Steel arms. Cutlass. Cold steel weapons of filibusters (13 photos) Pirate sword
Cutlass- one of the most popular weapons among sailors and pirates of the Middle Ages. Due to the single-edged curved blade, this type of weapon has an enhanced cutting and piercing effect. According to historical data, the saber has been used by sea robbers and sailors since approximately the second half of the 16th century.
Boarding as one of the methods of combat at sea has been known in maritime circles since ancient times, long before the advent of artillery. But, despite the victory of the British over the Spaniards at the end of the 16th century, this tactic continues to be used almost everywhere on the seas. It should be noted that boarding was often used by one of the opponents who, due to damage to the ship, could not maneuver or use artillery equipment.
Appearance
The cutlass has a slightly curved wide blade. The blade is sharpened only on the curved side. Sometimes, to increase the damaging effect, pirates sharpened the butt of the concave part. This type of bladed weapon differs from the traditional saber in that it has large mass and shorter length.
The finishing of the cutlass was extremely simple, and the narrow fuller on the blade was either single, double, triple, or not present at all. The blade length was 60-80 cm, which is perfect size for combat in narrow and low ship spaces. The blade width rarely exceeded 5 cm.
The cutlass was equipped with a developed steel guard, which looked like a basket, a symmetrical bowl or a basket with a protective bow. On the crosspiece, which was located with inside weapons, a special ring was welded under the thumb for better fixation when delivering chopping blows. In this way, the hilt of the saber completely protected the hand.
Since the middle of the 17th century, the guard and scabbard of weapons were covered with black paint to protect them from corrosion. It should be noted that the handle of a cutlass could be made of metal, wood or horn, but most often the material that was least susceptible to the destructive effects of the environment was used.
Advantages in battle
The large mass, as well as the optimal width of the boarding saber for close combat, provided significant advantages in hand-to-hand combat for the one who used it. The weapon could easily cut a boarding rope, a mast, and even deal with a massive wooden door in a few minutes. The short length and amazing strength of the blade were the undeniable advantages of the saber compared to swords and rapiers. The curved blade made it possible to deliver a stronger blow, and its compact dimensions made it possible to wield this type of boarding equipment in all directions.
As you know, boarding combat lost its importance with the advent of the steam fleet in the middle of the 19th century. However, in some flotillas until the very beginning of the 20th century, boarding sabers continued to be used, but most often as a distinctive officer's weapon.
This boarding weapon appears sometime in the second half of the 16th century. Initially, both sailors and infantrymen on land fought with the same type of weapon, but later at sea, soldiers began to break long sword blades and increasingly used cutlasses and hunting daggers. The cutlass is classified as a cutlass; in fact, this is a direct translation of its English name - “cutlass” (from English - cutlass - cleaver).
The cutlass appears around the second half of the 16th century.
Indeed, it is a slightly curved short but wide blade, sharpened on one convex side. The length of the blade of such a saber was on average from 60 to 80 cm with a width of about 4-5 cm. A similar version, but with a straight blade, was a boarding broadsword and was also very popular among sailors.
Boarding cleaver mod. 1833. France.
The length of the saber blade was from 60 to 80 cm with a width of about 4-5 cm
What the broadsword and saber had in common was a hilt with a powerful guard, usually in the form of a bowl or a wide arc covering the hand. To protect the weapon from corrosion, the saber handle was coated with black paint. They started doing this in the middle of the 17th century. At the same time, the hilt could be made of completely different materials: metal, wood, horn, although the main requirement for a weapon was most likely ease of manufacture and comparative cheapness (coupled with unpretentiousness). By the way, sailors also used the boarding saber as an improvised tool. She cut thick ropes, sails, fish, or, for example, jungle bushes when reaching land, like a machete.
At the same time, in battle, the boarding saber was a very versatile weapon. Thus, the guard could be used not only to protect the hand. During a boarding, killing was not always the main goal; sometimes it was simply necessary to capture the enemy. Then the wide handle served as a kind of replacement for brass knuckles. The rest of the time, the saber was a formidable piercing and chopping weapon, although the emphasis was more on the chopping blow. The wide blade left terrible, deep wounds.
The sailors chopped thick ropes and sails with a cutlass.
And its short length, as you might guess, made it possible to calmly fight both on deck and in the hold, or in the cabin. At the same time, it was not very difficult to teach how to use such a weapon, which made it even more popular. It was not for nothing that it was honored not only by pirates: although the well-known version that the cutlass was originally a cleaver with which buccaneers (pirates of the Caribbean) cut meat is most likely nothing more than a widespread myth. At the same time, the boarding saber was in service in the Spanish, English and American navies.
Cutlass fencing lessons for American sailors, 1900 (photo fromhttps://fencingclassics.wordpress.com) .
The cutlass was in service with the American Navy until 1949
Moreover, despite the appearance of the steam fleet in the mid-19th century, for example, in the ranks of the British Navy they abandoned it only in 1936 (some believe in 1941). But it existed in the service of the American Navy until 1949.
Boarding has been around since humans became seafarers. Its goal is to destroy the enemy ship as a combat unit or capture it as booty. Boarding was used in all large and small armed conflicts in the vast waters from North Africa to Scandinavia.
Its development was strongly influenced by ancient Mediterranean civilizations. So, in 480 BC. e. The Greeks skillfully used boarding in the Battle of Salamis against the much stronger Persian fleet - and completely defeated them, losing only 40 ships (Persians - 200). In the 3rd century BC. e. Boarding was widely used by the Romans when fighting against Carthage. Being a force primarily based on land, without having any
At all times, boarding was prepared by enemy fire. Ancient warships were armed with a variety of throwing machines, which were used until the invention of gunpowder. Having installed them along the sides and covering them from retaliatory fire with protective walls, mats, and shields, the attackers and defenders tried to “thin out” the enemy ranks at a long distance. Large-caliber catapults and ballistas (analogous to heavy artillery) threw 5-meter arrows, massive stakes, logs, metal shells and stones with a diameter of 15–20 cm at a distance of up to 200 m, literally sweeping away all living things from the enemy deck. " Light artillery" - easel bows oxybeles, scorpion and chiroballistra - fired direct fire at a shorter distance, and the semi-automatic stone thrower polybol continuously fired small stone cannonballs weighing 4–5 kg. At close range, archers and slingers joined in, stones, spears, and darts were thrown at the enemy. The Greeks were the first to install gelepoles - towers on wheels - on ships. They moved along the deck in different directions, and the shooters on them fired at the enemy deck from a height, preventing the enemy from preparing a response, servicing his equipment, tackle, and oars.
If the capture of another ship was impossible or unnecessary, incendiary arrows or ceramic containers with a flammable composition were thrown at it, the so-called “Greek fire”, a kind of absolute weapon of antiquity. The water did not extinguish it, and a few accurate hits decided the fate of the tarred wooden ship with easily flammable sails and rigging, and the crew could only jump overboard. The means of fire destruction was also a “brazier”, something like a bucket at the end of a hook 5–7 m long in front of the bow of the ship. Filled with a flammable mixture, it was set on fire and emptied over the enemy deck. It was with these weapons that the Romans broke the blockade of the Syrian fleet at the Battle of Panorma in 190 BC.
Ramming, an effective way to send an enemy to the bottom, was also an element of preparation for boarding. The ram device was a complex structure. The bow of the ship was made in the form of a rigid vertical rib with a small ram-proembolon, located above the water and shaped like a ram/pig/crocodile head. It served as a buffer when hitting someone else’s side, and also prevented the main ram from penetrating too deeply into the enemy hull, which was fraught with disaster: if you got stuck there, you could drown or burn together with the enemy. The lower part of the keel protruded 2–4 m forward under water. This was a combat ram (rostrum) in the shape of a flat trident for breaking through the underwater part of an enemy ship. Cast from bronze, it was very heavy: the rostrum of the Greek bireme, found by archaeologists, pulled 400 kg. They rammed either on the move, or first passed along the enemy side, “shaving off” with a vertical edge the oars that the enemy did not have time to drag inside, and depriving him of his progress. After that, they turned around and, taking aim, struck to death. The impact of the rostrum caused serious damage. At that time, there were no means of pumping out water; any hole was very dangerous, if not fatal, for the ship. The upper surface of the ram beam protruded above the waterline and served as a bridge along which the boarding group ran across to the enemy side. The beam was composite, damaged elements were easily replaced with new ones. The ram-boarding tactics required skill from the team. Success depended on the right moment, the direction of the blow, skillful steering, and well-coordinated work of the rowers. The anti-boarding device was a primitive “dolphin” weapon - a conical weight with a pointed end. Made of bronze, lead or granite, that is, very massive, it was attached to a special rotating cargo boom or on a yardarm and dropped when it hung over the enemy ship as the sides approached. Its impact was enough to break through the bottom boards 4–6 cm thick. The resulting hole destroyed the enemy due to the impossibility of repair in battle conditions. True, the “dolphin” only worked against undecked ships such as the felucca or liburna. When colliding with a warship, which also had a deck, the weight of the cargo was no longer enough for two layers of planks.
Main tactical method The Greeks had a ramming attack, and the Romans had a decisive boarding battle. However, the fighters somehow had to be thrown onto the enemy side. They did a great job with this: the “raven” assault ladder (Latin corvus - raven), which became widespread after the First Punic War of the Romans against Carthage, had a huge influence on the development of boarding combat. Usually its length was 5–6 m, but the ancient Greek historian Polybius gave an example of an entire bridge 10.9 m long and 1.2 m wide with low railings on the sides. This rotary ladder was installed vertically on the bow of the ship, one side attached to the bottom of a special pole, and the other pulled to the pole by a rope. On the lower surface of its front part there was a heavy iron spike like a beak (hence the “raven”). Upon contact with the enemy, the ladder was turned towards his deck and dropped: it fell, breaking through the boards with its beak and securely adhering to the enemy deck, to which the advanced detachment of the naval infantry (manipularii), skilled and well-armed, immediately ran across. He captured a bridgehead for the entire boarding group.
The “Crow” was adopted from the southern Italian Greeks - sailors, pirates and inventors who built ships for Rome. Taking advantage of his infantry in hand-to-hand combat, and also quickly creating a numerical superiority thanks to the “raven”, the Romans began to win one victory after another. For the first time, the “crow” was used en masse by the fleet of the consul Gaius Duilius in 260 BC.
e. in the battle of Mylae, where the Romans captured 31 and sank 14 of the 130 Carthaginian ships. 4 years later, Marcus Regulus defeated the Carthaginian fleet at Cape Eknom, using the same equipment and tactics. The "Raven" and the naval infantry were a decisive factor in victories in the important battles of Sulki and Cape Tindar. The “raven” also had serious drawbacks: its weight and bulkiness impaired the seaworthiness of the vessel. The Romans twice (255 and 249 BC) almost completely lost their fleet in storms due to the poor stability of ships with such a design on board. Subsequently, their victories were based on a more reliable basis - with skilled crews delivering increasingly combat-ready naval infantry to the place of its employment. The Roman invention helped in the battle - a boarding log-harpagus (Greek: αρπαξ; Latin: harpax; also creagr) 3 m long, bound with iron and having thick metal rings at both ends. One ring was attached with a rope to the throwing machine, and the second had a sharp hook. The abandoned harpagus clung to the near side of the enemy, digging deep into the skin; the ship was pulled towards itself and boarded. When caught on the far side, the attackers reversed and overturned the enemy. Due to the length of the harpagus, the defenders could not cut the rope, although they tried to do this with blades on poles.
The tactics of ancient fleets were simple and effective. As they approached the enemy, they were bombarded with a hail of incendiary and other shells. With intense oncoming fire, the infantry on deck lined up in a turtle formation, waiting out the shelling. Skillfully maneuvering, they attacked one enemy ship with two or three of their own, creating a numerical superiority. They rammed the enemy, threw the “raven” and went on board. Fire support was provided by the shooters of both ships - archers, spearmen, and slingers. And then, as Roman authors write, “everything was decided by the personal valor and zeal of the soldiers who wanted to distinguish themselves in battle in front of their superiors.”
Time passed, Europe fell into the darkness of the Middle Ages. The huge ships of antiquity, the developed art of boarding, perfect catapults, and assault ramps have disappeared. The artillery was frontibold and carroballista stone throwers, single-arm bricoli arrow throwers and trebuchet stone throwers - a technique much more primitive than the ancient one. How did they fight now? The battle also began with enemy shelling. To protect against it, rolled mattresses were rolled up to the bulwarks, leaving embrasures between them, shields, sandbags, and hemp fenders were hung. Anti-boarding measures were taken on the attacked ship. Nets were stretched over the sides, making it difficult to jump from side to side. The net was also stretched over the deck to protect the crew from falling pieces of equipment. The quarterdeck with control mechanisms was protected by barricades on both sides, made of logs and barrels with scrap iron. To inflict damage on the enemy, hooks were put on the ends of the yards to tear the enemy rigging when they approached it closely. The ships came together side by side, interlocking with boarding hooks and hooks, sharpened like a harpoon for tenacity. The attackers, under the cover of their archers and crossbowmen, used assault ladders, gangways made of planks, “landed” onto the enemy’s side using ropes from the yard of their mast, or even simply jumped from side to side. Boarding was carried out not only when the ships were pulled together side by side. A characteristic element of the design of sailboats was the elongated bow and the bowsprit located at an acute angle to the waterline. Here the boarding crew stood ready. After ramming the enemy's bow, they held on to the enemy side not only with grappons, but also with the rigging of the bowsprit, along which, like a bridge, the fighters walked to board.
With the advent of gunpowder, preparing and carrying out boarding operations became more efficient and quicker. Since the 16th century, artillery began to be used in the navy. True, its accuracy and rate of fire left much to be desired, so success, as before, depended on the final hand-to-hand combat. The boarding teams and cover groups (“Mars shooters?”) received manual firearms, and this affected the boarding battle. Naval combat became a joint endeavor of firefighting specialists - land soldiers with long-barreled weapons and selected sailors - masters of hand-to-hand combat with cold weapons. At the command “Board!” That part of the team, whose task was to neutralize enemy manpower and capture the ship, landed on the attacked side.
A quick boarding battle broke out. Those who went first (if they survived) sometimes received any captured weapons over and above his share of the spoils. This is understandable: they came under the only rifle volley in such a case, and literally jumped on their bayonets. And the security of the boarding fighter was low. For the sake of maneuverability in tight battles and survival when falling into water, he tried to wear as little iron as possible. The boarding firearms arsenal included various weapons. Fire support groups used long-range types from their side, for example, a musket, the first mass-produced long-barreled gun with a matchlock, a barrel up to 140 cm (total length 180 cm), weighing 6–7 kg and a firing range of up to 200 m. The weapons of the boarding groups were more compact. Particularly interesting is the musket (French mousqueton) - a short musket that fired buckshot, chopped lead and cannonballs up to 350 g. It was a rather heavy thing weighing 5-6 kg with a matchlock, wheel or flintlock and a caliber of 25-40 mm. The barrel length was 900 mm, and the weight of the buckshot charge was 60–80 g. The barrel bell accelerated loading in rolling conditions, increasing the rate of fire. The blunderbuss was lighter than the musket, but the shot from it was also less accurate. True, this was fully compensated for by the large area of damage. It was effective specifically during boarding, where they shot almost point-blank without aiming. Spanish smugglers and pirates used the trabuco blunderbuss until the beginning of the 20th century, which is why they were called trabuquers.
The Russian naval tromblon blunderbuss was produced in Tula, had a steel barrel (bronze in Europe) and a conical chamber in the breech of the barrel to increase initial speed Buckshot. Particularly effective were the “short ones” of caliber 35–36 mm/560 mm barrel and caliber 42–44 mm/360 mm barrel. According to the “Armament of the Fleet” report card of 1734, a battleship was supposed to have 36–50, a frigate 30, and small rowing ships 12 units of this weapon. There were also pistols of similar devices and pistols in general. The English pirate Blackbeard (Edward Teach) is credited with creating the sword belt. These were two wide belts thrown over the shoulders and attached to the belt. They had loops in which up to 6 pistols hung. With some skill it was possible to shoot directly from the loops.
In a boarding battle there was no time to reload, so in the end everything was decided by hand-to-hand combat with melee weapons. Due to the cramped conditions and pitching, the manner of combat was also special: mostly horizontal or piercing blows were delivered. The stabbing, rapier and sword were ineffective; they got stuck and broke. But the special boarding chopping weapon was stronger and allowed to deliver a stronger blow, despite its shorter length. These were mainly shortened modifications of bladed weapons of their era, for example, a halberd with a sawed-off shaft. In battle, a boarding saber with a straight or slightly curved wide blade and a well-developed “basket” guard, almost completely protecting the palm, was convenient. Having a large mass, it was also good at cutting ropes, masts, and doors. A massive boarding ax with a long ax had very good penetrating ability despite a relatively small blade area. A cutting and piercing boarding broadsword up to 80 cm long with a straight wide blade without a fuller, one-sided or one-and-a-half sharpening, and a “bow” or “shield” guard had high destructive power. A Venetian cleaver with a saw blade with large teeth inflicted severe lacerations almost without swinging. A piercing dirk with a straight single-/double-edged or three-/tetrahedral narrow blade was effective in close combat. For fencing, paired with a longer, powerful blade, there were all kinds of daggers, for example, daga (Spanish daga) 40 cm long (blade 30 cm). The diversionary blow was delivered with one hand, and the fatal thrust with the other hand. Sometimes the daga had a “zest”: when you press the button, the spring folds the blade into 2-3 parts, which makes it possible to catch the enemy’s weapon and disarm him. Boarding bladed weapons in general often had “bells and whistles” such as hooks, swordbreakers, additional blades, etc. Thus, the Vikings had “spears with a hook that could also be used to chop.” With the advent of gunpowder, grenades began to be used in boarding combat. They were thrown immediately before landing on the enemy side. Featured in the film "Pirates" Caribbean Sea“The scene of lighting the fuse has a real basis: sometimes fighters braided smoldering wicks into their braids, using them in battle to ignite grenades. For protection, the defenders quickly stretched a net on the hooks on the side of the threatened side: the grenades bounced off it and fell overboard.
Boarding was widely used by the Vikings, who terrorized European waters with their longships. Their weapons were shields, helmets, chain mail, spears, swords, axes, and bows. Almost the entire crew, up to 150 fighters, went on the attack. To reach the enemy deck, they used hooks, ladders, and then cut themselves with a wall. The Genoese and Venetians were masters of boarding tactics, fighting for supremacy in the Mediterranean Sea, and the Genoese constantly beat the enemy with the skill of their boarding teams. This is how the famous Genoese infantry, the threat of all enemies on land, was tempered. During the Hundred Years' War with France (1337–1453), English archers, who ensured the victory of the army, also helped the victory of their fleet. He smashed the larger French one, and the reason for this was the long English bow, which cleared the way for the boarding crews. Often, when they landed on the French, they found only a handful of defenders there, since the rest were killed by arrows.
The Russians were masters of boarding. It is noteworthy that, most often inferior to the enemy in the number of ships, their size and cannon equipment, they won not by numbers, but by skill. For example, the famous Novgorod pirates-ushkuiniki walked the sea and rivers on boats, giving a light to many from the Kama to Norway. In 1349, they immediately boarded the Swedish ships in the roadstead of the Oreshek fortress, and then drove the entire army of King Magnus out of the original Russian city.
In the 16th–17th centuries, an excellent example of boarding was given by the Cossacks on their small-tonnage “gulls,” which were significantly inferior in speed and firepower to the ships of the Turks. Constantly going “for zipuns” (prey) to the shores of Turkey, they sank both merchant and military ships. Thus, under the command of the famous Hetman Sagaidachny, the fleet of Ibrahim Pasha was destroyed, including 15 galleys captured by boarding. The Donets did not lag behind, crushing the Turks on their side. The effectiveness of their campaigns can be judged by the fact that they sometimes collected up to three thousand one “yasyr” (prisoners). There was a special exchange place where the Cossacks exchanged Muslims for Russians, sometimes demanding a ransom. So, the Azov Turks paid 30,000 gold pieces for Pasha. And then, going with Peter I to Azov, the Don people boarded Turkish war galleys. The Don ataman Stepan Razin defeated the Persian fleet using the same tactics. When meeting the enemy, the Cossacks walked around him so that the sun was behind them, and an hour before sunset they approached the victim by about a mile. In the conditions of roughness and shine of the water surface, their small vessels could not be seen. Surrounding the ship in the dark, they boarded it; when there was calm, they did not consider it necessary to hide. An important technique was to lure large enemy ships into shallow water and then board them. The sovereign's fleet also skillfully used boarding. In the Battle of Gangut on July 26, 1714, all the ships of Ehrenskiöld’s Swedish squadron and the admiral himself were captured in hand-to-hand combat. The fighters were led to board the ship by Emperor Peter I. And here, as always, there was maneuver by ships and boarding tactics against the Swedish fleet, which was superior in firepower. In 1720, near Grenham, the Russian fleet of galleys and boats (!) again clashed with the Swedes. Without going head-on at the enemy with his artillery superiority, the Russians, like Cossacks, lured him into shallow water and captured all the Swedish frigates in a boarding battle. In the Chios battle between the Russians and the Turks on June 24, 1770, everything was also decided by boarding; the stronger Turkish fleet was defeated.
The development of boarding combat naturally led to the appearance in the crew of a ship of a team whose specialization was not navigation and maintenance of ship equipment, but direct combat with the enemy (“face to face, knives to knives, eyes to eyes”) - the naval infantry.
The bas-reliefs of the ancient Phoenicians depict biremes with warriors on the upper deck - perhaps these were the first infantrymen of this kind. The ancient Greeks called them epibates. Fighting in naval battles on the decks of ships, they then pursued the enemy on land. The Greeks themselves had boarding teams consisting of hoplite infantrymen, 100 people per trireme, the main ship of the Greek fleet. Protected by armor, helmets and shields, they were armed with swords and spears like their land counterparts. But among the Romans, the naval infantry was already somewhat different from the ground infantry, having lighter protection. There were up to 100 such fighters on Roman penthers, triremes, and galleys; later, different numbers were introduced depending on the size of the ship. In Republic-era Rome, ordinary legionnaires served in boarding teams. During the era of the empire, a naval legion was created, i.e. this was already a step towards the marine corps in our understanding.
The fleets of England, France and Spain began to use it in the 17th century. The teams assigned to the ships formed the core of the boarding groups. So, the English 74-gun battleship there were 136 such infantrymen led by a captain. The marine corps appeared in Russia in 1705. At the Battle of Gangut, each Russian galley had a “crow” type device and a boarding team of 150 soldiers armed with muskets, pistols, broadswords and sabers. During Russian-Turkish wars 18th century group Marine Corps were also assigned to fleet ships as boarding crews. In addition, ground regiments also sent their soldiers to boarding teams. Boarding remained one of the main methods of naval combat in wars until the middle of the 19th century, and only the development of long-range, rapid-fire naval artillery and armoring of ships brought it to naught.
But among pirates, boarding has never gone out of fashion, because the goal of sea robbers is not the destruction of someone else’s ship, but the seizure of goods - cargo, people, the ship itself. In the 16th century, often without waging official wars, sailors from England, France, and Holland “eviscerated” their colleagues from other countries with all their might. The fact is that with the discovery of America, the richest territories - the former empires of the Incas, Aztecs, gold and silver mines, deposits precious stones- went to Spain and Portugal. Systematically plundering overseas territories, they greatly revived the sea caravan routes. For less fortunate countries, boarding became an effective means of redistributing wealth. Transports with valuable cargo on board were hunted, even if they were armed. Thus, in 1523, near the island of Santa Maria (Azores), the famous French corsair Jean Fleury, with a flotilla of 8 ships, boarded Spanish caravels along with Aztec treasures sent to Spain by the conquistador Cortes. He was not forgiven for this: after 4 years, the successful Fleury was captured and executed in Spain. And for some, robbing other robbers was beneficial and even brought career growth. Thus, boarding and the threat of boarding were the main methods of the thugs of the great master of the pirate craft, Francis Drake. He handed over a significant part of the treasures taken from the Spaniards to the English treasury, for which he received the rank of vice admiral in 1588. Or, for example, the no less famous Englishman Henry Morgan, whose name resounded in the Caribbean in the second half of the 17th century: for his successes, he was appointed lieutenant governor of Jamaica and its commander naval forces. Freebooters, corsairs and privateers were almost always provided with a special letter of authorization (Letters of Marque, license, letter of marque, corsair patent, etc.) from their government in exchange for an obligation to share the spoils with it. The paper indicated which ships and colonies its owner had the right to attack, and in which port he should sell the trophies. The governors of the English and French islands of the West Indies (America) gave such “crusts” to anyone who wanted them for money, and the absence of a document made him an ordinary robber, an outlaw.
...Sea robbery as a family human activity exists to this day. The goal of modern pirates is to seize not only cargo, but also hostages, for whom a ransom is then demanded (world statistics for last years: 2010 - 445; 2011 - 365; for 6 months of 2012 - 265 attacks). Yes indeed global problem, and for many centuries, is piracy in the Strait of Malacca ( Southeast Asia). Every year, 50,000 ships pass through the strait, serving 25% of global maritime trade. And here 30% of all pirate attacks in the world take place. This 900-kilometer narrow water corridor, surrounded by thousands of tropical islands, is the ideal place for a boarding attack.
Nigerian, Philippine, and Chinese pirates actively use boarding. The Horn of Africa has become another minefield for global shipping in recent years, with Somali pirates targeting merchant and passenger ships passing through these waters without armed escort. But you can’t assign an escort to everyone. There are promising attempts to repel attacks with various non-lethal technical means, for example, an acoustic (sound) cannon, which prevents attackers from even approaching the ship for boarding, but the number of ships captured by pirates is still growing. United forces are acting against the “lawless” international forces, including specialists from the Russian Navy.
Boarding was familiar to the ancient Romans. For example, in battles with the Carthaginian fleet, they had a special bridge or ladder in their arsenal - a corvus. This device was attached to the bow of the ship and equipped with a sharp metal hook that resembled a crow's beak (in fact, this is where the name comes from, which literally means “crow”). With the help of such ladders, the Romans found themselves on enemy ships, which provided them with a significant advantage, because the battle turned into hand-to-hand combat. Prepared precisely for this method of combat, the Roman army also had weapons quite suitable for ship battles: for example, short gladiuses were ideal for attacking in cramped conditions. Subsequently, with the development of the era of the Great geographical discoveries, numerous colonial conquests and the spread of piracy, boarding will become one of the main methods of combat at sea, which in turn will cause the emergence of special boarding weapons, such as, for example, a cutlass.
This boarding weapon appears sometime in the second half of the 16th century. Initially, both sailors and infantrymen on land fought with the same type of weapon, but later at sea, soldiers began to break long sword blades and increasingly used cutlasses and hunting daggers. The cutlass is classified as a cutlass; in fact, this is a direct translation of its English name - “cutlass” (from English - cutlass - cleaver).
The cutlass appears around the second half of the 16th century.
Indeed, it is a slightly curved short but wide blade, sharpened on one convex side. The length of the blade of such a saber was on average from 60 to 80 cm with a width of about 4-5 cm. A similar version, but with a straight blade, was a boarding broadsword and was also very popular among sailors.
Boarding cleaver mod. 1833. France.
The length of the saber blade was from 60 to 80 cm with a width of about 4-5 cm
What the broadsword and saber had in common was a hilt with a powerful guard, usually in the form of a bowl or a wide arc covering the hand. To protect the weapon from corrosion, the saber handle was coated with black paint. They started doing this in the middle of the 17th century. At the same time, the hilt could be made of completely different materials: metal, wood, horn, although the main requirement for a weapon was most likely ease of manufacture and comparative cheapness (coupled with unpretentiousness). By the way, sailors also used the boarding saber as an improvised tool. She cut thick ropes, sails, fish, or, for example, jungle bushes when reaching land, like a machete.
At the same time, in battle, the boarding saber was a very versatile weapon. Thus, the guard could be used not only to protect the hand. During a boarding, killing was not always the main goal; sometimes it was simply necessary to capture the enemy. Then the wide handle served as a kind of replacement for brass knuckles. The rest of the time, the saber was a formidable piercing and chopping weapon, although the emphasis was more on the chopping blow. The wide blade left terrible, deep wounds.
The sailors chopped thick ropes and sails with a cutlass.
And its short length, as you might guess, made it possible to calmly fight both on deck and in the hold, or in the cabin. At the same time, it was not very difficult to teach how to use such a weapon, which made it even more popular. It was not for nothing that it was honored not only by pirates: although the well-known version that the cutlass was originally a cleaver with which buccaneers (pirates of the Caribbean) cut meat is most likely nothing more than a widespread myth. At the same time, the boarding saber was in service in the Spanish, English and American navies.
A cutlass is a short and wide sword (or cutting sword) with a straight or slightly curved blade, with a blade on one side, and a cupped or basket-shaped blade. It was a common naval weapon.
Etymology of the name
The term " cutlass"(English title cutlass listen)) appeared in 17th century England as a variation of "coutelas", a 16th century French word for machete-like blades (in modern French general term for the concept of “knife” is “couteau”). This French word, in turn, is a corruption of the Italian "coltellaccio", or "large knife", derived from the Latin "cultellus", meaning "small knife".
History and use of the cutlass
Despite the fact that boarding sabers were also used on land, they were mainly known as weapons of sailors. Their popularity in naval affairs was due to the fact that these sabers were reliable enough to cut thick ropes, sails, and wooden elements of ship equipment, and also, due to the relatively short blades, the sabers were well adapted for action in the cramped conditions of ship decks when boarding battles, or in the hold. Another advantage of the cutlass was its ease of use. Education effective use This type of saber took much less time to master than swords or swords, and was more effective in close combat than full-size blades on a cramped ship.
IN Peaceful time When the Ottoman Empire did not receive weapons, the Janissaries serving in Istanbul were armed only with clubs, they were prohibited from carrying any weapons (including the scimitar, a type of sword similar to a cutlass), the only exception being at border posts.
Due to its versatility, the cutlass was often used as an agricultural tool (like a machete), mainly in the regions tropical forests and sugarcane growing areas such as the Caribbean and Central America. Lumberjacks and soldiers of the 17th and 18th centuries used a short and wide broadsword similar to a cutlass, called a “hanger”, or the German “messer”, which means “knife”. Often these blades had tangs more typical of knives than swords, presumably reflecting a desire to give such blades the status of "not weapons" but rather civilian knives. In its most simplified form, this shows the machete of the Caribbean.
Cutlass gained its fame largely from pirates, although there is no reason to believe that they were invented by Caribbean buccaneers, as some sources claim. However, the subsequent use of these sabers by pirates is well documented in contemporary sources, particularly in the writings of William Fry, William Kidd, and Steed Bonnet. French historian Alexandre Exquemelin writes that the pirate François Ohlone used a cutlass as early as 1667. Pirates used these weapons, in addition to direct combat, to intimidate opponents, often to induce ship crews to surrender, the boarding crew simply had to grab the handles of their sabers, or to beat prisoners with the flat of the blade during interrogations.
In 1936, the Royal Navy (UK) announced that cutlass would henceforth be used for ceremonial purposes only, and would not be used by landing parties.
The cutlass remained the official weapon of the US Navy until 1949, although since the early 1930s. rarely used in training. The last cutlass model adopted by the US Navy was the 1917 model; Although the cutlass produced during World War II were called the 1941 model, they were only slightly modified 1917 models. A US Marine Corps combat engineer wrote in his report that he killed an enemy with a Model 1941 cutlass at Inchon during the Korean War.