Flintlocks: fun hobby, not so fun for serious action?

Plucky Horatio Hornblower!, a quick boarding, a fast heroic fight, and just as quickly, into the bodice ripping! The series, still popular, first written in 1937, and created to appeal to a hormonal male audience and sell a whole bunch of books. History, and historical accuracy all subordinated to plot.

Reality was somewhat more complex, though the cutlass on cutlass did occur. I recommend reading the book “Boarders Away” by William Gilkerson.

https://www.amazon.com/Boarders-Awa...s=boarders+away&qid=1630684657&s=books&sr=1-1


https://www.amazon.com/Boarders-Awa...s=boarders+away&qid=1630684657&s=books&sr=1-2


It was damn risky getting close to a ship of war. Ships of war had multiple defenses, to include shooters in the tops, and netting to prevent boarding. While a boarder is trying to make his way through the net, someone on deck is sticking a pike through his chest. Royal Marines were there with their muskets, bayonets.

Hearts of Oak, Tunics of Red – 10 Amazing Facts About the Royal Marines of the Napoleonic Wars


Per Mare Per Terram - the Royal Marines 1793-1815


Just getting close to a ship of war meant exposing your ship to a bunch of cannon fire at point blank range. If you look at the classic big navy battles, ships stood off and blasted each other, and if they toppled the masts of the other, then they would cross the T and blast the other ship to a hulk, raking that ship from bow to stern with shot.

Anyone on deck was subject to being shot by shooters in the tops, and clearing the decks of the other ship was a real tactical advantage, and did result in boarding’s. Once the enemy deck crew are dead, the new guys could cause all sorts of mischief to the enemy below. Such as rolling explosives down below!

Officers carried swords and pistols, Marines carried rifles with bayonets, and nasty hand to hand did occur. It makes for a more lively story than hulling a ship till it sinks.Which is why historic fiction has more of one, than the other. And, of course, the hero always gets the girl.

Even as late as the 1850’s the typical man was expected to be capable of bayonet/lance, sword, knife, and hand to hand fighting when a gun was unloaded or unavailable. It probably made for better self defense discussions than navel gazing caliber comparisons of the modern era.

The Master and Commander movie based on the Jack O'Brien sailing novels set during the Napoleonic wars probably had one of the best depictions of a boarding action in it. It's claustrophobic and a bit gruesome but still almost gives one the feeling of being there. The sailing master gets one right between the eyes just as the action starts. Military Heritage arms out of Canada claims to have supplied many of the reproduction firearms.

I remember in one scene as the crew is preparing to board they have wooden pails or buckets filled with sea service pistols with the butts sticking out for the pails--primed and loaded for the men to grab as they passed by.

Cheers

Horatio Nelson wore his dress uniform and decorations at Trafalgar, which made him a prime target for French sharpshooters in the tops...

PRD1 - mhb - MIke

4v50 Gary said:

Slamfire - I have both of Glickerson's books and I certainly didn't pay $200 each plus per volume. Oh the scalpers.

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I have them both, and could not afford to buy them now. In fact, I am not sure I could replace any firearm, or custom knife, based on current prices! As for over priced books, I have been reading books acquired through inter library loans. Just join your local library, go to Customer Service, tell them what you want to borrow, and they will tell you if it is available. There might be a nominal fee, like $3.00, and then you have the book for a couple of weeks.

I have been interested in the history of the M16, and I have been able to borrow the book: The M16 Controversies by Thomas McNaugher

take a look a what it costs to buy this book off Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/M16-controve...30636329/ref=mt_other?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=

Overpriced, in my opinion.

Llew Taranau said:

Re-reading C.S. Forester's "Hornblower" series that I loved as a kid, and they still hold up. But now that I know a smidge more about firearms than I did then, I'm struck by descriptions of hand-to-hand fighting: Fire pistol once, then switch to sword (or belaying pin, or whatever's handy). And that's if you're properly primed and your powder didn't get wet, etc.

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People back then often carried a brace of flintlocks, and there are depictions of people, particularly pirates, wearing bandoleers with 5-6 pistols.
A good flintlock was very reliable, and even keeping the powder dry was not that difficult. The frizzen closed the pan almost watertight, and oil or wax was enough to keep everything dry.
Firearms were anyway meant just to create confusion and thin out the enemy before engaging with melee weapons such as cutlasses, swords and boarding axes.

And don't forget "navy strength" gin. Supposedly this was specified on British naval ships because the proof was high enough that if you spilled it on the powder it would still go off. Makes me wonder what the gunners were up to...

There was a reason Blackbeard had a brace of pistols. I count six.


For recreational purposes, a flintlock can be great fun... as long as you're not priming it with Pyrodex!

I count 8 on him there

desidog said:

There was a reason Blackbeard had a brace of pistols.
For recreational purposes, a flintlock can be great fun... as long as you're not priming it with Pyrodex!

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Here's another of Blackbeard:





Here's a couple of John Paul Jones





LD

Slamfire said:

Plucky Horatio Hornblower!, a quick boarding, a fast heroic fight, and just as quickly, into the bodice ripping! The series, still popular, first written in 1937, and created to appeal to a hormonal male audience and sell a whole bunch of books. History, and historical accuracy all subordinated to plot.

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While I agree that there are later and better researched sea stories, I liked Hornblower. But I don't recall much bodice ripping, certainly not in the stories that appeared in The Saturday Evening Post.
Alan Lewrie seems both more authentic and more romantic.

Hornblower was a good example of trying to find a place for a fictional character in history.
He was off fighting for, then against el Supremo in Latin America while the real Nelson died in Hardy's arms at Trafalgar.

One thing I liked about Sharpe's Rifles et seq. was that Bernard Cornwell frequently provided an afterword describing how he squeezed Sharpe into the action.

Jim Watson said:

One thing I liked about Sharpe's Rifles et seq. was that Bernard Cornwell frequently provided an afterword describing how he squeezed Sharpe into the action.

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I dunno about you, but I willingly suspended my disbelief! Despite the fact that R. Sharpe appeared to have been in every major English engagement around the world from something like 1730 to 1812.

(For an "alternative hero," ever read George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman series?)