Pirate Weapons...Afghan Style

[BBJW]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

Me thinks you really are a feisty scoundrel thar BJ!!! Lets hope we dont get another broadside with that title!
I'm glad you posted these as they really are some nice Afghan pieces, even though not 'naval' and of course not related to pirates.........but that gun is a beauty!!!
The top piece is the much Anglicized Afghan army sword of the late 1880's into the 1890's, and saw use again in the 3rd Afghan War in 1919. I had one of these with the arsenal mark from Mazir i Sharif . The blades on these are outstanding and really heavy.The two Khybers are beauties also. Somebody here had a Khyber mounted with the hilt from one of the army swords which was really intriguing, cant remember who its was though.
Tell us more on the gun!

All the best,
Jim

The sword has the arsenal mark from Mazir i Sharif and was brought back from Afghanistan last year. It would have made a great naval cutlass.

The gun was custom made for a man who had planned to retire to his yacht in 1981. He died within a couple of weeks of retiring. Very bad luck. I bought it at his estate sale. A real work of art. Beautiful brass barrel is 1 1/4" cal. and I have fired it with buckshot and BBs. With 3 cannon on my small boat perhaps I can take a lesson from Edward Teach and "take" a larger boat!

Cheers
bbjw