Merchant Captain: "Huh? What are you talking about? My ship isn't unprotected. See?" **Points to a sign** Sign: "This ship is a weapon free zone!" **Shows a image of a flintlock pistol and a cutlass with a circle around them with a line through it**
Got to be one of the "funniest because its true" things i have read in a while, and i dont even work with computers. They make the computer between my ears burn with agony and rage even so
Fun fact about Italian firearms, Beretta is the oldest firearms manufacturer in the world, as their company was established in 1526 and started off by producing arquebuses.
Yet another thorough and well-presented video. I would suggest that pirates would have likely had some method of retaining the pistol, whether some sort of holster, or securing it with fabric or cord. This is because, unlike a land-based fighter, if a seaman dropped his firearm, there was an excellent chance of it either falling into the water or, on the moving deck (ships are pretty much always moving) falling and sliding out of reach. Perhaps when in active use this sling might be removed to give more freedom of action. Having spent some time aboard small vessels, I can attest to the frequency with which an item held in the hand winds up disappearing into the water, never to be seen again.
On the other hand pistols had brass plates on the butt so they could be reversed and used as a club in melee or even thrown at an opponent. A lanyard might be an impediment especialy as it might tangle your arm, catch on obstructions or even be grabbed and used to pul you off balance. Pros and cons.
@@voiceofraisin3778 While I've not gone into close-quarters-combat with a flintlock pistol and a cutlass, I suspect that immediately before engaging with the opposition, I might indeed take the lanyard from around my shoulders/neck so as to give my 'gun arm' full freedom of movement. Firearms, particularly pistols. were not really a primary weapon, given the impossibility of reloading in CQB, so your primary weapon was either a sword or a spear (yes, they were quite commonly used in naval combat in the day...the 'naval pike') with the firearm being a 'shock and awe' type weapon. useful when climbing over the rail to clear a path to the deck or firing into a mass of opponents, where you were bound to hit someone. The pistol then becomes a kind of shield, useful for parrying a cut, especially in melee combat, where you might be attacked from two sides at once. There are accounts of combatants dropping their discharged pistols and taking up something else, a belaying pin (makes a pretty good truncheon) a boarding axe or just a club of some kind. Don't discount the effectiveness of a club for both defense and offense. The Hollywood deck-sword-duel with rapiers is, uh, pure Hollywood But of course, your point is taken, and it would be foolish indeed to say "All pirates did...".
7:41 the curve is there for the recoil management since most people tend to flinch or dip the muzzle down, that curve lets it recoil flip up to allow the ball to hit "on target" as the muzzle climbs...and they look gangster as hell
@me323me in like a book/manual sense don't have one, it's something I was taught when I was apprenticing under a gunsmith and I noticed teaching people to shoot single action revolvers
Another great video, I was particularly interested in the methods of carrying pistols which I had a flashback to my time in Afghanistan, I carried my assault rifle with a sling quite similar to that Scottish mercenary 😄 others used a Bungie cord attachment on their tactical vest, kinda similar to your silk/cotton scarf method.
Very nice video. Would be very nice to have a vid of muskets. The blunderbuss vid got good views and I hope this will as well. The algorithm must be quite annoyingly unpredictable. Anyway Cheers! 🏴☠️
I’m quite surprised that even during the days of muzzleloading firearms pistols gaining notoriety for being a criminal’s weapon and being legislated because of it, wasn’t really something that’s new in our day and age. Apparently, in Canada, where I live, our gov’t just banned handguns two years ago just to ensure crime rates go down (It hasn’t made any difference).
The horse pistol grip is likely an evolution of lance grips, as many Western European cavalries would replace their lances with pistols and it makes sense to use something with a grip you're familiar with aiming by hand.
A couple interesting things to note about the precedent for these "silk slings" in later (and more well documented) time periods. Officer's pistols of ww1 were commonly issued with lanyards, which attached the pistol to the user's neck, while the pistol is still usually carried in a belt holster & not putting it's weight on the wearer's neck. The idea was less about storage or dropping the pistol after it was empty, and more that in case the pistol was dropped when the user was knocked of by artillery fire, or it was wrested from their hand in a brutal trench melee, it wouldn't be lost in the mud, and only hanging by their side to be recollected when possible. I can therefore imagine that at the close quarters melee of boarding combat and the moving nature of ships would provide the right circumstances for this to be useful in preventing a poor pirate from losing his expensive pistol overboard into the sea, or having it stolen off him by an enemy fighter. A second potential point is about the length, you mentioned a few times of examples that would be too short to fully extend the arm while it was slung about the neck, but i think it's entirely possible to be useful even at that length. For instance, in the 19th century many illustrations and accounts of shootings, along with written accounts and manuals document the "bisley shooting stance" being used. For single action revolvers this involves holding the pistol with a bent arm, much closer to the head than any modern stance. This stance intentionally used the flip up effect of the recoil to sort of launch the hammer into the users hand, such that the weapon is recocked as they bring it back down onto the target. Obviously that doesn't have much use on single shot weapons, but it does prove that you can be reasonably accurate shooting with a bent arm at close range, and i believe there could be some utility in it. If you are about to enter a sword/melee fight, it could present a dilemma to the enemy. Imagine you're just out of measure of the enemy, searching for an opening. Firing your pistol close to you prevents the enemy from trying to knock it away with their sword, and the act of firing at that range forces your enemy to either react to avoid the shot and potentially comprimise their position, or you know, get shot. I'm not an authority on this by any means, but there is a train of logic you can follow here and i would be happy to see people's thoughts.
You make many good points. I agree about a lanyard being useful in a maritime situation. I would have one long enough to give me full freedom of extension of the arm, the pistol gets tucked into a sash or belt (or bandolier or ?) until deployed. The lanyard to to keep from dropping it and watching it slide across the deck, into a scupper and over the side. You need both hands free to get from one ship to the other anyway. and trusting to a pistol tucked into your belt is just asking for an accident. (Ask any number of fellows who tucked a pistol into their waistband and promptly shot their dick off.) One does not have to fire the pistol with the arm fully extended, in fact, in a CQB situation, it would be dangerous to do so for the reasons you point out. The pistol could be drawn as the combatant is climbing over the railing to force the defenders backl or fired into a crowd of defenders to wound at least one of them and instill an instinctive withdrawal from the others. It was not the primary weapon!
In fact, muzzle-loading pistols of the 16th-19th centuries were very accurate. In MLAIQ competitions, they are not inferior to revolvers at a distance of 25 meters. Tests in the Graz Museum indicate that 17th century pistols had the same accuracy as modern Glock pistols. Numerous videos of the use of weapons by the US police indicate that the Glock is effective at a distance of 2-5 meters. Yes, at a distance of 10 meters, the probability of hitting is less than 50%, and at a distance of 15 meters, the accuracy is below 10%. This is probably why muzzle-loading pistols were used as close as possible. Although this was not always the case. In the tactical manual for cavalry of the 18th century, it is said that two horsemen should shoot in turns from a distance of 20-30 steps (15-20 meters). They should load their pistols with two bullets cut into two parts. I think the pirates also started boarding only when they were sure that they had shot everyone on the upper deck, in order to avoid unnecessary casualties on their side.
Great video as always. You have a new subscriber, its me. Although that's technically due to my last laptop breaking plus a modern demand for privet information causing me to have to make a new profile.
Apparent Flintlock weaponry is still very legal in most of USA and Canada. Might be good self defense, but if you use it as a self defense weapon anywhere other than deep in the woods then it'll probably still get you in huge trouble, maybe even a killing charge. Also you can get kits to make them easily. A "muff pistol" is a good small concealed one.
In the US, flintlocks and muzzle-loaders aren't considered firearms and thus require no background check. Which is perfectly fair and fine, because whilst a cap and ball revolver is still a very lethal weapon nowadays (people haven't evolved to be any more inherently bullet-resistant in the past 160 years), you really wouldn't want to take a black powder weapon into a gunfight against people armed with even Hi-Point C9s.
@@justinsane7128 For law-abiding ex-felons who want to exercise their 2A rights after being released from prison, maybe. For folks who actually want to commit crimes? It's not hard to procure modern firearms through illicit means in the US or Canada. The Canadian government may have banned handguns to reduce crime, but the criminals there still have plenty of Glocks, Hi-points, revolvers, you name it. In fact, I haven't heard of many crimes... or really any being committed with black powder weapons in nearly a century. Of the 10,000 or so folks in the US who are killed each year by firearms in cases other than suicides (which represent 2/3rd of annual deaths attributed to firearms in the US), I'm quite certain that you can count on one hand the number killed by black powder weapons.
Pirates probably did use slings to prevent pistols from being lost during combat, since it's not like they could easily purchase another one. While there are multiple methods to achieve same goal, using some cloth seems like most available solution. Having multiple pistols is mainly useful as precaution against misfire - if your pistol didn't fire, you can immediately pull another one and try again.
There are multiple mentions of "pistol sashes" being worn by pirates from which they hung their pistols in pairs, silk being most popular if it could be procured. I'd wager they made more sense for the four smaller pistols you would "drop" after firing one after the other and fire the last shot from your big pistol which you then club in tandem with your cutlass to join the melee.
Could sling attachment serve the purpose of stabilizing the gun while aiming by using tension? It is definitely used in this manner in modern shooting, although mainly with rifles.
Do you do your reasearch in english alone. I have seen a couple historical channels with european hosts, where they have information with spare information avalible in english. I even encountered this on my own, having to use the italian or dutch term to get results on a certain topic. I might be wrong in this instance but im genuinely curious if that is the case.
black sails is on roku '40 hours of time, gone. No way! Already seen it multiple times!' i fear, it may get binge-witched soon. Maybe not? I have a pistol and a machete, I may buy a wagon attachment for a bicycle.. become a side walk pirate, I could just buy a wagon and an oar.. and rig up a sail, and carry a harpoon time to work on the accent
My only suggestion is maybe have diagrams or something explaining some of the terms you're using about guns for people who have never seen a video on old guns before. Otherwise great video
You see, Short Bill Copper, when hold moosket like peestol, you shall never shoot the inaccurate, because of FEAR of GETTING YOUR TEETH OUT BEFORE SCURVY DOES
You did not find PIRATE PISTOLS, PIRATE SWORDS, PIRATE CLOTHES OR PIRATE SWORDS. Pirates used what was available nothing was made for exclusive use of pirates.
Seeing Gold and Gunpowder upload is like seeing an unprotected Spanish merchant ship
true as hell
Merchant Captain: "Huh? What are you talking about? My ship isn't unprotected. See?" **Points to a sign**
Sign: "This ship is a weapon free zone!" **Shows a image of a flintlock pistol and a cutlass with a circle around them with a line through it**
@@StormRider-t4q😂
Argh! It be booty for your mind!
Just can't resist!
The pistol misfiring four times and then only firing when aimed overboard sounds a lot like working with computers.
It's a Heisenbug! A bug that doesn't occur when you run the program with special inspection tools.
Yeah, apparently Bill Gates was making firearms before he went into computer programming. "That's not a bug! It's a feature!"
Got to be one of the "funniest because its true" things i have read in a while, and i dont even work with computers. They make the computer between my ears burn with agony and rage even so
Fun fact about Italian firearms, Beretta is the oldest firearms manufacturer in the world, as their company was established in 1526 and started off by producing arquebuses.
"Literally 1684"
Made me laugh pretty hard, I have to admit
I carry a brace of flintlocks for ship offense, just as the founding Arr-ers intended.
Yet another thorough and well-presented video. I would suggest that pirates would have likely had some method of retaining the pistol, whether some sort of holster, or securing it with fabric or cord. This is because, unlike a land-based fighter, if a seaman dropped his firearm, there was an excellent chance of it either falling into the water or, on the moving deck (ships are pretty much always moving) falling and sliding out of reach.
Perhaps when in active use this sling might be removed to give more freedom of action. Having spent some time aboard small vessels, I can attest to the frequency with which an item held in the hand winds up disappearing into the water, never to be seen again.
On the other hand pistols had brass plates on the butt so they could be reversed and used as a club in melee or even thrown at an opponent.
A lanyard might be an impediment especialy as it might tangle your arm, catch on obstructions or even be grabbed and used to pul you off balance.
Pros and cons.
@@voiceofraisin3778 While I've not gone into close-quarters-combat with a flintlock pistol and a cutlass, I suspect that immediately before engaging with the opposition, I might indeed take the lanyard from around my shoulders/neck so as to give my 'gun arm' full freedom of movement. Firearms, particularly pistols. were not really a primary weapon, given the impossibility of reloading in CQB, so your primary weapon was either a sword or a spear (yes, they were quite commonly used in naval combat in the day...the 'naval pike') with the firearm being a 'shock and awe' type weapon. useful when climbing over the rail to clear a path to the deck or firing into a mass of opponents, where you were bound to hit someone. The pistol then becomes a kind of shield, useful for parrying a cut, especially in melee combat, where you might be attacked from two sides at once. There are accounts of combatants dropping their discharged pistols and taking up something else, a belaying pin (makes a pretty good truncheon) a boarding axe or just a club of some kind. Don't discount the effectiveness of a club for both defense and offense. The Hollywood deck-sword-duel with rapiers is, uh, pure Hollywood But of course, your point is taken, and it would be foolish indeed to say "All pirates did...".
7:41 the curve is there for the recoil management since most people tend to flinch or dip the muzzle down, that curve lets it recoil flip up to allow the ball to hit "on target" as the muzzle climbs...and they look gangster as hell
Source?
@me323me in like a book/manual sense don't have one, it's something I was taught when I was apprenticing under a gunsmith and I noticed teaching people to shoot single action revolvers
@@CrayonosaurusRexhow did apprenticeship go ?
@iis3v3nii it went well, and I enjoyed working there, but when my kid was born I had to change jobs, though I do help at that shop frequently
@ respect I wanna get into gun smithing especially pistols and knowledge or book you can pass to me and what do you do now if you don’t mind me asking
this video is gold. the amount of humourous details thoughout thevideo is very amusing. 10/10
That early design with the rasp you pull back to fire is so wicked, it tickles me so much and is honestly pretty clever! Fantastic video!
i love your channel.. No opinions no modernity just historical fact
34:57 sling can also used with push pull method to stabilize for a better shot like with a draco or sub gun
Another great video, I was particularly interested in the methods of carrying pistols which I had a flashback to my time in Afghanistan, I carried my assault rifle with a sling quite similar to that Scottish mercenary 😄 others used a Bungie cord attachment on their tactical vest, kinda similar to your silk/cotton scarf method.
Can you make a video about pirate daggers and pocket knives?
I agree
Nice video as usual
Another great video!
Listening to this while working on piratical drawings! 🏴☠️💪🏽
Listening while working on some old miquelet model kits
Very nice video. Would be very nice to have a vid of muskets. The blunderbuss vid got good views and I hope this will as well. The algorithm must be quite annoyingly unpredictable. Anyway Cheers! 🏴☠️
Unpredictable but the algorithm likes violence, in a strange way, alot more than the other taboos
I’m quite surprised that even during the days of muzzleloading firearms pistols gaining notoriety for being a criminal’s weapon and being legislated because of it, wasn’t really something that’s new in our day and age. Apparently, in Canada, where I live, our gov’t just banned handguns two years ago just to ensure crime rates go down (It hasn’t made any difference).
The horse pistol grip is likely an evolution of lance grips, as many Western European cavalries would replace their lances with pistols and it makes sense to use something with a grip you're familiar with aiming by hand.
It was amazing, thank you for the information
Love the captions!
A couple interesting things to note about the precedent for these "silk slings" in later (and more well documented) time periods.
Officer's pistols of ww1 were commonly issued with lanyards, which attached the pistol to the user's neck, while the pistol is still usually carried in a belt holster & not putting it's weight on the wearer's neck. The idea was less about storage or dropping the pistol after it was empty, and more that in case the pistol was dropped when the user was knocked of by artillery fire, or it was wrested from their hand in a brutal trench melee, it wouldn't be lost in the mud, and only hanging by their side to be recollected when possible.
I can therefore imagine that at the close quarters melee of boarding combat and the moving nature of ships would provide the right circumstances for this to be useful in preventing a poor pirate from losing his expensive pistol overboard into the sea, or having it stolen off him by an enemy fighter.
A second potential point is about the length, you mentioned a few times of examples that would be too short to fully extend the arm while it was slung about the neck, but i think it's entirely possible to be useful even at that length.
For instance, in the 19th century many illustrations and accounts of shootings, along with written accounts and manuals document the "bisley shooting stance" being used. For single action revolvers this involves holding the pistol with a bent arm, much closer to the head than any modern stance. This stance intentionally used the flip up effect of the recoil to sort of launch the hammer into the users hand, such that the weapon is recocked as they bring it back down onto the target.
Obviously that doesn't have much use on single shot weapons, but it does prove that you can be reasonably accurate shooting with a bent arm at close range, and i believe there could be some utility in it. If you are about to enter a sword/melee fight, it could present a dilemma to the enemy. Imagine you're just out of measure of the enemy, searching for an opening. Firing your pistol close to you prevents the enemy from trying to knock it away with their sword, and the act of firing at that range forces your enemy to either react to avoid the shot and potentially comprimise their position, or you know, get shot.
I'm not an authority on this by any means, but there is a train of logic you can follow here and i would be happy to see people's thoughts.
You make many good points. I agree about a lanyard being useful in a maritime situation. I would have one long enough to give me full freedom of extension of the arm, the pistol gets tucked into a sash or belt (or bandolier or ?) until deployed. The lanyard to to keep from dropping it and watching it slide across the deck, into a scupper and over the side. You need both hands free to get from one ship to the other anyway. and trusting to a pistol tucked into your belt is just asking for an accident. (Ask any number of fellows who tucked a pistol into their waistband and promptly shot their dick off.) One does not have to fire the pistol with the arm fully extended, in fact, in a CQB situation, it would be dangerous to do so for the reasons you point out. The pistol could be drawn as the combatant is climbing over the railing to force the defenders backl or fired into a crowd of defenders to wound at least one of them and instill an instinctive withdrawal from the others. It was not the primary weapon!
Silk sling makes sense for quickly getting off a few shots without losing your pistol
In fact, muzzle-loading pistols of the 16th-19th centuries were very accurate. In MLAIQ competitions, they are not inferior to revolvers at a distance of 25 meters. Tests in the Graz Museum indicate that 17th century pistols had the same accuracy as modern Glock pistols. Numerous videos of the use of weapons by the US police indicate that the Glock is effective at a distance of 2-5 meters. Yes, at a distance of 10 meters, the probability of hitting is less than 50%, and at a distance of 15 meters, the accuracy is below 10%. This is probably why muzzle-loading pistols were used as close as possible. Although this was not always the case. In the tactical manual for cavalry of the 18th century, it is said that two horsemen should shoot in turns from a distance of 20-30 steps (15-20 meters). They should load their pistols with two bullets cut into two parts. I think the pirates also started boarding only when they were sure that they had shot everyone on the upper deck, in order to avoid unnecessary casualties on their side.
Sharp. Great episode.
Great video as always. You have a new subscriber, its me. Although that's technically due to my last laptop breaking plus a modern demand for privet information causing me to have to make a new profile.
Every time you bring up McBain I can only think of an Austrian screaming 'MENDOSAAA' lol
Sea Men Pistol
Sea men go, sea men shoot
This channel rules!
19:09 Oh, it could, could it??
Can you do a video on the different hair styles and facial hair of pirates?
Two turn-off pistols, a cavalry pistol, sword, and carbine or musketoon seems like a good loadout. Maybe a few grenadoes, too.
Don't fall overboard needs to be part of that plan!
Fascinating stuff.
Apparent Flintlock weaponry is still very legal in most of USA and Canada. Might be good self defense, but if you use it as a self defense weapon anywhere other than deep in the woods then it'll probably still get you in huge trouble, maybe even a killing charge. Also you can get kits to make them easily. A "muff pistol" is a good small concealed one.
Muzzle loaded weapons aren't classified as firearms in majority of the United States so even convicted felons can legally own one.
The choice of felons, the black powder loophole 😅
In the US, flintlocks and muzzle-loaders aren't considered firearms and thus require no background check. Which is perfectly fair and fine, because whilst a cap and ball revolver is still a very lethal weapon nowadays (people haven't evolved to be any more inherently bullet-resistant in the past 160 years), you really wouldn't want to take a black powder weapon into a gunfight against people armed with even Hi-Point C9s.
@@justinsane7128 For law-abiding ex-felons who want to exercise their 2A rights after being released from prison, maybe. For folks who actually want to commit crimes? It's not hard to procure modern firearms through illicit means in the US or Canada. The Canadian government may have banned handguns to reduce crime, but the criminals there still have plenty of Glocks, Hi-points, revolvers, you name it.
In fact, I haven't heard of many crimes... or really any being committed with black powder weapons in nearly a century. Of the 10,000 or so folks in the US who are killed each year by firearms in cases other than suicides (which represent 2/3rd of annual deaths attributed to firearms in the US), I'm quite certain that you can count on one hand the number killed by black powder weapons.
@@pharaohsmagician8329 In France you just have to be over 18😁
Some truth cheers mate from Australia
Pirates probably did use slings to prevent pistols from being lost during combat, since it's not like they could easily purchase another one. While there are multiple methods to achieve same goal, using some cloth seems like most available solution.
Having multiple pistols is mainly useful as precaution against misfire - if your pistol didn't fire, you can immediately pull another one and try again.
There are multiple mentions of "pistol sashes" being worn by pirates from which they hung their pistols in pairs, silk being most popular if it could be procured. I'd wager they made more sense for the four smaller pistols you would "drop" after firing one after the other and fire the last shot from your big pistol which you then club in tandem with your cutlass to join the melee.
Two pistols allow you to kill two people)
" Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates. "
'Mark Twain'
- Life on the Mississippi
Got a flintlock with a gigantic steel handguard, more of a club than pistol
12:15 - when the back is prominent a refined gentleman obtains a sleeker model. :)
Please do a video about the newest NatGeo Pirate documentary.
Maybe a third (much lesser) use for those bulbed pistols hilts was to prevent the pistol from slipping of a pirate's sash worn around wast...🤔
I'd like to see videos of Chinese pirates such as Lima Hong and Zheng Yi Sao. Or maybe the corsairs like Hayreddin Barbarossa.
Subtitles broke at 29:50 lol
Could sling attachment serve the purpose of stabilizing the gun while aiming by using tension? It is definitely used in this manner in modern shooting, although mainly with rifles.
I'm pretty sure that's a monkey not a pirate on the thumbnail. This was pretty cool though!
Please GaG make a video about John Ward "real life Jack Sparrow", or are you a Caribbean piracy purist?
Do you do your reasearch in english alone. I have seen a couple historical channels with european hosts, where they have information with spare information avalible in english. I even encountered this on my own, having to use the italian or dutch term to get results on a certain topic. I might be wrong in this instance but im genuinely curious if that is the case.
black sails is on roku
'40 hours of time, gone. No way! Already seen it multiple times!'
i fear, it may get binge-witched soon. Maybe not? I have a pistol and a machete, I may buy a wagon attachment for a bicycle.. become a side walk pirate, I could just buy a wagon and an oar.. and rig up a sail, and carry a harpoon
time to work on the accent
Good.
My only suggestion is maybe have diagrams or something explaining some of the terms you're using about guns for people who have never seen a video on old guns before. Otherwise great video
Sie kommst aus deutchsland, Oder austerriech?
Do a video on rifles not muskets
Pistoletos piratos alcoholus. Tities
God bless
👍
Yeah they sucked. But back then it was a great advantage. Thanks for another awsome video!
Please activate the Spanish subtitles
Que?
@DG-iw3yw add the Spanish language from TH-cam studio to have a better subtitle on the video. Simultaneous translation is a nightmare to read.
Arrr me pistol
😄👍🤙
You see, Short Bill Copper, when hold moosket like peestol, you shall never shoot the inaccurate, because of FEAR of GETTING YOUR TEETH OUT BEFORE SCURVY DOES
You did not find PIRATE PISTOLS, PIRATE SWORDS, PIRATE CLOTHES OR PIRATE SWORDS. Pirates used what was available nothing was made for exclusive use of pirates.