Naval Caribbean rapier

[midelburgo]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

"Small Arms of the Spanish Treasure Fleets", Noel Wells, 2006, p.72

"...in Spain, the term rapier was often used to designate small swords, and the first such land patterns authorized for wear by officers began to appear in the middle of the 18th century. There were no designated sea service swords at this time, and if an officer or anyone of lower ranks wanted one, he either purchased a non-regulation sword or adopted an existing army model".

An intriguing and comprehensive book, which gives dynamic perspectives on the weaponry even including dogs and horses as used in warfare in these colonial situations, as well as the Indian arms.

Rapier (ropera) was used in a couple of inventories in the 1480s and then dissapeared of Spanish language until XXth century.

In the Album of the Marques de la Victoria (1720s-1740s) there is a dedicated plate to sea weapons. In some navigation and naval subject books (like Alonso de Chaves, middle of XVIth century) you can find descriptions of sea weaponry.

In spite of all the hollywood stuff, spanish weapons and ships were mostly simple undecorated matters, and anonimous. That is why it is dificcult to associate and identify survivors, and these were not "interesting" or have been reused up to their destruction.