Likewise, as you point out, this style of sword had not really caught on yet.

The one quesion I'm not so sure of is whether this example might have had a shell-guard at one time? Looking back over the records, the QAR divers found the guard quite a bit earlier and this hilt in September, 2010. There is no absolute conclusion that they are from the same sword, per say. Anyway, just thinking aloud.

The Outer Banks are truly the Graveyard of the Atlantic and this hilt could easily have been from another wreck. It would be interesting to see the evolution of these hangers, though, from examples presented from earliest to latest period. Many of the previously mentioned books show examples, but not in descending order, nor encompassing the periods from hangers via 1650 to 1850. The earliest indeed had shell-guards and side plates, with very rough bumpy stag grips. Later examples had smooth, sanded stag, and in the 1770s on, were see the stained green and sometimes other garish stained colored grips. The 19th century forms of true hunting swords/hirshfangers still had shell guards and stag grips, emulating all those earlier forms, but the fittings were very straight/linier, with much decoration to the hilts/blades. Annis indicates that with the 18th c. hangers, it seemed that the plainer, unmarked versions were more popular with naval-men, with perhaps only an etched anchor on the blade.

Hopefully, more may turn up on this wreck to get a clearer picture of what Blackbeard and his crew might have really carried.

19th January 2011, 01:53 PM	#10
M ELEY Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: NC, U.S.A. Posts: 2,066	Hello gents, sorry I was away for awhile. Jim, you bring up an excellent point concerning the evolution of the espada, from its ealy broad-bladed beginning to the classic forms of the later 19th century. It brings back the argument for me concerning the Brazilian espada cutlass we've discussed as far as practicality of it being a true horseman's saber vs a possible naval sword. I don't wish to digress from the present discussion, so I'll save that one for another time- I am in agreement that after carefully perusing through Neumann, Gilkerson, Moore, Wilkinson-Latham, etc, you are spot-on that the style of this sword is probably too late for our time period. The ONLY example I did find, as mentioned, was in Soutwick with hall-marks around 1690. The hilt on it matched ours, but no drilled quillon hole. Likewise, as you point out, this style of sword had not really caught on yet. The one quesion I'm not so sure of is whether this example might have had a shell-guard at one time? Looking back over the records, the QAR divers found the guard quite a bit earlier and this hilt in September, 2010. There is no absolute conclusion that they are from the same sword, per say. Anyway, just thinking aloud. The Outer Banks are truly the Graveyard of the Atlantic and this hilt could easily have been from another wreck. It would be interesting to see the evolution of these hangers, though, from examples presented from earliest to latest period. Many of the previously mentioned books show examples, but not in descending order, nor encompassing the periods from hangers via 1650 to 1850. The earliest indeed had shell-guards and side plates, with very rough bumpy stag grips. Later examples had smooth, sanded stag, and in the 1770s on, were see the stained green and sometimes other garish stained colored grips. The 19th century forms of true hunting swords/hirshfangers still had shell guards and stag grips, emulating all those earlier forms, but the fittings were very straight/linier, with much decoration to the hilts/blades. Annis indicates that with the 18th c. hangers, it seemed that the plainer, unmarked versions were more popular with naval-men, with perhaps only an etched anchor on the blade. Hopefully, more may turn up on this wreck to get a clearer picture of what Blackbeard and his crew might have really carried.