"Pirate Weapons Ratios - for 1700 - 1720, or so?" Topic

Does anyone have any info on weapons ratios for pirates, either on board ships, or for landing parties, from 1700 – 1720, or so?

I'm also interested in weapons ratios for townsfolk, and militias in the Caribbean, and Eastern Seaboard of the USA.

I presume most government troops, e.g. marines and infantry will be armed with muskets, and officers with pistols/swords, sabers, and the like.

Reference links would be useful, if available, and info for government sailors, privateers, etc. would be helpful as well.

I don't think it was as organised as your question makes it sound!

Just check the relevant TO&Es (Kriegsstarkenachweisung for German pirates). That should lay out all the details.

Allen

Where is Snorbens when we need him? "It depends."

Surely there must be official TO&E's for the period, and appropriate pirate band, e.g. Blackbeard, Stede Bonnet, Charles Vane, et al……

;-)

Pirates used pretty whatever weapons they could get their hands on. Or anything they could get their hands on that could be use as a weapon. They also armed their ships with any guns they took from captured vessels, or anywhere else they could steal them. Colonial miltias would be the same, whatever they could come up with. Armed with an assortment of fire arms both personal & community owned. Whatever hand weapons or tools use for personal protection. Swords of all types, pikes & half pikes, hammers axes & hatchets, etc. Even government troops would very quite a bit. Depending on what enterprize, nobleman, or group was sponsering that colony.

* Cough *

OK so initially the pirates were ordinary seamen and had no weapons. This was a sad state of affairs, so they mutinied and took over the ship with belaying pins, which were pressed into service from the ship's rail.

There are plenty of these on a ship, enough for at least 1:1
Any more then one to one and the ship might have an unfortunate accident!

After seizing the ship they would of course raid the ships armory, but there would not of course be enough guns to go around. Fortunately, then each time they seized a ship they would get MORE GUNS!

In all seriousness tho if you'd like an idea as to the guns carried by pirates, i suggest looking at the Expedition Whydah finds, which should give you some idea of how the men were armed. There have been some remarkable finds including some rather fancy pistols, and a few muskets.

Let's see.
Unarmed pirates will have belaying pins and stuff laying around.
Armed pirates will have guns and edged weapons made in their era and stuff they stole.
Well armed pirates will have lots of guns and edged weapons. The stole a lot.
Townsfolk will have brooms and a few pitchforks. They don't steal much. That's called civilized.
I'm good to go.

Actually, the question put out is not a bad one. As always, a weapons mix can be problematic. If pirate crews only have swords and axes, they are vulnerable to gunpowder weapons. If all they had were muskets, then the gun line is vulnerable close in attack. The question of how you want your crews prepared and armed is a head scratcher. I bought a mix of pirates armed with various weps. Some groups are sword heavy, some are musket heavy. Some are mixed. The gunpowder guys have a few blunderbus thrown in with range shorter than the musket, which was good to about sixty yards. How likely would it be for a pirate crew to have all blunderbus weapons? That's the sort of question that a codex might answer. But why would you pay for a document that reports pirates were a mob of chaotic although democratically incline have nots whose tactical charisma is centered on the concept "Get 'em!" armed with whatever came to hand?

"Our main weapon is fear, fear and surprise. Our two main weapons are……"

etc etc

Given historical accounts, and their being disinclined to fight government troops, either at sea, or on land, at least most of the time, my guess is the pirates may have fewer muskets than line infantry.

They probably have a mix of pistols, blunderbusses, muskets, cutlasses, axes, knives, improvised weapons, etc., much like a militia would.

What I'm really interested in is a reasonable approximate ratio of muskets to melee weapons, e.g. 1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 1:4, etc.

Additionally, I imagine pistols would be a bit more numerous than muskets, at least when/if fighting on a ship, since they are cheaper, and easier to wield there.

It would be nice to have some rough weapons ratios for actions on shore, when trying to take over a fort, defend a pirate lair, or to terrorize a port city.

If I had to guess, I presume there would be no more than one musket for every 4 – 6 men, and firearms for no more than one-third to one-half of the men (probably closer to one-quarter of the total men on a pirate ship, but they would probably carry more firearms proportionally, when conducting raids and other attacks away from their ship).

Of course, that is only a wild guess, but seems reasonable from what I have read.

AT LEAST 50% OF THE CREW WOULD HAVE CUTLASSES AND ONE OR MORE PISTOLS OF VARIOUS TYPES. THEY WOULD ALSO HAVE A BIG KNIFE OR A HATCHET

AT LEAST A QUARTER OF THE CREW WOULD HAVE 2-HANDED MELEE WEAPONS LIKE BOARDING AXES ABD BOARDING PIKES, CUTLASS AND DIRK OR PAIR OF CUTLASSES, OR CUTLASS AND HATCHET.

THE 15% OF THE CREW WOULD HAVE BLUNDERBUSSES, CUTLASSES AND DIRKS

NOT MORE THAN 9% OF THE CREW WOULD HAVE MUSKETS, CUTLASSES, DIRKS OR HATCHETS.

1% OF THE CREW WOULD HAVE GRENADE LAUNCHERS, HAND GRENADES, PISTOLS AND CUTLASSES, DIRKS OR HATCHETS.

THIS i believe would accurately reflect the close quarters nature of boarding actions, as well as the sniping potential from the rigging with muskets, launching or tossing primitive grenades onto the deck of any ship alongside prior to actually boarding same.

DAWGIE