The English Naval Sword in the 17th Century

THE ENGLISH NAVAL SWORD of the 17th Century is not a sword type that is easy to define or categorise.  During this early stage in the history of the Royal Navy, there were very few if any formal sword types carried by naval officers and seaman.  In general, those who served on board an English warship were equipped with the same edged weapons as those who fought on land. It was only towards the end of the century when swords were produced or attributed to a specific naval use.

The short “hanger” was the natural choice of sword for use on an English warship for obvious reasons.  The crowded and cramped confines of a man-o-war called for a practical sword that would not clatter and impede the owner when running up and down ladders, or obstruct a sword thrust or cut whilst engaged in the melee of battle.  A long blade would not be particularly suitable in these circumstances and both officers and men preferred the agility and flexibility provided by a short sword.

By the mid-1600’s, a sword that fulfilled most of these requirements was the shell guard hanger.  This is the archetypal “pirate’s” sword that is seen in contemporary illustrations and later adopted by the Hollywood movie industry.  It took on a number of forms but in its simplest guise, it comprised a large, fluted shell guard (sometimes with a smaller shell to the rear), thumb-ring, short quillon, flattened and rounded pommel and a long knucklebow. It would have been carried by both officers and men, differentiated only by the quality of manufacture and decoration (although most encountered are of plain, workmanlike form).

One of the most common sword types carried by English naval officers of the mid-late-17th Century was a brass or silver-hilted hunting hanger.  There was not a specific naval hanger at that time and decoration emulated standard hunting swords of the period.  Very rarely do you find a hunting sword of this period with naval motifs to either the hilt or blade.  Most contemporary portraits bear this out, showing officers carrying quite ordinary, relatively unornamented examples. 

I have included a number of hunting swords in this chapter that exhibit unusually wide and long, falchion-type blades.  Although I cannot be truly certain that they were used by English seaman or naval officers, the overall proportions of the sword make them more “military” than civilian, and I believe that they would have worked effectively as a naval cutlass.  Blades are slightly curved, with German (Solingen) maker marks, including  king’s heads, stars and crescent moons, cabbalistic numbers, symbols and dates.  At this time, German sword blades were more highly prized than most English made blades and importantly, could be purchased more cheaply.  English sword makers at this time typically imported German blades and then fitted them onto their own hilts.

Although a hanger was the practical choice for fighting on board a warship, naval officers probably retained a dress sword for more formal occasions.  This is likely to have been of smallsword form, particularly towards the end of the century, when the rapier and smallsword underwent a transitional process, creating swords of smaller, more manageable size.

The cutlass is a sword type commonly associated with the Royal Navy and its introduction in the late-17th Century, began a process of evolution in design that finally ended in 1900, with the last official Royal Navy pattern cutlass.  The word cutlass is derived from the latin cultellus, meaning short sword, and came into the English language from around 1580 onwards, when it was described as both a curtleaux or coute-lace.

Its introduction into the Royal Navy is thought to date from around 1677, when the Board of Ordnance decreed that hangers and swords should be issued to seaman at the ratio of one weapon for every five or six men.  It must be assumed that a shorter form of the polearm, pike or axe was utilised by those without swords, combined with anything that could be laid to hand in times of battle.  This low disbursement of fighting swords would increase over time as the importance and effectiveness of the cutlass became apparent. 

As with naval officers, the ubiquitous, cast brass-hilted “hunting” hanger was also carried by the ordinary seaman.  It was similar to the officer’s version, but would have been plainer and of cheaper manufacture, having a D-shaped knucklebow, solid brass grip and small shell guards.

Iron-hilted, shell guard cutlasses, were also used by the Royal Navy during the 17th Century and when compared with the newly introduced cast brass hangers, the inherent strength and lightness of the iron hilt was all too obvious.  The forging and assembly of an iron hilt took considerable sword making skills and resulted in an increase in costs but it could be relied on to provide a longer service life.  The single or double shell guards of these hangers were quite substantial and afforded the seaman a reasonable amount of protection to the hand, including a large thumb-ring.  A wide, curved knucklebow swept up towards the flattened pommel but was not attached.  Grips were made from bone, staghorn and wood.

In the 1690’s, a group of English naval swords appeared that are believed to have been issued specifically for use in the Royal Navy.  Written documentation survives from the Board of  Ordnance describing an order for “brass hilted hangers” for “matrosses”(a contemporary word used to describe sailors).  These hangers are thought to be of the dog-headed type referred to in contemporary literature (“dog headed hangers for matrosses”) and in recent years, similar examples have been found on English shipwrecks dating from 1694 and 1703.  They comprise an ornate, cast brass hilt, with a small, fluted shell guard to the front (some have a smaller guard to the rear) and a bilobate or plain knucklebow, that enters the dog head pommel through the mouth.  Blades are slightly curved, with few markings, although they are sometimes known to display German (Solingen) running wolf marks and fleur-de-lys motifs. 

It has been suggested that the styling of these cutlasses might originally have come out of the Netherlands, as a number of these weapons display a “monster-head” that is similar in style to Sinhalese (Sri Lankan) short swords that were noted in the Dutch East Indies during the 17th Century and perhaps brought back to Europe by Dutch ships.

© Harvey Withers Military Publishing, 2024