Tim, when the records say the man hid the letters "inside" his vaulting spear at the slag om Aklmaar, how do you think they were hidden? Wouldn't a hollow cavity in the pole make it less strong when you actually needed to vault across a ditch with it?
They estimate that there was a cavity drilled straight down from the top, which could be sealed flush with a wooden peg. This would not weaken the whole shaft. The city archive of Alkmaar is working on a reproduction of a verrejager and a vaulting pole with such a cavity.
Keep in mind that the ‘letters’ where quite compact. The regional archive in Alkmaar still has some of those original ‘polsstokbriefjes’ on file. They could be rolled up very tight to fit in very small cavities.
How thick would a vaulting spear need to be to bend without breaking when vaulting? I'm mostly interested about the longest examples because I believe that the thickness would make them too unwieldly to use instead of pikes.
Unknown, modern vaulting poles can have a diameter of 5cm or some times a little more. They would have been unwieldy compared to taperd field pikes also because of the claw or block at the bottom. In the 80 years war they were mostly used for hit and run tactics or as a last ditch defence. With modern poles its also recommended to let them soak before using to lessen the chance of breaking while jumping.
Can't think of a weapon that would be more characteristic of the Low Countries. A spear that enables easy travel over our marshy lands. Could the spike on the bottom also function properly as an extra spearhead?
I suppose the claw foot could be used offensive the type with a block or disc dont have a point at the bottom they just have a piece of the shaft that goes a bit beyond the block or disc and it is as far as i know alwais blunt.
I saw the pictures in Osprey books and these verrejager are a very interesting and unique Dutch equipment totally adapted to the terrain.
Excellent article as always Tim. Now to get my Regiment training with them !
Fascinating!
Very interesting.
mooi werk! ik kijk ze allemaal! me pa was Fries-Zeeuws..
Tim, when the records say the man hid the letters "inside" his vaulting spear at the slag om Aklmaar, how do you think they were hidden? Wouldn't a hollow cavity in the pole make it less strong when you actually needed to vault across a ditch with it?
They estimate that there was a cavity drilled straight down from the top, which could be sealed flush with a wooden peg.
This would not weaken the whole shaft.
The city archive of Alkmaar is working on a reproduction of a verrejager and a vaulting pole with such a cavity.
Keep in mind that the ‘letters’ where quite compact. The regional archive in Alkmaar still has some of those original ‘polsstokbriefjes’ on file. They could be rolled up very tight to fit in very small cavities.
How thick would a vaulting spear need to be to bend without breaking when vaulting? I'm mostly interested about the longest examples because I believe that the thickness would make them too unwieldly to use instead of pikes.
Unknown, modern vaulting poles can have a diameter of 5cm or some times a little more. They would have been unwieldy compared to taperd field pikes also because of the claw or block at the bottom.
In the 80 years war they were mostly used for hit and run tactics or as a last ditch defence.
With modern poles its also recommended to let them soak before using to lessen the chance of breaking while jumping.
Can't think of a weapon that would be more characteristic of the Low Countries. A spear that enables easy travel over our marshy lands. Could the spike on the bottom also function properly as an extra spearhead?
I suppose the claw foot could be used offensive the type with a block or disc dont have a point at the bottom they just have a piece of the shaft that goes a bit beyond the block or disc and it is as far as i know alwais blunt.
The Spanish conquistador used Paul Vaulting to escape from the Aztec
Had heard of the vaulting spear but did not know how widely and how long they were used.😳☺️🙋🇭🇲🦘🐨🌅