Did pirates/naval units anywhere and in any time up to 17thC use any sort of armour...

Did pirates/naval units anywhere and in any time up to 17thC use any sort of armour, or weapons better than the cutlass/sabre/rapier?

>weapons better than the cutlass/sabre/rapier?
Unless you mean guns, which they did use, those are the ultimate in western sword evolution. They used naval axes too iirc.

Nah, meant stuff like carrying halberds/spears and such on the ship. Perhaps shields of any sort?

what kind of pirates exactly?

I can imagine the average pirate or any sailor would be more likely to use axes, daggers and other smaller weapons than sabres, etc. Flintlock pistols were quite common in melee too, being used as clubs.

Preferrably from the Golden Age of Piracy, but any 'dudes who fought on ships' will do.

All of those are too unwieldy for ship battles.

>Spears
That rings a bell actually. I'm not sure where I seen it but I'm pretty sure I've read somewhere about spears being used to prevent boarding parties.

Early pirates of northern Europe, like 14th/15th century did carry full military garb of the time, including armor and pole arms. So did every other naval combatant of the time and area. The boarding pike was used until the end of the age of sail, armor fell out of use according to the technological de3velopment of fire arms. The knightly pirates of Malta did wear it for a good deal longer.

>boarding pike

>I can imagine
This is Veeky Forums either you know, or you are wasting peoples time with your unfounded speculations. If you want to waste peoples time, try >>/k/, they are weapons affine and know jackshit about history.

>but any 'dudes who fought on ships' will do.

That makes it a ridiculously broad question, no?

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Well i remember hearing that tge spanish "tercios de armada" used pikes to board ottoman ships but i can't really give you any reliable source

Grenades were an important part in boarding actions. Snipers armed with rifled muskets would go up the masts and pick shots at the enemy staff officers. Men sometimes wear a skull cap under their hat. Some cuirass, morions, cabassets and gauntlets probably were used, too.

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they used everithing from cutlery to ores

they were a bandit guerrilla swithing sides from contracters in a proxy war betveen britain and spain to freelancers, they used every weapon they could lay their hands on, sometimes they had better, if not more firepower than the regular navies they fought, sometimes not, knives, sabres and pistols were the most usefull, same weapons were used by all pirates from the carriebean to the meditteran to polinesia, a gun to shoot people, a large curved metal thing to cut people and a knife to pull out when shit gets close, even in the adriatic was exactly the smae, except they had sumersible boats, troll tactic, but evrione used the same things, haiduks, cossacks, bandits, tribal guerrillas...

That just means all answers are welcome

This is some Veeky Forums-tier 'DRIVE THE TANK CLOSER I WANT TO HIT HIM WITH MY SWORD' shit

and there were 300-1000 chained dudes puling the oars on each one

talk about WW1 tactics

If you're commenting on this thread then I'd hope you had even the slightest knowledge of naval warfare. If so, you would know that my comment has lots of sources to support it, which you or anyone could look up and learn if you wish. I, however, do not wish to go looking for sources to support a comment on Veeky Forums.

Sorry for expecting too much of you, user.

I've seen them using maybe leather armor, or occassionally light metal armor, in media, though I'm not sure how common that was IRL. May have been more common in the Renaissance and earlier, as armor (particularly heavy metal armor) became less worthwhile when firearms were introduced. And those who fight on ships generally avoided heavy armor, since it would just weigh them down and increase their chances of drowning if they fell overboard.

I'm pretty sure in one of the POTC movies they use some kind of large spear/harpoon to try to repel the Kraken, not sure what if anything IRL that was based on. Harpoons were obviously used by whaling ships, but I'm pretty sure the ship in question was just supposed to be an ordinary merchant vessel.

Wouldn't grenades risk damaging the deck?

I have read a source from the 1600s about sailors loading their muskets with steel arrows so that they could shoot through the sides of enemy ships.

Most of the heavy braiding across the chest that looks decorative was actually body armor, mostly against slashing weapons.

Boarding Pikes were a thing, but they were found to be generally inferior to swords on ships, they weren't used for very long outside of specific situations.

Hetalia is shit, but damn does it have qt boys.

>lots of sources to support most pirates using daggers over cutlasses or rapiers
post one

>Did pirates/naval units anywhere and in any time up to 17thC use any sort of armour

early to mid 1600's, SOME marines would have had helmets and breast plates, and perhaps some gentlemen would have half armours. Sailors would never wear armour. Your picture is both shitty and misleading of period.

>weapons better than the cutlass/sabre/rapier?
Sideswords, backswords, boarding axes, pistols, muskets, grenados, smoke/stink pots, boarding pike...

a pirate is just a sailor who made bad choices.

Boarding pike. Still in use until WWII, and still taught today in many modern navies as a unit cohesion and moral drill.

That is a ridiculous myth, the wrong period, and the wrong social class/profession from the question in the OP.

The were for boarding actions and repelling actions. Then you moved to pistol, axe and sword.

You posted this picture ironically, r-right ?

Knowing Veeky Forums, he didn't.

yes, but damage to decks can be easily repaired, and capturing and keeping a ship would be worth the work