WEAPONS IN THE 17th CENTURY
The weapons used back then were way different than their modern versions, so let's take a quick tour to know those old firearms, cannons and blades.
FIREARMS
Understanding how firearms worked in the 17th century is key to understand the action parts of any story set in that period.
Nowadays, firearms have clips with a given number of bullets, which include the gunpowder. You load them through the butt and an inner system ignites the gunpowder and trigers the tiny explosion that propels the bullet.
Back then, firearms used "muzzle-loading", meaning you loaded them by the front, the end of the barrel. And one bullet at a time, which didn't include the gunpowder.
This means that to fire ONE shot, you had to load the gunpowder first —straight into the muzzle from a small bag hanging from your belt. And if your hand wasn't steady, or somebody brushed your arm at the wrong moment, you could end up sprayed in gunpowder.645Please respect copyright.PENANAqZYqM65GlR
Next you add the bullet —a small iron ball— into the muzzle, use a special stick to compress them at the bottom and remove the stick. Only then you light the fuss and pull the trigger.
To add to shooters' hardships, the only way to light the gunpowder was using an external fuss, like a cartoon bomb. So they would go around with a short piece of thick rope wrapped around their wrist, with one end burning, to apply to their firearms whenever they needed to shoot. Of course, pray it didn't rain.
Oh, you wanna fire again? Start over, my dear.
However, about 1650 somebody caused a commotion: they deviced a way to add a tiny fragment of flint to the firing pin. When you pulled the trigger, the flint came down, stroking a small piece of metal. It produced the necessary spark. The piece of metal came down too, closing the gap so the spark would touch the gunpowder and light it up.645Please respect copyright.PENANAAFqnAiTOYe
Also, they started using a spun of sorts to measure the exact amount of gunpowder you needed according to your gun. So you could make candy-like paper wrappings with the right amount of gunpowder beforehand. That way, you dropped them into the muzzle, dropped the ball, compressed it all with the stick and just pulled the trigger.645Please respect copyright.PENANAfxj8lLOtbk
It's evolution, baby!
However, reloading still took time. So for long guns in armed confrontations, men usually paired up with two muskets —one of them shot while the other one reloaded, to shorten the time between shots.
As for pistols, you just carried a bunch of them in your belt.
The three firearms most used back then where musket (long range), harquebus (medium range) and pistol (short rage). Muskets were supposed to have a 100-yard range. But no matter what they said, shooters knew the only safe range was pistol-shot: 50 yards. Anything further than that was hard to hit.
**musket**
**harquebus**
**pistol**
CANNONS
Cannons worked like handguns, only they kept using an external fuss.645Please respect copyright.PENANAhCmYV2mfSb
They were placed a half on each side, two at the bows, pointing ahead, and two at the stern, pointing back. The guns fore (at the bows) and aft (at the stern) were usually called chasers, and they used to be bigger than the guns on the sides.
A cannon crew included one man for each necessary task to fire it, so they were four to five men per cannon.645Please respect copyright.PENANAVOtvf7Op6w
They were called by their gauge, which was determined by the weight of the balls it fired. So a cannon that used 18-pound balls was an eighteen-pounder.645Please respect copyright.PENANAsZlo0oWxGC
So a 28-gun frigate would have, let's say, 24 12-pounders on her sides and 4 18-pound chasers.
For each gauge or caliber you had the regular cannon and the long one. A longer cannon had a longer range. So a long cannon for 18-pound balls was a long eighteen-pounder.
A regular cannon had a max range of 3,000 yards, and a long one had 4,800.645Please respect copyright.PENANAt1Px2KAyk4
However, just like with muskets, the ideal range was way shorter: 1,000 yards or closer.645Please respect copyright.PENANAOEkxovYR96
Keep in mind that from the moment the ball exits the cannon, it only slows down, so you wanted it to hit the target at full speed (as soon as possible) to maximize the damage it caused.
Twelve-pounder on the French frigate Hermione --still sailing nowadays.
**A Little Myth Buster**
CANNON BALLS DIDN'T EXPLODE, NOR DID THEY CAUSE EXPLOSIONS
They were way worse than that: they flew faster than the speed of sound —a thousand feet per second!645Please respect copyright.PENANAO75oBzkXve
That's why they caused so much damage.645Please respect copyright.PENANAOJuiXoQOmN
Picture a 36-pound ball of solid iron hitting you at almost 700 miles per hour.645Please respect copyright.PENANAXpngO7UVaT
They were angry rhinos in a glass market.645Please respect copyright.PENANA5O95r3DKAB
They shattered everything in their way. 645Please respect copyright.PENANACQrBusRAeW
And in naval battles, they hit mostly wood, which caused a burst of fragments and splinters of all sizes spreading around at full speed in all directions. More men died because of wounds caused by those splinters than hit by a cannon ball.
The balls were measured by their weight in pounds, which varied a little from one country to the next, but the average was pretty close to the modern pound.
BLADES
We're gonna use this word to refer to sharp weapons: knives, daggers, swords, etc.
Back in the 1600's, real swordsmen, those whose life depended on their skill with the sword, usually carried an additional blade: a stilleto. Spaniards called it "misericordia", which means mercy, so in other languages it was called misericorde. They were long, thin, sharp-as-hell knives formerly used to kill wounded knights after battle —long and thin to hit the flesh slipping between armor plates—and that's where the name comes from.
The misericorde was rather defensive, but never underestimate its offensive power. Swordsmen wielded it with the sword.645Please respect copyright.PENANA7qm1hgPBzw
You could cross both blades to stop your rival's blow. But if you could stop their sword only using yours, you could hold back their blade and stab them with your misericorde. Yeah, I know, not classy at all, but if your life depends on it, are you really gonna worry about elegance?
In this picture of Viggo Mortensen playing Captain Alatriste, you can see him with his sword upfront to attack and the misericorde ready to deflect any blow.
** If you're feeling brave, you should watch Alatriste. It's a long, slow movie, but the 17th century setting is frigging awesome. There you'll see all the steps to firing a gun and how they used sword and misericorde combined.
645Please respect copyright.PENANAfTh7auqmeO