Boarding weapons from the Trafalgar era

CutlassCollector · 2nd June 2025, 02:03 PM

I thought I would capture this grouping before I put the pike back on the wall.
It is not entirely chronologically accurate because the pike is the 1888 model but the rest are representative of the weapons used by the crew in boarding actions in the early part of the 19th century.

Boarding Pike – Tower Armoury

Boarding Axe - Sargent. It has lost some of the shaft and would normally be 2’ long.

Long Sea Service Pistol – Tower Armoury. This is a monster, it has a 12” barrel and is 19” overall length – compare the size with the cutlass. It is also heavy 3.3 lbs (1.5kg). It is no surprise that reports indicate that once fired, seamen often just chucked it at the enemy to be rid of it. Many of these were shortened, by the admiralty, to a 9” barrel to make them less cumbersome.

The 1804 Cutlass – Craven. Marked with the cypher GR.

adrian · 2nd June 2025, 10:38 PM

That is quite a neat set. Is it possible to see the Ordnance markings on your pistol please? Close up photos of the stamps near rhs of the trigger guard, in the ramrod channel, on the lock, the barrel breech and the side-plate flat?

M ELEY · 3rd June 2025, 05:17 AM

Wow, CC! This is an amazing grouping! I especially love the boarding axe! I haven't been able to add a great naval use pistol to my collection yet, but hope to do so in the near future. I have the brass bluderbus with the spring-loaded bayonet, but most of my other 'guns' are associated, but not true naval issue. Yours is a great one! As you always say to me, great to see some maritime sea-service items!

Mark

Jim McDougall · 3rd June 2025, 05:58 PM

Fantastic grouping CC!!!!!
Seen together like this really puts perspective to the circumstances at hand with naval warfare. As noted, while the pike may not be chronologically correct but that is irrelevant as these weapons remained in use for long periods without significant change to elements.

The boarding axe is noted as SARGENT. I would presume this to be William Sargant of Birmingham working there 1803-1814, after that he was partnered with James Wooley. It is noted that items marked to him were found in War of 1812 sites.
It is confusing on the spelling with his name listed SARGANT in references, but not unusual to see variation, its the same guy.

The CRAVEN cutlass is amazing! For a long time it was thought that Thomas Craven only worked 1818-1820 in Birmingham.......one of my very first swords (c. 1866) was a 1796 disc hilt by Craven, and that was the data available in those days.
We now know he worked 1799-1802 at 96 Moor St. Birmingham (Bezdek).

CutlassCollector · 4th June 2025, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adrian

That is quite a neat set. Is it possible to see the Ordnance markings on your pistol please? ?

Hi Adrian, I remember that you are an expert in the world of firearms so I'm guessing that you are probably tactfully asking whether the pistol is one of the fakes! I knew about them so I'm confident mine is not.
I have had my share of mistakes over the years so I am much more careful these days.

Apparently back in the 1970s a company in France (?) manufactured a load of Long Sea Service pistols that were almost identical to the original. Well made and complete with inspection marks. I don't think they were made as fakes but as reproductions for re-enactment or for black powder shooters. However they have become fakes and regularly fool auction houses, dealers and collectors. Many years ago, one respected researcher and author noted them as 'made by the Tower but of inferior quality to save expense' in his book of the time but notably removed from his next edition!

There are many LSS pistol survivors, which regularly come up for sale - so there are many pictures to study on the net. I passed over a few that I was not 100% sure of, until this one.

This is a really good explanation of what to look out for if anyone is interested in buying one.

https://www.wilson55.com/news/flintl...ervice-pistol/

CutlassCollector · 4th June 2025, 10:51 AM

Thanks Mark.

Good British boarding axes are hard to find and this one is in a poor state. It's photographed on its better side as the other is missing the langet.
A good Sargent came up for sale at an auction in London last year. But it went for silly money - way past my bidding limit. More annoying was that the buyer contacted me a few days later, through my website, to ask my opinion on his new acquisition.
The pain slightly diminished by me knowing how much he paid for it!

CutlassCollector · 4th June 2025, 11:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

The boarding axe is noted as SARGENT. I would presume this to be William Sargant of Birmingham working there 1803-1814, after that he was partnered with James Wooley. It is noted that items marked to him were found in War of 1812 sites.
It is confusing on the spelling with his name listed SARGANT in references, but not unusual to see variation, its the same guy.

Hi Jim
Yes Sargent is very confusing - I did some research on the name in the Trade Directories of the time. I'll look it out, but in the meantime:

There are seven of these axes in the Royal Armouries collection of which four are marked Sargant and three Sargent. All are preceded by an ‘I’ and most have the centrally located full stop still visible. The fonts are similar and the letters are 4.5mm high in each case.

Hard to explain, as although we know spelling could be haphazard in those days, that could be understandable on paper but stamping your name into metal as part of your business you think would be standardised.

Jim McDougall · 4th June 2025, 03:41 PM

True, in those days spelling was typically pretty atrocious, mostly because people on the average were not highly educated, and few dictionaries were around so they were attempting to spell phonetically.
With that throw in thick accents, dialects etc.

As you say, you would think something as permanent as a stamp would have the proper or favored spelling....perhaps some people thought a misplaced letter where the sound overall was the same was too trivial to worry about.

The real kicker is, who the heck was I. Sargent (Sargant)?
All I could find was William, but nobody with name starting in 'J' or 'I'.
In those days the J was written with an 'I' and other such exchanges in the alphabet made pronunciation in modern parlance sound ridiculous.

These are the kinds of mysteries that for some reason have remained mostly unattended in scholarly study of the arms of these times, where there was a notable advance in commercial production and marking of wares by name became common. Marks or punzones are one thing, but names shouldn't have too much gray area.

Speaking of gray areas, the answer to the mysterious 'I' may be hiding in some of those obscure old references somewhere. If they can find the French 'pass' that would have exonerated Captain Kidd 200 years later!!! well?

CutlassCollector · 4th June 2025, 06:38 PM

OK. This is a bit of a long read but is all I found in my research. The Sargent/Sargant name I suspect refers to various members of a family involved in the arms trade.

Perusal of trade directories covering the period of the early 19th century reveal a plethora of Sargants, Sargents, Sargeants and Sarjeants operating in the Birmingham area. The only candidate with the correct initial is Isaac Sargant of High street, Deritend, Birmingham who is recorded as an edge tool maker/sword cutler from around 1828 to 1835 in various Trade Directories for the Birmingham area, with the spelling of the name sometime being different even between sections of the same directory. For example in the main section of the West 1830 directory he is listed as Sarjeant, Isaac – Victualler, Edge Tool Maker and Hammer Maker. Under the Victualler section he is listed as Sargeant and there are two sword cutlers listed as Isaac Sargeant and Isaac Sergeant in the same street. In the 1835 directory he is listed as Isaac Sargant but only within the Victualler section.

In Pigot’s 1828/29 directory Isaac Sargent is listed as a sword cutler with the same address of High Street, Deritend.
It is known that the information contained in the directories is not necessarily highly accurate. Outdated information copied directly into new editions, or plagiarised from competitors was not unknown and it seems likely that consistent spelling of names by the agents who collected the data was not their topmost priority, while padding out the number of entries was perhaps more lucrative.

In the same directories there is another, more substantial, firm listed as Woolly, Sargant and Fairfax located at Edmund Street. This company operated from 1815 until 1879 and from around 1835 became Sargant & Son and then Sargant Brothers, none however with the initial ‘I’. It also had premises for a period in London. This company is significant in that it was listed as an official supplier, and sword cutler to the Board of Ordnance and the East India Company. They supplied swords, cutlasses, firearms and bayonets. Cutlers did not necessarily manufacture all the parts – blades, guards, hilts and scabbards - but commonly put them together to form the complete sword. It was therefore normal practice to outsource to other suppliers.

Any skilled iron worker with access to a forge, a hammer and an anvil can make an axe and it is likely that most boarding axes were made by blacksmiths or firms of edge tool makers. Perhaps Woolly, Sargant and Fairfax, who were recognised Board of Ordnance suppliers, sub-contracted axe manufacture out to Isaac Sargant, at Deritend, who may well have had a family connection. This would explain why his name appears on so many government axes so although not conclusive it remains a strong possibility that I Sargant is the Isaac listed in the trade directories.

CC

Jim McDougall · 4th June 2025, 07:20 PM

Hardly a long read to me

(Tolstoy here!)
Excellent research and I think most plausible deductions, and I think there is a great deal of misunderstanding about actual swordsmiths and cutlers. Then factor in toolmakers and blacksmiths, as well as notable outsourcing

These partnerships also play an important part in trying to use the name(s) on a weapon to establish its date/period. I would guess that a weapon with only the SARGENT (sic) stamp would be from the earlier 19th c period, and that the numbers of examples with the 'I' initial were from the years later 1820s+

Again this is an amazing example, and very much appreciate your sharing all these in this grouping!!

M ELEY · Yesterday, 11:16 AM

I can never get over how boarding axes, particularly the British pattern, so closely resembles the spike trade axes (i.e. tomahawks) that were being made for the Native Americans at around the same time period. I know we're talked about this before and even Gilkerson supported the theory that they definitely are 'related'. Yours is an amazing example and I do hope to add one to my own collection someday!

2nd June 2025, 02:03 PM	#1
CutlassCollector Member Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: Scotland Posts: 353	Boarding weapons from the Trafalgar era I thought I would capture this grouping before I put the pike back on the wall. It is not entirely chronologically accurate because the pike is the 1888 model but the rest are representative of the weapons used by the crew in boarding actions in the early part of the 19th century. Boarding Pike – Tower Armoury Boarding Axe - Sargent. It has lost some of the shaft and would normally be 2’ long. Long Sea Service Pistol – Tower Armoury. This is a monster, it has a 12” barrel and is 19” overall length – compare the size with the cutlass. It is also heavy 3.3 lbs (1.5kg). It is no surprise that reports indicate that once fired, seamen often just chucked it at the enemy to be rid of it. Many of these were shortened, by the admiralty, to a 9” barrel to make them less cumbersome. The 1804 Cutlass – Craven. Marked with the cypher GR. Attached Images

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2nd June 2025, 10:38 PM	#2
adrian Member Join Date: Mar 2012 Posts: 132	That is quite a neat set. Is it possible to see the Ordnance markings on your pistol please? Close up photos of the stamps near rhs of the trigger guard, in the ramrod channel, on the lock, the barrel breech and the side-plate flat?

3rd June 2025, 05:17 AM	#3
M ELEY Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: NC, U.S.A. Posts: 2,151	Wow, CC! This is an amazing grouping! I especially love the boarding axe! I haven't been able to add a great naval use pistol to my collection yet, but hope to do so in the near future. I have the brass bluderbus with the spring-loaded bayonet, but most of my other 'guns' are associated, but not true naval issue. Yours is a great one! As you always say to me, great to see some maritime sea-service items! Mark

3rd June 2025, 05:58 PM	#4
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,269	Fantastic grouping CC!!!!! Seen together like this really puts perspective to the circumstances at hand with naval warfare. As noted, while the pike may not be chronologically correct but that is irrelevant as these weapons remained in use for long periods without significant change to elements. The boarding axe is noted as SARGENT. I would presume this to be William Sargant of Birmingham working there 1803-1814, after that he was partnered with James Wooley. It is noted that items marked to him were found in War of 1812 sites. It is confusing on the spelling with his name listed SARGANT in references, but not unusual to see variation, its the same guy. The CRAVEN cutlass is amazing! For a long time it was thought that Thomas Craven only worked 1818-1820 in Birmingham.......one of my very first swords (c. 1866) was a 1796 disc hilt by Craven, and that was the data available in those days. We now know he worked 1799-1802 at 96 Moor St. Birmingham (Bezdek).

4th June 2025, 10:51 AM	#6
CutlassCollector Member Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: Scotland Posts: 353	Thanks Mark. Good British boarding axes are hard to find and this one is in a poor state. It's photographed on its better side as the other is missing the langet. A good Sargent came up for sale at an auction in London last year. But it went for silly money - way past my bidding limit. More annoying was that the buyer contacted me a few days later, through my website, to ask my opinion on his new acquisition. The pain slightly diminished by me knowing how much he paid for it!

4th June 2025, 03:41 PM	#8
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,269	True, in those days spelling was typically pretty atrocious, mostly because people on the average were not highly educated, and few dictionaries were around so they were attempting to spell phonetically. With that throw in thick accents, dialects etc. As you say, you would think something as permanent as a stamp would have the proper or favored spelling....perhaps some people thought a misplaced letter where the sound overall was the same was too trivial to worry about. The real kicker is, who the heck was I. Sargent (Sargant)? All I could find was William, but nobody with name starting in 'J' or 'I'. In those days the J was written with an 'I' and other such exchanges in the alphabet made pronunciation in modern parlance sound ridiculous. These are the kinds of mysteries that for some reason have remained mostly unattended in scholarly study of the arms of these times, where there was a notable advance in commercial production and marking of wares by name became common. Marks or punzones are one thing, but names shouldn't have too much gray area. Speaking of gray areas, the answer to the mysterious 'I' may be hiding in some of those obscure old references somewhere. If they can find the French 'pass' that would have exonerated Captain Kidd 200 years later!!! well?

4th June 2025, 06:38 PM	#9
CutlassCollector Member Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: Scotland Posts: 353	OK. This is a bit of a long read but is all I found in my research. The Sargent/Sargant name I suspect refers to various members of a family involved in the arms trade. Perusal of trade directories covering the period of the early 19th century reveal a plethora of Sargants, Sargents, Sargeants and Sarjeants operating in the Birmingham area. The only candidate with the correct initial is Isaac Sargant of High street, Deritend, Birmingham who is recorded as an edge tool maker/sword cutler from around 1828 to 1835 in various Trade Directories for the Birmingham area, with the spelling of the name sometime being different even between sections of the same directory. For example in the main section of the West 1830 directory he is listed as Sarjeant, Isaac – Victualler, Edge Tool Maker and Hammer Maker. Under the Victualler section he is listed as Sargeant and there are two sword cutlers listed as Isaac Sargeant and Isaac Sergeant in the same street. In the 1835 directory he is listed as Isaac Sargant but only within the Victualler section. In Pigot’s 1828/29 directory Isaac Sargent is listed as a sword cutler with the same address of High Street, Deritend. It is known that the information contained in the directories is not necessarily highly accurate. Outdated information copied directly into new editions, or plagiarised from competitors was not unknown and it seems likely that consistent spelling of names by the agents who collected the data was not their topmost priority, while padding out the number of entries was perhaps more lucrative. In the same directories there is another, more substantial, firm listed as Woolly, Sargant and Fairfax located at Edmund Street. This company operated from 1815 until 1879 and from around 1835 became Sargant & Son and then Sargant Brothers, none however with the initial ‘I’. It also had premises for a period in London. This company is significant in that it was listed as an official supplier, and sword cutler to the Board of Ordnance and the East India Company. They supplied swords, cutlasses, firearms and bayonets. Cutlers did not necessarily manufacture all the parts – blades, guards, hilts and scabbards - but commonly put them together to form the complete sword. It was therefore normal practice to outsource to other suppliers. Any skilled iron worker with access to a forge, a hammer and an anvil can make an axe and it is likely that most boarding axes were made by blacksmiths or firms of edge tool makers. Perhaps Woolly, Sargant and Fairfax, who were recognised Board of Ordnance suppliers, sub-contracted axe manufacture out to Isaac Sargant, at Deritend, who may well have had a family connection. This would explain why his name appears on so many government axes so although not conclusive it remains a strong possibility that I Sargant is the Isaac listed in the trade directories. CC

4th June 2025, 07:20 PM	#10
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,269	Hardly a long read to me (Tolstoy here!) Excellent research and I think most plausible deductions, and I think there is a great deal of misunderstanding about actual swordsmiths and cutlers. Then factor in toolmakers and blacksmiths, as well as notable outsourcing These partnerships also play an important part in trying to use the name(s) on a weapon to establish its date/period. I would guess that a weapon with only the SARGENT (sic) stamp would be from the earlier 19th c period, and that the numbers of examples with the 'I' initial were from the years later 1820s+ Again this is an amazing example, and very much appreciate your sharing all these in this grouping!!

Yesterday, 11:16 AM	#11
M ELEY Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: NC, U.S.A. Posts: 2,151	I can never get over how boarding axes, particularly the British pattern, so closely resembles the spike trade axes (i.e. tomahawks) that were being made for the Native Americans at around the same time period. I know we're talked about this before and even Gilkerson supported the theory that they definitely are 'related'. Yours is an amazing example and I do hope to add one to my own collection someday!