Historical Weapons

[Officerpuppy]

Unless I missed the thread, perhaps we can get a historical weapons thread going. Here's something you don't want to be at the opposite end of, regardless of what's loaded into it.

 

[Officerpuppy]

 

[Officerpuppy]

 

[The Nameless Pirate]

Some months ago, I went on a five day trip to Crete and took a few pictures that I forgot about and I had organised them in order to upload them so here they are.

At one point we went to the Monastery of St. Nicholas of Kourtaliotis (Μονή Οσίου Νικολάου του Κουρταλιώτη), in which there was a museum that among other things had a collection of historical weapons.

 

[The Nameless Pirate]

We also went to the Venetian fort of Fortezza in Rethimno (Ρεθύμνο).



And I would also like to go to the Maritime Museum of Crete in Chania (Χανιά) but it wasn't on the schedule.

 

[Officerpuppy]

 

[Officerpuppy]

 

[Officerpuppy]

 

[Officerpuppy]

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Holy crap!
Blunderbuss turned up to eleven!
Or twelve...

 

[The Nameless Pirate]

There's a hand mortar in TEHO, pretty hard to fight against it.

So twelve indeed.

 

[Grey Roger]

Not a blunderbuss at all, but an early grenade launcher. Or not.

The first snag with using it as a grenade launcher is that if you're firing something heavy like a grenade to any worthwhile distance, there's going to be a lot of recoil going the other way. You wouldn't brace it against your shoulder, you'd brace it against the ground. Snag two is that if it misfires, you've got a lit grenade jammed into the barrel which you need to dispose of really quickly. Snag three is that the barrel is open at the breech end, sealed only by the wooden stock, so it's not suitable for a high pressure such as would be needed to launch a grenade.

So although some hand mortars may have been used as grenade launchers, this probably wasn't one of them. More likely it would have been used by the military to launch signal flares, or by civilians to launch fireworks.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

More likely it would have been used by the military to launch signal flares, or by civilians to launch fireworks.

Not a true weapon then, eh?
Interesting stuff!

 

[Grey Roger]

I saw one of these a few years ago, when I was visiting Germany and attended a rocketry event which was also attended by the Leipzig Rocket Troop, a re-enactment society who specialise in British artillery of the Napoleonic period and who have uniforms, cannons, Congreve rockets, a full military camp - and a selection of small arms. I didn't pay much attention to the hand mortar, though, because the musket was far more interesting - anyone who wanted got a quick course in loading and firing it, though not with a ball of course.

Also on display were a small mortar and what looks like a pistol with a shoulder stock, effectively a small carbine.

 

[Mad Jack Wolfe]

Not a true weapon then, eh?

It is if you hit someone over the head with it.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

It is if you hit someone over the head with it.

Pirate!