AS WE ENTER THE 18TH CENTURY, the design of the English naval cutlass became more simplified. The introduction of a double disc-type or “figure of eight” hilt was probably the most notable change and this gave the seaman far more protection to the hand than the previous D-guard cutlasses. The previous type of cutlass hilt was not completely phased out as there are many unofficial examples of this style that were still carried well into the 18th and early 19th Century. British naval cutlasses of the 18th Century were provided for Royal Navy seamen by the Board of Ordnance, a government department based in the Tower of London, whose duties also included being responsible for the storage and supply of arms to British forces. Their job was summarised as follows:
‘…to act as custodian of the lands, depots and forts required for the defence of the realm and its overseas possessions, and as the supplier of munitions and equipment to both the Army and the Navy’.
Not every seaman on board a Royal Navy warship was issued with a cutlass and there were limited quantities, so those without cutlasses were armed with an assortment of weapons, including boarding pikes, axes and cudgels. The standard of manufacture of pre-regulation cutlasses could be pretty varied, ranging from poor to robust and workmanlike. Most cutlass hilts of the 18th Century were manufactured from one piece of sheet steel, shaped into two discs for basic hand protection. Blades were usually slightly curved, with a single fuller or flat-backed.
The English sword maker, Thomas Hollier, is usually credited with introducing the double-disc cutlass into the Royal Navy and examples of this type, with staghorn grips, are noted from the early-mid-18th Century. The blade ricasso is deeply stamped with the name “HOLLIER”. It is known that Hollier supplied 1,000 cutlasses to the Royal Navy in 1727 and it is likely that they were of the new, double-disc type.
Towards the end of the century, double-disc cutlasses began to adopt a straight, spear-pointed blade with a grip of rolled sheet iron around a wooden core. Blades were sourced from from both Solingen, Germany and England, with known makers such as James Woolley, Thomas Craven, Henry Osborn and Samuel Harvey, all providing blades of sound quality. Many bear the crowned royal cypher of King George III (r.1760-1820) to the blade, indicating that some form of inspection had taken place.
© Harvey Withers Military Publishing, 2024